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
I love dogs!
I just had my tonsillectomy this morning and thanks to the extremely helpful advice on this site and forum I feel like my family was able to prepare pretty well. So far so good, but I’m dreading tomorrow.
I would just like to share that, in addition to standard meds and the help of my beautiful family, if you have a pet he/she is wonderful “alternative medicine”! We’re lucky enough to have an amazing dog named … Lucky :). As soon as I got home, he bypassed my hubby (which he usually doesn’t do) and gently came straight for me wagging his tail. He made me feel so loved and just petting him really relaxes me. He hasn’t left my room and keeps coming up to my bed to check on me.
Thank you for this wealth of info and the advice on not drinking from straws, no one went over that with me.
Take care
I agree with you there! My Golden Retriever, Ozzie was by my side the whole time I was recovering. Just petting him kept me calm. They are wonderful, aren’t they. Hope you have a speedy recovery. It won’t be easy, but with all the tips, I hope it will be better than expected. Remember to drink and ice that neck the first few days. It helps!!!
Goldens are awesome!! Our other dog was a golden and he was a real sweetheart too! I have definitely been hydrating and icing my neck and it really does help. Thank you for the well wishes, I really appreciate them!
Delicia, I’m so glad everything went well with your surgery and your first day home. Hopefully the second day will be like the first, it was for me. Just keep on top of the pain meds and you should be fine. Ice your neck too.
I think straws are like Ibuprofen, every Dr. has a different opinion about it. After my surgery I was given jello and water with a straw. I started to take the straw out of my cup and the nurse said it wasn’t a problem to use it. I continued to use one and didn’t have a problem with my recovery.
Wishing you the best of luck during your recovery. 🙂
Thank you, Deide 🙂 so far so good, thank you for your kind well wishes. I hope everything is well with you!
I wanted to write and comment on my tonsillectomy recovery. I had read so many scary stories and heard so many that I was ready to cancel my surgery, but I knew I had to get it done. I contracted Strep for the first time in my life (I am 42) back in October. I ended up in the hospital for two days because of a Pharyngeal abscess and then continued to get strep about every 6 weeks or so. I finally went into an ENT and he diagnosed that the Strep was actually living in my tonsil and antibiotics would not kick it out.
I had my surgery on March 27th (just tonsillectomy). The surgery went well and my tonsil was very infected and had a ton of scar tissue around it, so I am glad I did go through with it. The minute I woke up, the nurses had me eating ice chips. My doctor told me to not worry about eating the first week, but drink, drink, drink plenty of ice water and SLEEP! He prescribed liquid Hydrocodone for my pain.
The minute I got home, I took my meds and went to sleep. I had set up a bed in the living room so I could watch TV if I woke up during the night. I elevated myself and also had an ice pack that I kept on my neck as much as possible. My alarm was set for 4 hours and I took my meds faithfully. Luckily, the did not get me sick. I was able to take 5-15mls and stuck to around 10mls most of the time. That was I did for the first three days: took meds every 4 hours, slept, iced my neck and drank water and plenty of.
By day three, I decided to try cold Jello. My recommendation is to use the boxed kind and not the pre-made. The boxed type seems to go down easier. It felt WONDERFUL!! Nice, cold and smooth going down. And, it was great to finally eat something. I was still sleeping as much as I could, thanks to the drugs and drinking ice cold water. Remember! Do not use a straw!!!
On day five, I moved onto scrambled eggs and those felt wonderful, too. More substance in my stomach helped me get more energy and I believe that helps you heal. I went back and forth with 5 mls or 10 mls of medication.
When I went in for my check up on day six, my ENT was surprised at the recovery and took my off my food restrictions, but told me to take it easy for about 10 more days and ease into food since there was still a chance of a bleed. That day, I went out for noodles and was able to eat about half of the serving. He said it was the sleep and drinking that helped the most.
As the week went on, I continued to drink water and I slowly came off my medication. I tried to talk more and tried different foods. I do have to say, I think some of the foods I tried were a bit much and may have taken some of the scabbing off sooner than should have. That did cause some pain, but nothing I could handle. So, I eased back off and went back to standby of eggs, noodles, jello and pudding. The only major issue I am having is that everything tastes like salt to me. My ENT says that is a combination of the damage to my taste buds and the scabbing. Hopefully, it will come back soon. I am down to taking 5mls of medication right before I go to bed because of some pain, but I am not needing it during the night anymore or at all during the day. And, the scabbing is about halfway gone.
I wanted to write this so there is a “good” experience on here for those of you who are preparing for this. I say good in quotations, because..yes, it is painful and it sucks! But, you can get through it. I am happy it was done and I am looking forward to being my normal healthy self again. Good luck to all of you who have your surgeries coming up! Remember: drink and sleep!!!
Dallas, thanks for telling your story. I’m glad you had a ‘good’ experience – or as good as one could expect, right? I, too, had my first bout of strep (as an adult) about 2 months ago and it was awful. I had already had tonsillitis a few months prior to that but did not go in for a culture as I have never cultured for strep as an adult and assumed it was viral. Now I wonder if mine were harboring the strep.
Anyway, I hope your recovery continues to go smoothly and that you have smooth sailing from here on out. I have my surgery on Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend!!
Your story sounds very familiar. I did not go in for a culture since I had never had strep. So, it sat in my throat, formed an abscess and never left. I hope you have an easy recovery, Beth. If you have any questions or need tips, let me know. Good luck and keep us updated!
Hello everyone 🙂
I am 44 and I am suppose to have a tonsillectomy, andenoidectomy and endoscopic sinis surgery all in one day. My doctor wants to keep me over night for observations because he says he is pretty sure I also have sleep apnea. Will doing all of this surgery cure the sleep apnea or will he put me on a cpap? I am new to all of this and I am very worried. I think this is a wonderful site and I would appreciate all of the help I can get on what to expect on pain wise and recovery from all the procedures done at once if anyone can help. Thank you so much in advance and wish me luck please. I hope everyone has a wonderful and speedy recovery also. Best wishes to all 🙂
Raven, what has your Dr. said about what it’ll cure? Good luck to you? Sorry ocan’t help you with your question. When is your surgery?
Sorry for the typos.
For what it’s worth, my doctor told me that he wouldn’t do both the tonsillectomy and the sinus surgery at the same time. His reasoning was that the sinus surgery makes it impossible to breathe through your nose, meaning that you have to breathe through your mouth. This makes your throat drier than it should be and makes it harder for your throat to heal. If there’s still time before your surgery, you may want to bring up the option of having two separate surgeries to make the recovery for each of them easier…
Deide, yes it’s straight liquid Percocet without the Tylenol component. I’m hoping it’ll work!
I hope that even though you’re still in pain that you have a continued uneventful recovery. I hope if you are coming into more discomfort (6-10) that it’s not too bad! Hang in there! 🙂