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 just wanted to write a note to give encouragement to all of you out there. Yes some people may experience a more difficult recovery than others, but you may be lucky like me and have a speedy recovery. I just have my tonsils removed last Wednesday here in South Africa and was out and about after 3 to 4 days, today I am back in the office (I am 27). I was scared reading about the recovery process but my pain was always manageable with pain medication. For the first two days I ate a lot of ice cream, drank lots of iced water, soups, jelly. Immedicately after the surgery, it was hard, but I kept asking them in the hospital for iced water and gulped as much down as I could as the nurse told me that it will be better for me in the long run. And I also started to have toasted bread from day three to clean my throat, so I kept swallowing and also made sure I got lots of water. I look my vitamins during this time, and also for the first few days took the pain medication every 6 hours, as I did not want to wait to feel the pain rather to prevent it. Yesterday I actually ate normally, went for sushi with my friends. Im just avoiding fruit juices that may be too acidic and they said to stay away from bananas. And I rinsed my throat with Andolex, its an antiseptic and analgesic oral rinse. All I can say is make sure you are getting a proper nutrition before and during the survery and drink lots of water, and hopefully it will help. It will be worth it after you are recovered and you will not get tonsilitis ever again! So good luck
Delicia: How are you feeling today?
Hi Holly,
I’m a bit tired because of the pain medicine, but overall I can’t really complain. Thank you so much for asking! It’s well into day 4 for me and I feel a little bad admitting this (seeing as how it seems so many people have had to deal with incredible pain), but I haven’t had too much pain. It just kind of feels like a bad sore throat. In fact, I missed my pain med early morning of day 3 by about 3.5 hours and it did hurt but not as much as I expected.
I’ve been talking ever since day 1, but that’s because my girls keep engaging me… I have a 4 yr old and a 1 and a half yr old 🙂 Luckily for me, my husband took time off to help me for two weeks, but even he told me today that it doesn’t seem like I’m in as much pain as he thought I would be in. He keeps joking that he thought I wasn’t going to be able to talk during this time. I know, what a butt right? 😉
My sister told me she hit a wall on day 3 and 4 and that I might feel a lot of pain, but I’m wondering if I haven’t hit that point yet, am I going to? I’m not pain-free by any means and it does get worse as I get close to the end of the pain med dose, but I read some others’ experiences on this site and my pain level doesn’t seem close to what others are experiencing. Am I in for it as recovery goes on?
I haven’t had nausea since the second day, am on hydrocodone with acetomenaphine, and am on amoxicillin. I drink lots of ice water, some broth, some powerade zero, ensure, protein powder, and eat some jello. My neck is very sore and my tongue feels bruised but the ice packs Dallas mentioned really help. Other than that, I count myself lucky so far.
I hope your surgery and recovery go well and will say some prayers for you! 🙂 thanks for letting me blab
Update: I am on day 16 post surgery and woke up today with no pain!! And, did not need any type of pain medication last night. I had some pain issues with scabs coming off too early and the throat being raw, but it was tolerable. Most of the scabs are gone and I have moved on to some more solid foods.
For those of you who are still dealing with issues, I pray they are resolved soon.
For those who have surgery coming up, you can do it. It is worth it in the end. Drinks lots of ice water (no straw), ice your neck (the hospital gave me an ice pack), rest as much as you can and sleep elevated, keep up on the medication and enjoy some cold jello and shaved ice.
Hi Holly,
Regarding your Tylenol question: I did not purchase pills. My ENT recommended Children’s liquid and said to take it two hours after my prescription, if needed. So, yes…in your example you would take it at 9. When I took my meds at night the first few days, I just drank water. The following days, I would have jello in the middle of the night. I never did end up needing to take the Children’s liquid. I was on Hydrocodone and it lasted the 4 hours.
Hope you have a good recovery!
Hi All! F/40 surgery date 4/19 7am
Becky: I am sorry you have a virus. I was just thinking about that today because I have a sore throat and runny nose and I’m hoping it will go away before surgery day. I think it’s great that you are on day 14 and feeling good enough to eat pasta with red sauce! I am not worried about losing weight at all….in fact I hope for it. Before my 2 kids (ages 3 and 6 now) I weighed 120 and I have never been able to get back down to that. I am stuck at 135 no matter what I do. Tried every diet there is known to man. Anyways, I’m not doing this to lose weight but I sure wouldn’t mind it. Good luck at work….You will do great. Sometimes I think getting out and about and doing normal things helps take your mind off of pain.
Beth…Oh man Beth. I am feeling for you and praying that the pain will subside. Are you doing the bagged peas on your neck or did you buy a special kind of ice pack? Can you roll a towel up and put it underneath to hold it up and into place? Beth…do you still have your gall bladder? I had issues for about a year with mine…they couldn’t find anything wrong. Finally got the hida scan and they can see the infraction rate with that. Once they saw that they took that puppy out and it has been awesome. No more pain for me! I am sure you are not ready for another surgery yet but maybe ask your doctor about a hida scan after you are completely healed. I am so excited to read that you were up and about a little yesterday! I am so worried about taking care of my kids. Especially the 3 year old. She still gets into everything.
Hi Kate! Thanks for checking in. Day 11 sounds like a good one for you.
Trish……I am sending you a virtual hug. Liquids for that long and soft food must really really really be hard! Can you get down mac and cheese? I wish I could think of something you could eat. I plan on buying malt o meal before my surgery date. That sounds like it might be good.
OK Guys help me with this pill schedule….So let’s say I take a Percocet at 7am and then another at 11am……where would I take the Tylenol? At 9 am? Just want to make sure I have it down right? And you try to eat a very small amount before any pills right? What about in the middle of the night? Do you just take a pain pill without worrying about food? And why the mouth breathing? Does everyone have to mouth breath or are you able to breathe through your nose?
GREG! Thank you for this site. I must admit…the first time I happened across it and read your story I was IN SHOCK! I was like, “maybe I should cancel this”. But now that I know I have support here I feel like I can do it. Man, I would have been so un-prepared if I would not have found your site. You are truly a wonderful person to put this all together. God Bless You!