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.
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Please feel free to add your own experience with tonsillectomy day 1.
-Greg Tooke My short bio
Tonsillectomy Day 1
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 throat
Tonsillectomy 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.
19 year old female, had my tonsils removed today at a military hospital.
I was EXTREMELY nervous going into this. I have had panic attacks in the past coming out of anesthesia and I always throw up from it as well. I was literall shaking so hard from nerves in my pre op room so they gave me something to relax me.
My dr and his whole team were amazing, everyone came and talked to me and explained everything to me. I def recommend shopping around for a good doctor if you can. I’ve read a lot of doctors say u can go back to eating normal foods as soon as ur ready but my guy said wait at least 15 days to seriously reduce my chance of bleeding. Also he was very upfront about the severity of the pain and said he would hook it up on the meds. Thank god!
Once they brought me to the OR I remember switching beds and next thing u know it I was waking up and wondering if they had even done the procedure yet lol. I just felt very tired and I kept coughing but it didn’t hurt, I was trying to swallow too but it felt really strange. Two nurses were sitting with me and they were actually more stressed then I was because I guess my heart rate had elevated to a dangerous level but I could not feel it. Anyways they gave me medicine to help lower it and kept me in this room for an extra 45 mins. Also I sucked on ice chips which made the coughing much better. Finally they wheeled me to the recovery room and had my husband come, in we were there another hour and a halfish. Talking was difficult and my voice sounded like I was retarded (to put it frankly) for the fist couple hours.
Upon getting dressed my stomach started feeling sick and despite the medications given to prevent throwing up I have puked 5 times today. Throwing up def isn’t pleasant but since ive had only clear liquids it wasn’t too bad either. I recommend taking ur time when getting up to use the bathroom (which u should be doing constantly if ur staying hydrated) and I started using Dramamine (sp) 15 minutes prior to my perks to prevent throwing up because it seems to work better then the dissolvable prescription. If u are throwing up def stick to liquids, nothing shunky AT ALL!
Medications: this part is important! Anything in pill form I crush and put in apple sauce. It tastes awful but it goes down smooth. My doctor prescribed me a mouth wash to gargle with every two hours called lidocaine and it numbs ur throat, again it tastes awful but it is amazingly worth it!! Everyone should take this is possible. I’m also on perks for the pain, antibiotic, and prednazone (sp) for the swelling.
Sleeping was a challenge for me. the days leading up to it I got very little hours in and as tired as I was coming out of surgery I couldn’t actually get comfortable enough to sleep until about 1am. And I wake up constantly to drink and take meds. The pain did get worse thru the night, especially when swallowing. I recommend whenever u need to swallow taking a small sip of a cold beverage. Getting some sleep also helped.
don’t try to talk a lot, a huge problem for me lol, it causes the pain to get worse later. Get a dry erase board!
Okay so that was my experience on day one, the overall pain wasnt too bad for the most part, just uncomfortable more then anything.I hope it helps someone! I know this website has been very helpful to me so I thought I’d try to help too! I’ll keep posting as the recovery process continues! If anyone else is going thru this right now and wants to chat my email is laurenmintz@ymail.com! Lol it does get boring so having a tonsil buddy might me fun! Good luck!
Listen, when I found this site, it was the night before my tonsillectomy which was scheduled for 8AM. I was scared about the surgery because I have a phobia of choking and suffocating–so the idea of my throat being messed with and swollen made be extremely nervous. This phobia, however, has never really been an issue except when I was younger and didn’t swallow pills. Anyways, when I found this site I was looking for some comfort about the recovery process. After reading all the entries for the first five days of recovery, I started panicking, uncontrollably crying, and at midnight I cancelled my surgery. These posts all sounded horrible and brought about my worts fear. I knew that the surgery needed to happen for me, so thankfully I was able to reschedule it and made sure not to read any websites like this beforehand. I just had surgery yesterday, and I wanted to post on here to anyone who is scared like I was. When I went into the hospital, I was nervous up until they were about to take me into the operating room. I was scared that I would get really nervous and upset going into this big operating room–which makes the surgery seem like a HUGE deal when in reality it’s a small procedure. BUT–the nurses gave me something through my IV that would calm me down (the guy nurse said it will feel relaxing like having two tequila shots). This was while we were still in the normal hospital room, and boy did I INSTANTLY feel so relaxed and mellow. I felt like everything was just fine and I was in a great mood. SO then they rolled me into the operation room, I switched beds, and they said –here we’re going to just put this breathing mask on you….and instantly I was out cold.
When I woke up, there was an issue with my breathing. I was wheezing and had what seemed like fluid in my lungs. HOWEVER, I was just waking up from anesthesia so I was too loopy to really panic about it. I was nervous, but they put a breathing mask on me that would clear it up, and they had people constantly coming up and asking how I was breathing and telling me I was getting better. SO, this would have made me panic (since I have a phobia of suffocating), BUT I was barely awake and even though I was aware, I was able to get through this without a panic. I’m just saying this so if anyone is like me, you don’t have to worry if this happens because it will be a good 40 minutes before you are anywhere near to normal and awake feeling, therefore you will still feel very relaxed in case this breathing issue happens to you. The pain on day one and two isn’t bad, and from what my doctor told me, day three (tomorrow for me) is when the pain starts setting in. This is what advice I give for everyone in recovery: DRINK WATER. Especially the first two days since your throat shouldn’t hurt too bad, constantly drink water. My doctor said the number one reason people have to go back to the hospital during recovery is NOT from bleeding or other issues, it’s from DEHYDRATION. If you drink water, your throat will stay moist, your body will stay hydrated, and therefore everything will work better. I was also told the scab issue won’t be as bad if you force yourself to drink water every day. Also, I wouldn’t drink water that’s SUPER cold, because that could upset your stomach. But drinking cool water is easier and still feels good on the throat
Today was my surgery, and I have to say that reading everyone’s stories has heped a lot. I am a person who likes to be prepared. I wanted to go in knowing the worst, so that if it happened I was prepared, and if it didnt happened, then I would be peasently surprised. I got to the hospital at around 9 am for my 11 am surgery. I am horrible with needles as a result from a surgery that I had last summer, so the IV was the worst part for me, and that didnt even hurt because they gave me lidocane before they put it in. I also have horrible veins, so I was scared they wouldnt find one. After that it was just a bunch of laying around and waiting. They brought my mom back, but she kept complaining about how hungry she was…..mistake because I was hungry and unable to eat. I made her stop. When they wheeled me to the operating room, the last thing I remember is scooting my tukus to the table and then them putting the mask on me and then I was awake in the recovery room. On a scale of 1-10, I wold say that my pain was an 8, and I could hardly keep my eyes open. I hate that feeling. they gave me pain medicine and then before I knew it I was on the way home. We had to stop to get my medicine so while we were waiting for that, my mom got me a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie. That was the best thing ever at that particular moment in time. When I got home, I ate some italian ice, put in a movie, and fell asleep, and then woke up to take my next dose of pain medicine. Right now I am not in much pain, and I decided that I needed to eat something soft but substantial, because I have a feeling that I wont be able to the next couple days, so I am eating some Macaroni and Cheese. Im actually surprised I can tolerate it. I have had 4 surgeries in the past 2 years, and after every single one, I have made my mom make me maccaroni ad cheese, and every time I had like 2 bites and then couldnt eat the rest. I cant stop eating right now! Anyway, I am doing alright right now, but I fully expect it to get worse. I really a grateful for this website, because I know what to expect!
Overall I didn’t feel too much pain day 1. I woke up from surgery at around 11:20 (my surgery was 10:50) and the nurse was giving me water. It was rough to drink it the first few times but after I got use to the cold it felt amazing! She had to give me three shots of pain medicine however. I tried to eat a popsicle but it was too sweet for my throat. The nurse also gave me an icepack for my throat which felt good. I was able to talk really easily though. My mom went to go fill my prescription for oxycodone and I kept dozing in out of sleep. When we got home I got in bed and fell asleep, but then woke up. Played on the iPad/computer/watched TV etc. I would sleep for only an hour at a time. After 4 pm I just couldn’t sleep. Was taking my medicine every 4 hours, but I never felt it get lodged in my throat and was able to take the pill whole. I was starving. I had baby food and applesauce which went down easily. Fluids were going down easily too. Wasn’t able to sleep until 4 am leading in to the second day because my throat kept getting dry and really painful.. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Day 1 went fine. I was anxious so was given a cocktail to calm me down before surgery. After surgery i was woozy and spent the next few hours in and out of sleep. Was sent home with my caregivers. About six hours after surgery i became very naueseous. Vomitting after a tonsilectomy is not fun! But thankfully, the nausea did pass. I had a good night with little sleep but also little pain. I hydrated continuously during the night and continued to take my pain medication even though i really wasnt in any pain, just discomfort, mostly.
19 year old female, had my tonsils removed today at a military hospital.
I was EXTREMELY nervous going into this. I have had panic attacks in the past coming out of anesthesia and I always throw up from it as well. I was literall shaking so hard from nerves in my pre op room so they gave me something to relax me.
My dr and his whole team were amazing, everyone came and talked to me and explained everything to me. I def recommend shopping around for a good doctor if you can. I’ve read a lot of doctors say u can go back to eating normal foods as soon as ur ready but my guy said wait at least 15 days to seriously reduce my chance of bleeding. Also he was very upfront about the severity of the pain and said he would hook it up on the meds. Thank god!
Once they brought me to the OR I remember switching beds and next thing u know it I was waking up and wondering if they had even done the procedure yet lol. I just felt very tired and I kept coughing but it didn’t hurt, I was trying to swallow too but it felt really strange. Two nurses were sitting with me and they were actually more stressed then I was because I guess my heart rate had elevated to a dangerous level but I could not feel it. Anyways they gave me medicine to help lower it and kept me in this room for an extra 45 mins. Also I sucked on ice chips which made the coughing much better. Finally they wheeled me to the recovery room and had my husband come, in we were there another hour and a halfish. Talking was difficult and my voice sounded like I was retarded (to put it frankly) for the fist couple hours.
Upon getting dressed my stomach started feeling sick and despite the medications given to prevent throwing up I have puked 5 times today. Throwing up def isn’t pleasant but since ive had only clear liquids it wasn’t too bad either. I recommend taking ur time when getting up to use the bathroom (which u should be doing constantly if ur staying hydrated) and I started using Dramamine (sp) 15 minutes prior to my perks to prevent throwing up because it seems to work better then the dissolvable prescription. If u are throwing up def stick to liquids, nothing shunky AT ALL!
Medications: this part is important! Anything in pill form I crush and put in apple sauce. It tastes awful but it goes down smooth. My doctor prescribed me a mouth wash to gargle with every two hours called lidocaine and it numbs ur throat, again it tastes awful but it is amazingly worth it!! Everyone should take this is possible. I’m also on perks for the pain, antibiotic, and prednazone (sp) for the swelling.
Sleeping was a challenge for me. the days leading up to it I got very little hours in and as tired as I was coming out of surgery I couldn’t actually get comfortable enough to sleep until about 1am. And I wake up constantly to drink and take meds. The pain did get worse thru the night, especially when swallowing. I recommend whenever u need to swallow taking a small sip of a cold beverage. Getting some sleep also helped.
don’t try to talk a lot, a huge problem for me lol, it causes the pain to get worse later. Get a dry erase board!
Okay so that was my experience on day one, the overall pain wasnt too bad for the most part, just uncomfortable more then anything.I hope it helps someone! I know this website has been very helpful to me so I thought I’d try to help too! I’ll keep posting as the recovery process continues! If anyone else is going thru this right now and wants to chat my email is laurenmintz@ymail.com! Lol it does get boring so having a tonsil buddy might me fun! Good luck!
Listen, when I found this site, it was the night before my tonsillectomy which was scheduled for 8AM. I was scared about the surgery because I have a phobia of choking and suffocating–so the idea of my throat being messed with and swollen made be extremely nervous. This phobia, however, has never really been an issue except when I was younger and didn’t swallow pills. Anyways, when I found this site I was looking for some comfort about the recovery process. After reading all the entries for the first five days of recovery, I started panicking, uncontrollably crying, and at midnight I cancelled my surgery. These posts all sounded horrible and brought about my worts fear. I knew that the surgery needed to happen for me, so thankfully I was able to reschedule it and made sure not to read any websites like this beforehand. I just had surgery yesterday, and I wanted to post on here to anyone who is scared like I was. When I went into the hospital, I was nervous up until they were about to take me into the operating room. I was scared that I would get really nervous and upset going into this big operating room–which makes the surgery seem like a HUGE deal when in reality it’s a small procedure. BUT–the nurses gave me something through my IV that would calm me down (the guy nurse said it will feel relaxing like having two tequila shots). This was while we were still in the normal hospital room, and boy did I INSTANTLY feel so relaxed and mellow. I felt like everything was just fine and I was in a great mood. SO then they rolled me into the operation room, I switched beds, and they said –here we’re going to just put this breathing mask on you….and instantly I was out cold.
When I woke up, there was an issue with my breathing. I was wheezing and had what seemed like fluid in my lungs. HOWEVER, I was just waking up from anesthesia so I was too loopy to really panic about it. I was nervous, but they put a breathing mask on me that would clear it up, and they had people constantly coming up and asking how I was breathing and telling me I was getting better. SO, this would have made me panic (since I have a phobia of suffocating), BUT I was barely awake and even though I was aware, I was able to get through this without a panic. I’m just saying this so if anyone is like me, you don’t have to worry if this happens because it will be a good 40 minutes before you are anywhere near to normal and awake feeling, therefore you will still feel very relaxed in case this breathing issue happens to you. The pain on day one and two isn’t bad, and from what my doctor told me, day three (tomorrow for me) is when the pain starts setting in. This is what advice I give for everyone in recovery: DRINK WATER. Especially the first two days since your throat shouldn’t hurt too bad, constantly drink water. My doctor said the number one reason people have to go back to the hospital during recovery is NOT from bleeding or other issues, it’s from DEHYDRATION. If you drink water, your throat will stay moist, your body will stay hydrated, and therefore everything will work better. I was also told the scab issue won’t be as bad if you force yourself to drink water every day. Also, I wouldn’t drink water that’s SUPER cold, because that could upset your stomach. But drinking cool water is easier and still feels good on the throat
Thank you so much. I’m going to have a tonsillectomy next week and i have that exact same fear. Thanks again, and i hope your ok now!
Today was my surgery, and I have to say that reading everyone’s stories has heped a lot. I am a person who likes to be prepared. I wanted to go in knowing the worst, so that if it happened I was prepared, and if it didnt happened, then I would be peasently surprised. I got to the hospital at around 9 am for my 11 am surgery. I am horrible with needles as a result from a surgery that I had last summer, so the IV was the worst part for me, and that didnt even hurt because they gave me lidocane before they put it in. I also have horrible veins, so I was scared they wouldnt find one. After that it was just a bunch of laying around and waiting. They brought my mom back, but she kept complaining about how hungry she was…..mistake because I was hungry and unable to eat. I made her stop. When they wheeled me to the operating room, the last thing I remember is scooting my tukus to the table and then them putting the mask on me and then I was awake in the recovery room. On a scale of 1-10, I wold say that my pain was an 8, and I could hardly keep my eyes open. I hate that feeling. they gave me pain medicine and then before I knew it I was on the way home. We had to stop to get my medicine so while we were waiting for that, my mom got me a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie. That was the best thing ever at that particular moment in time. When I got home, I ate some italian ice, put in a movie, and fell asleep, and then woke up to take my next dose of pain medicine. Right now I am not in much pain, and I decided that I needed to eat something soft but substantial, because I have a feeling that I wont be able to the next couple days, so I am eating some Macaroni and Cheese. Im actually surprised I can tolerate it. I have had 4 surgeries in the past 2 years, and after every single one, I have made my mom make me maccaroni ad cheese, and every time I had like 2 bites and then couldnt eat the rest. I cant stop eating right now! Anyway, I am doing alright right now, but I fully expect it to get worse. I really a grateful for this website, because I know what to expect!
Overall I didn’t feel too much pain day 1. I woke up from surgery at around 11:20 (my surgery was 10:50) and the nurse was giving me water. It was rough to drink it the first few times but after I got use to the cold it felt amazing! She had to give me three shots of pain medicine however. I tried to eat a popsicle but it was too sweet for my throat. The nurse also gave me an icepack for my throat which felt good. I was able to talk really easily though. My mom went to go fill my prescription for oxycodone and I kept dozing in out of sleep. When we got home I got in bed and fell asleep, but then woke up. Played on the iPad/computer/watched TV etc. I would sleep for only an hour at a time. After 4 pm I just couldn’t sleep. Was taking my medicine every 4 hours, but I never felt it get lodged in my throat and was able to take the pill whole. I was starving. I had baby food and applesauce which went down easily. Fluids were going down easily too. Wasn’t able to sleep until 4 am leading in to the second day because my throat kept getting dry and really painful.. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Day 1 went fine. I was anxious so was given a cocktail to calm me down before surgery. After surgery i was woozy and spent the next few hours in and out of sleep. Was sent home with my caregivers. About six hours after surgery i became very naueseous. Vomitting after a tonsilectomy is not fun! But thankfully, the nausea did pass. I had a good night with little sleep but also little pain. I hydrated continuously during the night and continued to take my pain medication even though i really wasnt in any pain, just discomfort, mostly.