Tonsillectomy Recovery Day by Day
Day One -The Honeymoon
A collection of various experiences of adult tonsillectomy patients on their first day of recovery
From thousands of post comments to the tonsillectomy recovery forum, I have assembled a sampling of various accounts and impressions of tonsillectomy recovery for each day. We shall start with tonsillectomy day 1. These comments are taken from tonsillectomy patients who were kind enough to share their experiences to help others as they navigate the bumpy road of tonsillectomy recovery.
Check out our new tonsillectomy recovery video- Caution: Not always pretty
Please feel free to add your own experience with tonsillectomy day 1.
-Greg Tooke My short bio
Tonsillectomy Day 1: This is not too bad. Pussies on the forum!
Tonsillectomy Day 1:(surgery day): Thank God I woke up! Whoa – drugs.
Tonsillectomy Day 1: I had a freezie when I got home and lots of water. I watched some television and took the amoxicillin that I was prescribed to prevent infection. I decided to try to swallow the capsules because they looked small enough…BIG MISTAKE! After the first one, it felt like it was stuck in my throat, but I tried to take the second one…even bigger mistake. So I start getting anxious because I feel like the pills are stuck in my throat and not going down – even with loads of water. It turns out they did go down, but because my throat was swollen, they felt like they were just sitting there. I was prescribed liquid codeine and told to buy liquid Tylenol. However, the only liquid Tylenol my mom could find was for children, so instead, she decided to buy Tylenol caplets that melt in your mouth – which turned out to be for children as well. The first night I only took Tylenol because I wasn’t in that much pain at first. Needless to say, I was in pain during the night and slept maybe 1-2 hours in total.
Tonsillectomy Day 1: i had the surgery at 3:20 pm ( they were over an hour behind schedule).I woke up feeling like crap and the nurse had to give me lots of morphine through the IV drip. I spent the night in a hospital and it was the worst night ever. My throat was in pain all night even though they gave me the liquid codeine. There was only 2 of us in the “day surgery” ward ( where they keep the overnight patients) but the other lady was snoring all through the night! which made things even worse haha. I only got about 4 hours of on and off sleep. My mom picked me up at 6am and i went home and slept for a bit.
Tonsillectomy Day 1 : My surgery was at 9:30am ET this morning and I was home by 1:30pm which included a 20 minute drive home. I had a tonsillectomy and he just trimmed a little of my extremely long uvula. I woke right up from the surgery with no problems at all. The pain I had was a 1or 2 on a scale of 10. hardly any pain after the surgery and I was able to eat apple sauce, ice and water immediately after waking. No side effects from the surgery med’s. They did give me some anti-nausea drugs. I still feel like I have just a mild sore throat.
Tonsillectomy Day 1 : Days 1&2 were definitely the honeymoon phase. All was grand in tonsil land
Tonsillectomy Day 1 : I just had it done this morning, massively consming water, pain meds every 4 hours, popsicles, little apple sauce and trying to maintain a healthy probiotic regimine. Its weird because it feels like a bad case of strep throat….so far. But I do feel instant relief with my breathing.
Tonsillectomy Day 1 : Well i just got home from surgery. I had my tonsils removed, deviated septum fixed, uvula removed and turbinates (nasal wall tissue) reduced. I have no recall of surgery, only remember maybe a minute of being in the operating room, then waking up in the recovery center.
Pain is not what i expected it to be. I think i have worse pain from strep throatTonsillectomy Day 1 : Post op eight hours……everything feels fine but I’m scared for the horrible days ahead. Sandra you developed ear pain at 3rd day? That makes me nervous
Tonsillectomy Day 1 : (Day of surgery) I actually felt pretty darn good, was able to eat a little, but I wish someone would have told me that I needed to re-learn how to swallow. VERY SMALL sips is the key.
Tonsillectomy Day 1 : Slept only about 2 hours due to still being very restless and fidgety from the effects of the anesthesia. Stayed on a steady dose every 4 hours of pain med’s which seemed to edge my pain. Still in a great deal of pain all day. I ate more Popsicle and jello and applesauce and was able to eat some luke warm soup which tasted great and drank 2 ensure shakes and a yogurt shake. The anesthesia effects seemed to finally wear off sometime in the early evening making me a bit more comfortable. Still in a good deal of pain. My entire mouth now hurts along with the throat and I am having jaw pain and slight ear pain and tongue pain from the clamps they used during the surgery.
Operated on 24 hours ago. Woke up feeling drowsy but pretty good. Minimal pain. Was able to talk, drink water and take medication. I was given a script for oxy (endone) penicillin and prednisolone (Panafcortelone) and have been told to take oxy and Panafon together. Had no appetite in the 12 hours after my op but I had jelly and ice cream in my overnight stay to make the nurses happy. Woke up this morning to a huge shock… I was told about the pain but the odd feeling in the back of my throat prompted me to look inside my mouth (with the aid of my a torchlight app and a mirror) and almost died when I saw what the nurses are calling slough!!! I was never told about that! I was told in a few days is see little white bits but not this awful yellowy crap! This prompted me to have some toast which went down painlessly with the Panamax and oxy. Was discharged and came home with my fiancé. The worst part was getting up after being in bed since 12:09pm yesterday! My legs are like jelly and I get very light headed very quickly. I’ve been in bed since, drinking bottle after bottle of water. Had some more toast with butternut pumpkin soup. I managed a cup of tea or two in hospital and a glass or orange juice (avoid – it tastes awful with the slough!) but I find water is best. May try some icy poles later…
Day 1 started at 8:15a at a local outpatient surgery center. Signed away my life and paid co-pay. About 9:00a I was taken back to prepare. Strip out of clothes, put on some “hose” and get briefed. Told for the first time that I will be spending 3 hours in post op due to sleep apnea (ever so slight)….gonna put complication in wife’s schedule….all worked out!
Laying in OR I was told by nurse that she was giving me something to relax….lights out basically from 9:45a for about an hour.
I’m a 44 year old male getting the UVPPP procedure…basically tonsils, uvula, and area around uvula. Should solve slight apnea as well as improve major snoring. Dr impressed me in our first meeting and I felt confident with his surgical ability. Only downside was he seemed very young….or am I getting old?
I woke up in some 4-alarm severe pain. My throat was on fire and my head was banging. Very light sensitive. I really signed on to the fact that this was yet another mistake I’ve made, a colossal one at that. And I hurt like hell for about 2 more hours. Then, was finally given liquid Percocet….started knocking the pain down. The real issue was coming off that anesthetic….same stuff that did in my friend Michael….Michael Jackson that is.
After schedule change (3 hour tour in post-op), jockeying around of people to watch our son (thanks Mom), a little hospital jello and applesauce, etc we finally leave about 2:30p. We take a 30 second ride to Walgreens, where prescriptions were dropped off 2 hours ago. Not done. I hereby boycott Walgreens. We waited another thirty minutes and I finally took my Gatorade (Gatorade not a great idea so far) to the car and dozed. Finally with our 3 whopping scripts (pain, steroid, magic mouthwash) in hand we leave and head for home, but not before my wife hopping in the truck scared me awake thinking we were getting car-jacked…just a split second though. Awesome.
It’s now 9:45p. I am doing ok. I’ve eaten Mac and Cheese (I threw a fit cause it was Kraft and not something better….sorry babe!), bread (loving the bread….filling and with water glides down, also takes whatever is in your throat with it.), lots of jello, and just a few minutes ago, one of my wife’s famous choc chip cookies. It was a little rough but worth it.
Taking the Percocet every 3-1/2 hours (cheating a little bit), Motrin at 2 hour intermission between the good stuff (pills aren’t great fun, I lather them in jello juice and down they go). Did the magic mouthwash….didn’t do much, figure will try again when I really need. Pain is a 2-3/10 right now, 2 hours till Perc.
I will try to update each day…so far, I repeat, so far…no ear pain (thank God) and no nausea. I feel I was pretty well informed, much through this site, and I am a little more than concerned about next week….plan has been lots of water, regular drug use, humidifier to keep throat moist, and loving wife doing it all. Time to steal some more sleep. Thanks to all my friends and colleagues sending texts, etc.
47yo Female, had surgery this morning around 8:30 am. So far I would give this a 4 on a scale of 1-10 for pain. Feels a like a bad sore throat. Been eating Popsicles, jello and Mac n cheese. Keeping very hydrated with water, ice chips and Gatorade . Not looking forward to days 4-6 but keeping fingers crossed.
uvula is swollen to about the size of my pinkey causing me to snore everytime I try and sleep. Needless to say, I keep waking myself up!
I had a tonsillectomy as well as UVPPP to trim the uvula, septoplasty to straighten the nose and turbinoplasty to remove turbinates from the nose yesterday morning around 11am (took 2 hours). I woked up in the recovery room coughing blood but was under control in under a few minutes. I did not feel any extreme pain immediately after surgery. Even when I had some jello around 3pm it was ok didnt hurt too much to swallow. I also hate icecream, juice, ice popsicle, and custard. Avoided the yoghurt because of the small fruit pieces and mineral water for fear of its acidic contents. Didnt need to take any strong painkillers other than 2 paracetomols(Panadol) every 6 hours. I found it hard to pee though as urine was blocked I suspect from the anaesthetic. Stayed in the ward overnight and today Saturday morning discharged at 10am.
So on my first day of recovery now so far its been ok. I can say the pain is no worse than a sore dry throat you get from any sore throat. I understand this is what you call the “honeymoon stage” …I pray it doesn’t get worse than this but I’m fearing from most accounts I read here it will especially from day 4? After reading Greg’s advice under “If I were to have my tonsils removed again, I would…” he’d rather start on a rough diet instead of soft diet I tried to eat scrambled eggs in the afternoon because I’m already tired of eating jelly and gooey food and wanted some protein and thought that scrambled eggs was soft enough to take. I ate the whole thing and noticed my sore throat only getting slightly worse. I took a break kept with drinking water and ate another reasonably soft diet of chicken and corn cream soup with pasta shells. That did hurt little more but its under control again. Still have no need to take the extreme pain killers I was prescribed which was Endone. So far I’d say day 1 pain = 2/10.
DAY 1 (day of surgery): 30 years old and had tonsillectomy (with adenoids remove to). Surgery was at 7amish and it is now 8pm. A lot of pain after the ride home and after surgery and trip home I was talking quite a bit but then my throat decided that was enough talking and stop being able to talk for a few hours. Now I can say a couple words at a time. Taking liquid IBprophen and liquid lortab with acetaminophen (each every 4 hours, alternating every 2) so pain has been pretty minimal. My uvula has swollen to a size I never thought possible and has caused a couple panic attacks about choking. Was also prescribed Swizzle (lynocain
concoction numbing gargle liquid) and Zofran (for nausea). They also gave me a nausea patch before surgery that I wear for 3 days. Feel kind queasy but not loopy at all. I am SOOOO hungry and have almost reached burnout on sweet things.
I can’t wait til the uvula swelling goes down so I can (attempt to) eat mashed potatoes. Pain level 3 right now. Have only slept about 1 hr total since the swollen uvula is making sitting and sleeping a necessity.
I had the gargle too, it made me panic even more because I felt like there was a giant ball lodged in my throat. I hope you don’t have the same feeling!
I started coughing up large amounts of blood about an hour after my Day 1 post. The surgeon had me gargle with ice cold water and if finally stopped. Dr said that bleeding that much the first day isn’t common but wonders if it is because of the extra large size of my tonsils. I am now on a steriod to reduce the uvula swelling.
The gargle stuff does freak me out a little because of the uvula size. I have said the word “uvula” more times today than I have in my entire life.