Tonsillectomy Tips
As I’ve written, there was much that I did not know as I planned, experienced, and recovered from my own tonsillectomy. My Ear Nose and Throat doctor, (ENT), and his nurse gave me some general information about the surgery. We talked about how tonsillectomy surgery was performed, what the risks were, and what to expect after my adult tonsillectomy surgery.
In addition to this information, I tried to arm myself with as much information from other sources as I could. The internet is filled with medical information and advice. Some of it related to tonsillectomy. Some of it is accurate. Some of it is valuable to a person considering or recovering from tonsillectomy surgery. Most of it is not. Some of the scariest information I got was from my family and friends. Everyone seemed to have some horror story about an adult dying from tonsillectomy, or having a near-death experience from bleeding or anesthesia. As if I wasn’t nervous enough! Fear and anxiety are usually born of uncertainty The more we know about what to expect, the better we are able to execute a task without irrational fears.
I’ve read thousands and thousands of comments on the various pages of this website. One message is expressed again and a gain: Knowing what to expect helps enormously! This is your chance to do others a great service. Take your wisdom, born of personal experience, and help others. When you shine a light for others, you also light your own path.
For a live discussion about tonsillectomy and tonsillectomy recovery, join us in the Tonsillectomy Recovery Forum
The doctors, nurses, bloggers, publishers, family and friends all helped shape my expectations about what to expect before, during and after my tonsillectomy. None of it compares to the value of actually experiencing it. I learned more in the weeks before and after my adult tonsillectomy than I could have learned from years of research. This website is filled with over 50 pages of that wisdom.
If you are reading this, you probably have some experience yourself. How would you like to help someone who is trying to decide whether to have a tonsillectomy? Help someone planning or recovering from tonsillectomy surgery? By answering this one question, you may be able to save someone from a struggle you had:
IF I WAS PLANNING MY TONSILLECTOMY TODAY, THIS IS WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY…
I had my tonsils out on August 31 at age 29 (on day seven now!).
The best tip I could give concerns what was undoubtedly the worst part (so far!) of my experience.. waking up at 3 AM on day five to an absolute rush of blood pouring from my throat that I couldn’t seem to stop. My mother was staying over to help me out and we both panicked- there seemed to be so much blood everywhere and we were both too frazzled to concern the situation and frustrated because we could not communicate (since I couldn’t talk at that stage). Even calling the doctor didn’t seem to help us as we both freaked out more and started packing to head to the ER. The story has a happy ending though as we were able to stop the bleeding. Here are my tips in case you have this worse-case-scenario! (my understanding is that my experience isn’t very common!)
– first: Don’t freak out, keep your wits about you! When you run around crazed, you raise your blood pressure, and this will only make the bleeding worse. Calm yourself down by whatever means.
– second: It looks like more blood than it is… and now that you’re looking at it, a lot of those are clots. That’s good, because that means it isn’t necessarily new blood.
– third: Cold, cold, cold! Cold makes your blood vessels contract, and this will stop the bleeding. Put a cold compress on your throat, swish ice water in your mouth and spit it out (don’t swallow blood, it will make you nauseated or worse, throw up later), suck on an ice cube if you can.
– fourth and last: If you have an experience like this and have an anti-nausea Rx from your doctor, I’d recommend taking some after the bleeding has stopped. I had swallowed so much blood that I ended up throwing up twice to the point of dry heaves afterwards.. in my opinion, probably the worst follow-up to what had happened. Once I took my anti-nausea medication I didn’t throw up anymore.
Sorry to present such a gross story, but as this was a terrifying experience for me, I only hope that what I learned can serve to help someone else deal with the same situation much, much better!
Because of read this a few days ago.. waking up a half hour ago, spitting up blood wasn’t as bad as it could have been!! THANK YOU!
i just had my surgery on friday and here its now tuesday and its the 4th day since then and i mostly feel sleepy dizzy my stomach pain is going down a bit but it only hurts when i sit up not like a stomach ache the insides of your stomach hurt i haven’t ate any thing solid even though I ATTEMPTED to do so but i just want the day when i can eat all the solid foods i want
I am 9 weeks post op. I had major complications due to bleeding and how infected/large my tonsils and adenoids were. My Tip …. Even weeks after the surgery if you feel like something is wrong IT IS! Keep calling, get help. My ENT wouldn’t take time to look at my throat before ordering a major test. I went to my family Dr. and with in 2 minutes we knew I had a major infection of Thrush which can be very common especially if your diet changed dramatically. Easy, quick simple fix that didn’t cost me thousands of dollars. Be your Own advocate and Trust you know your body and be proactive!
Hey all, I’m a 17 year old girl. I just got my tonsils out on August 21st so I’m on day 6 of my post-op recovery. Like everyone else has said many times: DRINK WATER. Lots of it. I read that you should be drinking at least 8 ounces of water per hour on the first few days of your recovery. Also on the first couple of days, do NOT try your luck with solids. I thought it was okay to have spaghettios but I ended up getting whole O’s stuck in my tonsil beds. The most important thing is to take it easy and rest. It’s okay to feel sorry for yourself as this is a much harder recovery than most people will give you credit for. Relax, drink lots of fluids, take your medications, and you’ll have a much swifter recovery. However, if you feel that you aren’t ready to move up to solids or dairy, don’t push it. Your mouth will thank you for it later. One last bit of advice: don’t be afraid to call your surgeon. They’re there for that exact reason and if something doesn’t seem normal, don’t hesitate to give him/her a call. Better safe than sorry!
Hello. I am 46 years old and today is day 12 of my tonsillectomy recovery. This site has been especially helpful in preparing as well recovering from the tonsillectomy. Because of all the information here, I can say that I have had a great recovery with very little pain. I was expecting the worst, prepared for the worst but fortunately it has been very good. Some of the things that I did are what has been stated here many times. I started drinking water as soon as I could despite the discomfort. I sipped on water constantly! I took the pain medicine faithfully and on schedule, even if I thought I didn’t need it. I kept the humidifier running all the time. I also found that taking a nice hot shower gave additional relief to the discomfort. Another thing that I did was to get as much protein as possible to assist the healing process, so I ate lightly scrambled eggs daily, but that started on day 2. Day one was nothing more than chicken broth. Some have suggested drinking Ensure, but during day 1-4, it caused too much burning. Day 5 and beyond, Ensure was more pleasing to my throat and providing the additional needed nutrition. I also used Choraseptic spray. It really helped with that annoying feeling you get in the back of the throat and made any pain/discomfort far more manageable. Lightly season mashed potatoes for some reason worked really well in soothing my throat after day 5 and beyond. I also avoided speaking as much as possible. Starting on day 3, I gargle with salt water daily to remove any debris.
I know I read so many frightening stories here and really feel sorry for those that have suffered so much. But I wanted to let those who are getting ready for the procedure is that this doesn’t have to be the worst thing ever. This experience was not the painful thing I thought it would be, and I really think it is due to following the advice of others on this site. My recovery continues, but it is truly pain-free at this point.