Tonsillectomy Recovery Time
After a lifetime of tonsillitis, it was time. I made the appointment. Was I scared? Yes. Was I prepared for tonsillectomy recovery? NO. Can you be? YES!
Planning for and recovering from a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy procedure, (often referred to as T & A Surgery), can be daunting experiences. The days leading up to your surgery can be frightening. If you haven’t read up yet, you can find information on tonsillectomy methods, risks, costs, adult tonsillectomy, sleep apnea, and numerous tips for tonsillectomy recovery on the other pages of this site. I’ve even added pictures of a post tonsillectomy throat by each day. Study, talk with your doctor and consult with your friends about the decision to undergo tonsillectomy and adenoid surgery. Explore the pages created here to aid in your journey.
If you should decide to have tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, let us help you through the entire process. Whether due to problems with sleep apnea, chronic tonsillitis and strep throat, tonsil stones, trouble swallowing, or a combination thereof, you can benefit from the experience of others. My own experience taught me that, as patients, we need to advocate for ourselves. Ear, nose, and throat doctors are, by and large, extremely talented individuals. However, very few of them have experienced an adult tonsillectomy, and the subsequent recovery. I have. Many others have too. We share our experiences here at the adult tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy recovery resource center. As you’ll read in the tonsillectomy recovery forum, everyone’s experience is unique. There are many factors that influence the level of pain you experience, as well as the length of time required during recovery. The method, and skill of your surgeon can have an affect, but there are also many things within your control that will reduce pain and recovery time. I’ve tried to include as many helpful tips as possible within the pages of this online resource. Tonsillectomy recovery can be pretty rough, especially if you are unlucky enough to be an adult! It takes longer for an adult to recover from most things. Tonsillectomy is no exception. There are many things you can do to make it go more smoothly. I’ve published numerous tips here on various pages. I encourage you to read up BEFORE you are in the throws of tonsillectomy recovery.
Talk with your doctor, friends, family, and work as you prepare. You are not alone in this. Like you and like me, many others are facing or have faced a tonsillectomy recovery. I created this forum for you. The community of adults or parents of patients will amaze you and warm your heart. I read these comments every day and every day I am humbled by everyone’s story and their compassion for others in the midst of recovery, or the anxiety that often precedes a tonsillectomy. Please join in. Hundreds of other people, perhaps in your same situation, have shared their wisdom, concerns, tips, and questions about tonsillectomy, as well as their tonsillectomy recovery.
-Greg My short bio
Today is day 6 if you count the day of the surgery. So far its nothing more than a bad sorethroat. I had worse pain after taking out my impacted tooth. I have to say it not as bad as I anticipated. I suffered with bad breath and that horrible taste in the back of my throat for almost 3 years. I’ve tried everything from antibiotic to antifungal. I even went to see a naturopathic MD that gave me some expensive capsules to open and put the powder on my tonsils also gave me some lymphatic drainage drink to take for over a month. After spending countless amount of money on natural remedies I decided to get rid of those suckers. I have to say I every now and then noticed some tonsils stones which I plucked out with those long applicators tipped. Anyways, the purpose of this is to tell any one suffering from tonsils stones and bad breath save your self the embarrassment just have the surgery. Just make sure you have a humidifier, since you’ll be sleeping with your mouth open. Keep up with your pain meds, take it every 4 hrs. Drink a lot, ice cold water did me really well and try to eat something about 1 hr after taking pain meds since pain won’t be too bad. I’m getting sleepy right now. Just looking forward to the day when I can go back to my normal diet.
Topic: Steroids
I wrote about this on here before I got my tonsillectomy. And now that I’m on day 12, I can say, I am so happy my doctor gave me steroids during the surgery. My uvula only got a tiny bit swollen, and I only knew that by looking, otherwise I didn’t feel a thing. So make sure to request that! Because it doesn’t seem to be common practice, and it helps very very much.
Wow…. I was wondering why he didnt give me that shit too. it would be so much easier!!
Hi everyone,
I’m a 33 year old male living in Southern California. I just had my tonsillectomy with septoplasty and turbinate reduction on Friday (7/26/13). This is my third day and all is going well. I had this procedure done due to several bouts of strep and tonsillitis over the last year or so. Also, I have some sleep apnea so the septoplasty looks like it is helping.
The surgery was fine I awoke from the anesthetics in almost no pain. I had a bit of a rapid heart rate due to the anesthesia and being dehydrated, some water took care of that. I took about half of the medication I was prescribed to control the pain I experienced as that was really all I needed. Thus far my throat has had no more than a 3 out of 10 pain scale (10 being the worst) with the majority being a 1 – 2. I have felt absolutely no pain from my septoplasty, all that gave me was a stuffed nose, but compared to the years of abuse from sports and the military it looks like it is fixed now.
I keep a humidifier next to my bed and plenty of soft foods like yogurt, beef broth and ice cream. So far so good. The back of my throat seems to be doing fine. There is a slight discomfort when I swallow but thank God that is all. I am looking forward to a speedy recovery and a future without strep throat and the ability to breathe through both nostrils!
Thanks for the website Greg!
Abide
I had my tonsils removed 16 days ago after experiencing problems with tonsil stones for 6 months. I’m a 38 year old, male. I thought I’d share my experience as it seems a little at odds with some of the horror stories I’ve read on the net. The operation wasn’t bad at all. The surgeon came to see me afterwards and said that all had gone according to plan and that it was a real mess back there and I’d done the right thing having them removed. He explained that days 1 and 2 wouldn’t be too bad and that the pain would likely arrive on day 3. This didn’t really happen if I’m honest. I was given a raft of pain meds to take (Tramadol, Ibuprofen and Paracetamol) and made sure I kept track of what time I was taking them and staggered them throughout the day. The whole recovery period has been moderately painful. Certainly I’d rank it well below a bout of tonsillitis. I experienced little to no pain when sitting still or sleeping. The pain only occurred when swallowing food and drink and even then it wasn’t terrible. I was given two weeks off work and within 6 days I was walking on the beach with my missus and actually enjoying being off work!! After 9 days I stopped taking any pain medication and now, 16 days on, all I can feel is a slight sense that everything at the back of my throat is still organising itself into its new position. Don’t take it for granted that you’re going to be in agony for 3 weeks. I certainly haven’t been. Good luck with your surgery!!
hi! i’m shea. i’m 17 years old. i got my tonsils out on july 11. gosh dang, you guys made it sound like you had half your brain chopped off and were thrown in a ditch. today is day 9 (or is it day 8? i’m including the op day as day 1 because it was so early in the morning so today’s day 9) for me. i thought i was going to be crying every single day and not being able to eat anything. boy was i wrong. i read all these petrifying stories and expected the WORST pain of my life. hah.
days 1, 2, and 3 were really easy, i could eat pasta and soft stuff like that. day 3 me and my mom went to the neighborhood pool and walked around in the water and layed out and tanned. day 4 and 5 were moderate. day 6 my throat hurt a little bit; i was really upset because i just wanted to eat takis and nachos and potato chips and crunchy food so i cried. day 7 was the most pain for me, but on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worst pain i’ve ever felt in my life i rate it as like a 4.5. TAKE YOUR PAIN MEDS AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. 64 OZ EVERY DAY. that is the KEY! and the humidifier is like a genie. idk what i’d do without it. day 8 (yesterday) it was the same as day 7. today is day 9 and i woke up feeling way better than i ever have been these past days.
a freaking lot of people had earaches and stuff like that but i didn’t have one earache at all…maybe it was because i slept with lots of pillows under me so i was like sitting up sleeping. whatever it is i’m just blessed i didn’t get an earache because i heard those were really bad. the pain meds make you constipated. don’t wait to poop. seriously. you might end up like that one girl up there. the only constipation pill laxative thingy that worked for me was a pill called “ex-lax.” nothing else worked but these pills. BUY THEM NOW.
some people had trouble sleeping, that’s the opposite problem for me. i loved sleeping! it was very easy to fall asleep. the first day i was so scared to go to sleep because everyone woke up in such bad pain on day two. lol but EVERYTHING was fine and dandy the next day. just sleep on an inclined plane or whatever the heck it’s called. oh by the way he gave me liquid painkiller and pills painkiller. the liquid painkiller tastes like old rotten lotion and it was sour and disgusting. i took that for the first three days then switched to the pills day 5. the pain was supposed to be bad days 5-10 and the pills had stronger painkiller so i waited til that day to take the pills.
my surgeon said it is good to eat real food to get your throat muscles massaged and you getting up and moving around instead of laying in bed all day, and i agree. i felt WAY worse when i’d just sit in bed. but don’t do anything that’d get your blood pressure up, because then your throat’d bleed and then you have to get more surgery.
lol, this is really long and boring. no one’s actually gonna read this. oh well. i just wanted to tell somebody.
it is NOT as bad as you think. don’t freak out. i freaked out. don’t. 🙂
Well I’m 30 and both my son and I had our tonsillectomy and adenoids removed July 16th. My son is 14 and is doing well but his pain didn’t really start getting better till day 6. As for me I’m sitting in a hospital bed after another surgery. I woke up this morning swallowing major blood. I drank cold water all the way to the hospital to help slow down the bleeding. It ended up that I busted an artery so cartelizing didn’t work, they had to stitch me up. So thank your lucky stars you didn’t have a rough time with yours. You are blessed..