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
Well it’s good to know I wasn’t the only one going crazy over those gross tonsil stones, I thought I was losing my mind. Whenever I’m in bad pain I just remember ill never have those in my life again which is the biggest relief because they consumed my thoughts everyday. Well I’m on day 10 including the surgery day. My scabs are still on, none have fallen unless I’ve accidentally swallowed it unknowingly. It still looks all white and gross in my throat. I still can’t eat much and my ears have horrible pain in the night. Days 6-8 were hardest for me. Day 9 was a little better so were making progress. It’s still morning so hopefully today will be progressive. Goodluck to everyone ill keep updating.
My name is Mark aged 45 from Scotland. I had my tonsils out on Friday 2nd August 2013 after years of pain, irritation and bother with tonsil stones. I don’t regret it despite what I’m going through at the moment but thought I’d share some of the details with you.
Day of the operation and day 1 of recovery: The op was carried out at 3pm. i was awake again by 4.30 and by 6.00pm was sitting up in bed feeling not too bad and wondering what the fuss was all about. After a sleepless night being kept awake by someone snoring in the ward i was discharged from hospital at 11 am the next day. For pain relief I was given dihydrocodeine tablets, diclophenac tablets and 500mg paracetamol tablets. The pain never got above 5 on a scale of 1-10 during day 1 (saturday)
Day 2 (Sunday): Pain slightly increasing and a bad taste in my mouth. In the UK we are actually advised to eat rough food like crisps and toast as soon as we can (contrary to the advice which I think is given in north america). So I ate a bag of salted crisps (i.e. chips) on Day 2 (Sunday). This was a bad move as the pain of the rough edges of the crisps and the salt on the tonsil beds nearly blew my head off.
Day 3 (Monday): At around the middle of the afternoon the pain started rising to a different level. Chewing my dinner of chopped chicken breast became very painful. From 8pm onwards I couldn;t speak. After going to bed I started getting green fluid draining into my mouth causing me to have to swallow every 30 seconds. This went on most of the night. I had to make an emergency appointment at the doctors surgery for antibiotics. Surprisingly, I hadn’t been given these by the hospital.
Day 4 (Tuesday): The morning brought some relief from the pain but it started building up again mid afternoon. From 9 pm last night until 4am in the morning, the pain was brutal. I would rate it as 8.5 out of 10 (if 10 is the point at which you would pass out). I was actually sobbing for a while due to the agony at around 3am.
Day 5 (today- Wednesday): The morning again brought a period of reduced pain. At the moment it is 2.15 pm and I don;t feel too bad. I suspect that things are going to get a lot worse as the day progresses and this evening could well be a nightmare again. I am anticipating that the scabs on the tonsil beds will start to come off in the next 24 hours or so so am expecting the pain to reach at least 9 out of 10. I’m hoping that the next phase won’t last too long and there will be light at the end of the tunnel shortly.
I should mention that it would be a good idea to ask for laxatives from your doctor/the hospital in advance as the painkilling drugs have caused bad constipation and this is an additional problem I could well do without
good luck to anyone else who is going through this ordeal. I am sure in the vast majority of cases it will be well worth it.
Today is day 8…when does the pain end??? Still can barely talk, eat, swallow. I’m so sorry for everyone having a difficult time with this especially those who are bleeding bad. I’ve had no bleeding so far just the intense pain. This is a physically and emotionally draining process. I wake up and it feels like I’ve been biting my tongue all night? Anyone else? When did the pain end for you if your already done with this? Seems like foreeeevvvvvveeeeerrr….I till don’t regret the surgery though, just excited for the process to end.
Well, I am 25 and had my tonsils and adenoids removed last Monday. My doctor also told me it would be a week. However, I read a lot of this stuff already and was prepared for 2. The one thing that I did not read about and wished I had was Lortab. My stupid doctor prescribed Lortab. You get nauseous and vomit if you don’t eat this with food. Well, it freaking hurts to eat! By Friday night, I was in some serious pain (I discovered later, this pain can get worse BTW). I called the doctor’s office and had to speak with a nurse since he doesn’t work on weekends. She told me to take the medicine closer together. Yea… still didn’t work. I somehow survived the weekend and called on Monday. They refused to give me anything else, so I went to PriMed yesterday.
I am on day 9 and feel a ton better. PriMed prescribed Tramadol, which is working great and is non-narcotic. They also gave me Lidocaine to numb my mouth/throat for those first few hours since I was in such intense pain. This made me able to take all my medicines and eat something. I still feel a small sting every time I swallow, but I expect that.
I do have a question. Tomorrow will be day 10 (including day of surgery) and I really need to be at work. My doctor’s nurse suggested I just use Motrin during the day and I could return to work. Well, I don’t want to try that and be in pain at work. Can anyone give me some advice?
I went back to work day 12, but only because that was Monday. Day 10 for me was over the weekend, but I think I could have been to work on that day. Day 10 I took Tylenol 1 time to make eating a little easier, and then never needed any pain meds after that. I think you should be okay to go back to work…just take it easy and try not to talk a lot.
I’m at day 11. sorry i haven’t posted anything in a while. i was in the hospital. i went in cause i saw a little blood, one night i wake up in the middle of the night, i had a mouth full of blood, I guess from a main artery . I tried getting it cautorized, didn’t work because so much blood was coming out, was puking out black blood and blood draining from my mouth at like a med-high faucet pace. then it started coming out of my nose. I thought I was gonna die, so then at 430 AM i was put in emergency surgery and had my stomach pumped. and was in the hospital for 2-3 days and now I’m on bed rest even though my 21st is literally 3 days away. and back on pure liquid diet, i already lost 13 pounds. They said now i was a higher risk so i need to be careful because it could happen again within the next 10 days. I did everything right. I didn’t rush eating anything. So this could happen to anyone. I pray it doesn’t happen again.
Oh my gosh! I am so sorry that is happening! How horrible! Guess your 21st celebration will have to wait a bit! Did you originally have coblation or electrocautery for your surgery, if you don’t mind me asking? Seems like people who have the cautery have more bleeding problems–that’s why I am asking. I had coblation and never saw one drop of blood. Hang in there! It will end eventually and you will be better!
I’m not sure if I had that coblation, im not sure what that is. but yeah I am absolutely terrified. they had no idea i was internally bleeding because it was passed my taste buds in my throat so we didn’t know. they pumped like a gallon of black blood out of my stomach in surgery, not to mention the gallon that came out while they were trying to cauterize it. I’m scared I could be bleeding now and don’t know, but now I have to start this process all over again.
I hope I get better soon, I cant handle this anymore.
Sorry this happened to you 🙁 Try not to think about your birthday, that will only make it worse. You can celebrate your 21st and have a great night once your better. Hang in there!
I’m trying not to, just hope I dont loose my job at this rate haha.