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.
I had my surgery today at 8:15 AM, and so far it hasn’t been all that bad! It is now 7 PM. (And I’m a big weenie when it comes to pain, trust me!) I read all these horror stories about the pain being worse than childbirth, and I got myself so worked up with anxiety that I vomited several times the evening before and the day of. The hospital staff was very nice and comforting, and when I woke up I wasn’t in a whole lot of pain; just really tired. They gave me a shot of pain meds before sending me home. The doc also sent me with liquid vicodin and a mouth wash that is thick but numbs the throat.
Since then, I’ve been sleeping off and on, waking to drink water frequently and to take my meds. I haven’t been in a whole lot of pain, just feels like a strep throat infection so far. I also have 2 humidifiers running in the bedroom and that helps too.
Morphine morphine morphine. Then home and pain meds and antibiotics (both liquid form). Able to eat 1 scrambled egg. Surgery at 8 am, home by 11 am. Not too bad, feeling loopy from the meds and everything. Then WHAM 2 am the hiccups begin. Constant and steady every 2 seconds for 14 hours straight, then sporadically over the next few hours. Cut back on narcotics per docs advice. Throat looks nasty, once the swelling reduced.
Hi all, what a day…had surgery this morning so i’m assuming this is day 1. Surgery was @ 11am; I was in decent shape until around 8pm when my throat and ear began to throb. Amazing pain. I’m surprised since so many people said day 1 was the lightest of the days. i’ve used the white board to reserve my voice. Got down some apple sauce, popsicle, tons of water and ice.
I hope to be able to sleep,,,everytime i drift off..my pain wakes me up.
i ca’t imagine tht this is going to get worse…….
One of things that has helped me sleep Alicia is to sleep sitting up. It keeps my throat from hurting and also if lay down on my back my soft pallet blocks my breathing through my nose. For me the pain has gotten worse from day one to day two, but it has gone from shape pains to more of a whole throat ache. Something that will help with the ear pain is ice packs on the neck and jaw along with chewing some sugar free gum. What do they have you on for pain meds?
-Matt F.
24 year old male opera singer here. This was a bit of a scary procedure for me given my profession. But I am 12 hours post op now and doing well so far. I was able to have my tonsils removed with the laser option so it went quick with minimal bleeding. So far it seems like I am doing better than average for post op. I have spent most of my day either sleeping or eating a fantastic Culver’s chocolate and peanut butter mixer. I ate it with my first two home doses of the pain meds. I have had no nausea since getting home, but I did throw up something fierce in the recovery room when they tried to move me. Surprisingly I felt a lot better after that even though it did end my streak of 7 years without vomiting. The scariest part of this procedure for me was the idea of being put under. While this is a short and relatively simple surgery it looks and feels like major surgery. I had never been put under before and was terrified of it. It actually went well and I enjoyed it in an odd way. I had the surgery team laughing nonstop as they got me ready in the OR so that was fun. Also, I tried to get one of my recovery nurses to give me his mustache… All things considered, it was a lot scarier in my mind. Now we see how the recovery goes…
-Matt F.
26 years old, have never had a general anesthetic / operation before. I live in the UK (Lancashire) and I was pleasantly suprised by my surgery day, the pre-op care was excellent, I dont remember going ‘under’, and mostly I was just thirsty on waking up. It did take a few hours to get to grips with swallowing again, it isnt easy at first. On being asked to take tablets / food – I was terrified! But actually, once you psych yourself up for it, you soon realise that it is no less painful than swallowing water/saliva, in fact I couldnt feel it at all… and I’m usually useless at taking tablets.
Somehow I was prescibed liquid paracetamol liquid dihydrocodeine, I think they do this sometimes to make sure that the patient has no excuses to not eat their food due to the pain (I am a little underweight) . I didnt ask for it myself, but certainly it is worth asking for the liquid codeine etc as it is quite soothing on the throat as well as having the all important pain relief!!