Check out our new tonsillectomy recovery video- Caution: Not always pretty
A collection of various experiences of adult tonsillectomy patients on their second 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. Below I share comments about tonsillectomy day 2. 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.What to eat? Thoughts on the post tonsillectomy diet
Please feel free to add your own experience with tonsillectomy day 2.
-Greg My short bio
Tonsillectomy Day 2
Day 2 : I don’t even need narcotics. Give me some pudding!
Day 2 : This must be the pain everyone’s talking about. Yay, drugs!
Day 2 : So, I woke up today in some intense pain, as the children’s Tylenol wasn’t even lasting half of the time as it was supposed to. My throat and uvula felt extremely swollen, which is completely normal for the first few days after surgery. I was really adamant about not taking the codeine because I have a very sensitive stomach and I know that codeine is very strong – especially on an empty stomach. I decided to try to swallow the amoxicillin again – I guess I didn’t learn my lesson the first time! After 30 minutes and finally getting both capsules down, I decided enough is enough and next time I was definitely going to open the capsules and mix them with jell-o. Sure enough, I decided to be smart one more time and say that it’s all in my head and they won’t get stuck again. Um, why am I so stubborn at times? However, the third time they got stuck was the charm. I started getting upset and promised myself that I will not swallow them again. I stuck to my word this time! Needless to say, amoxicillin and jell-o don’t taste so swell together. In fact, I gagged just about every time I had to take them; lucky for me, it was 2 capsules 3 times daily for 1 week – what bliss! The morning and afternoon wasn’t terrible, as I was able to get by on the children’s Tylenol. I ate popsicles and freezies throughout the day, and was wondering why I had so much phlegm. I put my thinking cap on and realized that it must be the sugar in them that is causing the excess of phlegm – it wasn’t pleasant. Nevertheless, I continued to eat them because they soothed my throat. I realized a weird symptom today, uncontrollable burping!?! I was a little taken back by this, but after talking to a few people, I was told it was just my digestive track returning to normal. The evening on the other hand, got a lot worse! I decided to sacrifice my stubbornness, and take the codeine (yes people, on an EMPTY stomach)! That night my stomach hurt a bit because of the codeine, but I figured it would settle. I prayed it would settle! I didn’t even want to think about vomiting after a tonsillectomy – ouch!
Day 2 : bad morning, felt good during the day, night time pain was really bad Stopped pain meds on day 2 due to nausea and dizziness.
Day 2 : i went home and slept and woke up at 9:30am and wasnt feeling too bad. I lost track of time and missed my timing for the meds and was in excruciating pain at about 12pm. once the effects of the t3′s came in, it eased the pain a little bit. I managed to eat 3 fried eggs and some soft meat thing. but i felt really nauseated after eating it. I also drank a lot of water even though it hurt like hell to swallow
Day 2 : I’m about to finish day 2. I have been chewing on some juicy fruit gum, eating bomb pops and scrambled eggs(with just a little milk and cheese mixed in) and they are going down easy. I now have some pain on my tongue, several sore spots. Hurts worse than my throat. The liquid roxicet the doctor gave me works great. I’m only consuming about 5ml instead of the recommended 10ml.
Day 2 : Well it was a bit of a rough night. Had another anxiety attack around 6am. Had a bunch of flem/thick mucus coating my throat because it was drying out, due to breathing through my mouth. The this mucus was making it difficult to swallow and I began to worry i would choke or drown. It is also difficult to drink, when i swallow fluids creep up my nose, but since i cannot really breathe through my nose, i cant clear it. This also gives me anxiety.
tonsillectomy recovery day 2 : Day two–sucked!! Nauseous all day from taking pain meds on empty stomach, throwing up, finally doc gave a scrip for anti-nausea medicine so my mom (bless her heart, stayed with my for 5 days) went and got my meds. Couldn’t eat or take pain meds without barfing. Pain was awful.
tonsillectomy day 2 : day 2 was terrible! Mornings are the worst too. I found waking up a few times in the night just for a sip of water really helped! Also for the first time last night I used an icepack! So much relief! It’s such a long process but there is a light at the end of this painful tunnel!
Day 2 : Day 2- bad morning, felt good during the day, night time pain was really bad.
day 2 : Days 2-3: I would call this a “steady decline”. Pain became worse and I could not eat anything. No popsicles, no ice cream. Finally at the end of day 3 I discovered Jello. Oh thank heaven for Jello, it felt soooo good both on my throat and to actually have something in my stomach.
tonsillectomy recovery day two : Was able to sleep a little bit more over night but not much. The Lortab med made me feel very weird and I took a little too much of it because the pain was so bad and that was a mistake. Felt like I had a minor overdose. I ended the day with a slight mental breakdown in the bathroom with the worst pain in my throat and head that I have ever felt in my life. Did not eat much and my appetite seemed to vanish. Pretty much hit a roadblock today and my body just did not feel like doing anything.
tonsillectomy day two : I made it through the night ok. I was put on an oxygen reader to make sure I was breathing an acceptable level of oxygen. I didn’t get much sleep because of the pain.
Tonsillectomy
Aug 20th, 10:41a: (Sorry for long post, this outlines from yesterdays Tonsiectomy to the following morning)
Please forgive any typos, still have a ton of drugs in me. To be clear, I am the biggest pansy when it comes to pain.
So much so, when they were hooking me up to the IV I almost decided not to go through with my tonsillectomy. The wife and the sedative they gave me helped sway my decision.
The reason: I had a table saw accident several years ago and knew what 10-10 pain is. If you are anything like me, you researched the sh!t out of this procedure and are now terrified because almost 98% of the accounts of this surgery are horrible stories.
I am journaling my experience for those like me that are spending 100’s of hours reading and prepping. Hopefully, this will help you.
Just had a coblation tonsillectomy at 7:30a Thursday August 20, 2015, for chronic tonsil stones. ENT told my wife he could not believe they were not removed as a child because of the scarring on them from multiple sicknesses.
I am a 35-year-old male and live in the USA. Just got back home now several minutes ago from outpatient surgery and wanted to start this right away while it is fresh in my mind. This must be the “honeymoon phase” since I am in very little pain. Maybe a 1-2 out of 10.
Ate jello and now about to eat Kraft mac and cheese since I hear when the anesthesia the stuff wears off, it is bad.
I am prescribed 1-2 Dilaudid 4mg every 4-6 and Norco 10/325 every 2-4 hours. Phenergan suppositories for nausea, tetracaine numbing lollipops, the tonsil fire extinguisher, and a stool softener. ENT talked me out of the steroids since he said it prolongs healing but I really want them, all I need to do is call and ask.
Drinking a TON of water right now to keep hydrated. Took two soft ice packs you can get in the camping section of Walmart and put them in a sock to wrap around my neck. Will keep you posted.
Aug. 20th 5:30p.
So pain is at about a 2-3 out of 10. Not terrible at all. I am at 64oz of water in a Nalgene bottle that has a neoprene cover on it to keep it cold. Resting in a recliner watching TV. Have two TV stands next to the recliner with a humidifier on each one, tv remote, etc.
Ate jello, which went down great then ate Kraft Mac and cheese again, and a protein shake.
Wife made me mini Gatorade ice cubes and strawberry ensure ice cubes.
ICE, ICE, ICE and WATER, WATER, WATER is a must! Was able to take a few cat naps about 30 minutes a piece. Making sure I stay hydrated.
My sister is a surgical nurse for an ENT and stressed the importance of ICE and Hydration. I have had an ice pack around my next the entire time.
Not too much more to report. Oh, buy one of those travel neck pillows.
Aug. 21st 2 am
Ladies and Gentlemen, please put your seat trays and seat backs into upright and locked position because we are in for a bumpy ride. Boy am I glad I got that food down earlier.
Took my last pain meds yesterday night around 10:30p and fell right to sleep. I set an alarm for 1:30a to make sure I drank more H2O and took more pain meds. Well, no alarm clock needed. I woke up with a solid 7-8 out of ten pain level at exactly 1:19a. Feels like the left tonsil scab is wanting to peel (which it does not appear to by flashlight inspection) and like the worse case of strep throat I ever had.
I forgot to mention from when I woke up in recovery and to now I have not talked, but two words to make sure the vocals still worked. Been using a dry erase board or texting from my computer and phone to communicate with the wife. From several other peoples stories they said talking tends to make you pay for it later.
On top of that, I also forgot to mention I am on three different blood pressure medicines and Prilosec as well for acid reflux that my GP, who referred me to the ENT said I must stay on. That is an additional four pills a day that must go down each morning.
From up until now I was rotating from one Norco 10/325 to one 4mg Dilaudid every three hours. The pain I just work up in, I just took one of each and a Phenergan to keep the nausea down. I also drank another 16oz of water, had apple sauce, and made another protein shake.
It is not my intention to scare anyone away. I did mention earlier I am the world’s biggest pansy when it comes to pain, I just want to share an accurate experience of what I am going through as it happens. It has been pretty much on par with other people’s stories.
I am journaling this in pages on my Mac, so I will go ahead and upload it to this forum in case someone else is in or near the same recovery phase as me.
The Phenergan is starting to kick in which makes you sleepy. Thanks for listening and must keep that end goal in mind of NO MORE TONSIL STONES:-)
I was in a lot of pain ! It does get better I was drinking apple juice and Gatorade to get some electrolytes in me every 4 hours alternating liquid tylonol and Advil SO GROSS !!! every 6 hours oxycodon I slept a lot and had a long ice pack I placed on my neck it helps a lot ! Make sure when you go to sleep if you do set alarms when to take your medicine!! You do not want to wake up in pain. I ate tons of ice and barely drank water.. it gets better I promise ! My throat also looked like black chard was in the back of it (from colorization)
At the second day of my recovery I woke up to the hospital. The pain was on a scale 3/10 and the first thing I did is to drink lot’s of water to moisturize my throat. Then the pain was reduced to 1-2/10. Water is a must!!! Had been drinking all the day 2. I left the hospital in the afternoon and got back home. I had to take the meds without using IV like in the hospital. I did the mistake to drink the antibiotic with an empty stomach and because it was overwhelmed with fluids, I ended up vomiting at 1:30am in the morning. Gladly, the pain was only up to 3/10 so I chose to sleep it off and recover from the vomit weaknesses I was feeling. Remember to always have a full stomach before you get your meds and try to eat something, even a jelly-o. It will reduce this nauseous feeling.
Day 2 was quite okay for me. Not very painful, could eat a small amount of food (mashed potatoes and carrots, blended egg with some yogurt and the best one was blended apple – first boiled then blended).
Night time was horrible. Again felt like I was about to vomit for one hour and finally calmed down and went to bed. I was thinking all night what a horrible idea it was to get a tonsillectomy.
Lucas Lott on July 5, 2017 at 6:18 pm
I just finished day 7. I have not had that bad of an expierence overall. I’ll tell you how I did it, and hopefully you can too. Keep in mind that there were a few points where I was in quite a bit of pain, and only once where it was excruciating, but my experience hadn’t been like any of these horror stories I’ve been reading about over and over again. Oh and I’m 23 years old, male, and I got my Palantine Tonils removed, because of those pesky tonsil stones. ? Okay so here’s a play by play of how I’ve been able to survive this with only moderate to little discomfort. Take notes.
After my surgery I received 5/325mg of Percocet, I was told to take two every four hours, so I set 6 alarms on my phone. One for 12PM, 4PM, 8PM, 12AM, 4AM, and 8AM. Then I put those on repeat for every day. I keep my pill close so when they go off I can take them right away. I Usually break them in half, only because they feel like they get stuck in my throats and then cause acid reflux ? Okay So I was told NO HARD FOODS. In the first 5 days I stuck to Applesauce and ice cream only. I tried pudding, but it puts a very uncomfortable covering over the scabs, and I hate it. You will too. I keep cold water by me at all times and I’m constantly spitting. I threw up on day 1 a few times, but that was the anasthesia. My advice, take your pain pills, eat some applesauce and then go right to bed. If you’re up walking around you’ll puke, I promise. The first day is probably the easiest out of the first six days. Still take it easy. When you wake up in the night to take your meds is the most pain you’ll experience during this whole ordeal, or at least that’s how it was for me. It will be dry, it will burn, it will feel like there’s a hot iron shoved down your throat. The only thing you can do is drink cold water and wait. Take your meds and go back to sleep. Day two was worse than day 1, but it was manageable for sure. Stay hydrated and stay home. Make sure to eat soft foods as well. And brush your teeth, but don’t do it before bed, ever, do it in the morning, otherwise it dries your throat out at night. Day 3 was pretty much the same thing, I did leave the house to say goodbye to one of my friends who was deploying, im in the Air Force btw ??But yeah, it wasn’t too bad, I survived, and took a nap when I got home. Blah blah blah the rest of day three was just resting and eating soft foods when the pain meds kicked in and watching movies with my wife and playing Xbox. Day 4, same thing. However as the days go by it gets harder to swallow and the scabs or all the way formed and start to flake off kind of, it’s gross and the only way you can tell is you feel it. And btw, at NO POINT did I ever gargle anything. I let it come off naturally and on it’s own. Day 5 was different because I tried to make love to my wife and mid way through I started bleeding out of my throat really bad ??? it wasn’t going to happen anyways though ? But yeah when that happened I just drank some really cold water and it stopped eventually. I had some bleeding over the other few days, but nothing major, just spots here and there. Day six was the worst day so far, and that was at 4 am when I woke up for my pills my throat was on fire. It was so bad. I was paralyzed with pain, and my wife like bumped me and that knocked me out of my trance and I literally ran downstairs to the freezer grabbed some ice cubes and started crunching them right then and there. Luckily I had ice cold water in the fridge so I started guzzling that, and it really hurt, but it helped the burn. After that all you can do is wait, and I haven’t woken up like that again, however after that I started to elevate my head when I sleep, like i have three pillows under my back and head so I’m kind of just leaning back. Try to sleep with your mouth closed too, so it stays moist. And today was day seven, it wasn’t bad at all, still taking my meds, scabs haven’t fallen off yet. I woke up in pain, like every day, but no where near day six, that was the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life, hands down, but I survived, today I felt good enough to eat two packets of top ramen, after I was really feeling the meds though, no problems, and it was nice to get something sort of solid into my stomach. After all of this time I haven’t pooped, which bothers me, but I’ll justtown a gallon of apple juice tomorrow and if that doesn’t work then nothing will, I’ll just live my life without pooping. It’ll be tough to adapt too, but I’ll just have to deal with it. ? So day 7 went by good, I feel like I kind almost see a glow, from the light at the end of the tunnel. So throughout all of these days I did feel pain, every time I swallow, I yawned once, that sucked, and waking up isn’t pretty, but 90% of the stuff I’ve read on here makes it sound like they’re dying, and I really didn’t have that. Everyone goes through things differently, but I figured maybe I did something kind of right and wanted to share it with you all. I wish you a speedy recovery, and remember to hydrate and take the medication!! ✌???I hope this helps!
Day two here! I’m only 17, and I have never had a real surgery. I was thinking that it would hurt, but not this much. I woke up with my throat throbbing, it hurts to swallow, i’m trying my hardest not to clear my throat of cough, and I can barely keep my liquid medicine down. I had a popsicle for breakfast (what a way to start your day) and ever piece I had hurt like heck. But, it’s only day two, and it can only get better from here! Good luck to everyone!
I was in a lot of pain ! It does get better I was drinking apple juice and Gatorade to get some electrolytes in me every 4 hours alternating liquid tylonol and Advil SO GROSS !!! every 6 hours oxycodon I slept a lot and had a long ice pack I placed on my neck it helps a lot ! Make sure when you go to sleep if you do set alarms when to take your medicine!! You do not want to wake up in pain. I ate tons of ice and barely drank water.. it gets better I promise ! My throat also looked like black chard was in the back of it (from colorization)
At the second day of my recovery I woke up to the hospital. The pain was on a scale 3/10 and the first thing I did is to drink lot’s of water to moisturize my throat. Then the pain was reduced to 1-2/10. Water is a must!!! Had been drinking all the day 2. I left the hospital in the afternoon and got back home. I had to take the meds without using IV like in the hospital. I did the mistake to drink the antibiotic with an empty stomach and because it was overwhelmed with fluids, I ended up vomiting at 1:30am in the morning. Gladly, the pain was only up to 3/10 so I chose to sleep it off and recover from the vomit weaknesses I was feeling. Remember to always have a full stomach before you get your meds and try to eat something, even a jelly-o. It will reduce this nauseous feeling.
Day 2 was quite okay for me. Not very painful, could eat a small amount of food (mashed potatoes and carrots, blended egg with some yogurt and the best one was blended apple – first boiled then blended).
Night time was horrible. Again felt like I was about to vomit for one hour and finally calmed down and went to bed. I was thinking all night what a horrible idea it was to get a tonsillectomy.
Lucas Lott on July 5, 2017 at 6:18 pm
I just finished day 7. I have not had that bad of an expierence overall. I’ll tell you how I did it, and hopefully you can too. Keep in mind that there were a few points where I was in quite a bit of pain, and only once where it was excruciating, but my experience hadn’t been like any of these horror stories I’ve been reading about over and over again. Oh and I’m 23 years old, male, and I got my Palantine Tonils removed, because of those pesky tonsil stones. ? Okay so here’s a play by play of how I’ve been able to survive this with only moderate to little discomfort. Take notes.
After my surgery I received 5/325mg of Percocet, I was told to take two every four hours, so I set 6 alarms on my phone. One for 12PM, 4PM, 8PM, 12AM, 4AM, and 8AM. Then I put those on repeat for every day. I keep my pill close so when they go off I can take them right away. I Usually break them in half, only because they feel like they get stuck in my throats and then cause acid reflux ? Okay So I was told NO HARD FOODS. In the first 5 days I stuck to Applesauce and ice cream only. I tried pudding, but it puts a very uncomfortable covering over the scabs, and I hate it. You will too. I keep cold water by me at all times and I’m constantly spitting. I threw up on day 1 a few times, but that was the anasthesia. My advice, take your pain pills, eat some applesauce and then go right to bed. If you’re up walking around you’ll puke, I promise. The first day is probably the easiest out of the first six days. Still take it easy. When you wake up in the night to take your meds is the most pain you’ll experience during this whole ordeal, or at least that’s how it was for me. It will be dry, it will burn, it will feel like there’s a hot iron shoved down your throat. The only thing you can do is drink cold water and wait. Take your meds and go back to sleep. Day two was worse than day 1, but it was manageable for sure. Stay hydrated and stay home. Make sure to eat soft foods as well. And brush your teeth, but don’t do it before bed, ever, do it in the morning, otherwise it dries your throat out at night. Day 3 was pretty much the same thing, I did leave the house to say goodbye to one of my friends who was deploying, im in the Air Force btw ??But yeah, it wasn’t too bad, I survived, and took a nap when I got home. Blah blah blah the rest of day three was just resting and eating soft foods when the pain meds kicked in and watching movies with my wife and playing Xbox. Day 4, same thing. However as the days go by it gets harder to swallow and the scabs or all the way formed and start to flake off kind of, it’s gross and the only way you can tell is you feel it. And btw, at NO POINT did I ever gargle anything. I let it come off naturally and on it’s own. Day 5 was different because I tried to make love to my wife and mid way through I started bleeding out of my throat really bad ??? it wasn’t going to happen anyways though ? But yeah when that happened I just drank some really cold water and it stopped eventually. I had some bleeding over the other few days, but nothing major, just spots here and there. Day six was the worst day so far, and that was at 4 am when I woke up for my pills my throat was on fire. It was so bad. I was paralyzed with pain, and my wife like bumped me and that knocked me out of my trance and I literally ran downstairs to the freezer grabbed some ice cubes and started crunching them right then and there. Luckily I had ice cold water in the fridge so I started guzzling that, and it really hurt, but it helped the burn. After that all you can do is wait, and I haven’t woken up like that again, however after that I started to elevate my head when I sleep, like i have three pillows under my back and head so I’m kind of just leaning back. Try to sleep with your mouth closed too, so it stays moist. And today was day seven, it wasn’t bad at all, still taking my meds, scabs haven’t fallen off yet. I woke up in pain, like every day, but no where near day six, that was the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life, hands down, but I survived, today I felt good enough to eat two packets of top ramen, after I was really feeling the meds though, no problems, and it was nice to get something sort of solid into my stomach. After all of this time I haven’t pooped, which bothers me, but I’ll justtown a gallon of apple juice tomorrow and if that doesn’t work then nothing will, I’ll just live my life without pooping. It’ll be tough to adapt too, but I’ll just have to deal with it. ? So day 7 went by good, I feel like I kind almost see a glow, from the light at the end of the tunnel. So throughout all of these days I did feel pain, every time I swallow, I yawned once, that sucked, and waking up isn’t pretty, but 90% of the stuff I’ve read on here makes it sound like they’re dying, and I really didn’t have that. Everyone goes through things differently, but I figured maybe I did something kind of right and wanted to share it with you all. I wish you a speedy recovery, and remember to hydrate and take the medication!! ✌???I hope this helps!
P.S. prepare to have HORRID breath!!
Reply
Day two here! I’m only 17, and I have never had a real surgery. I was thinking that it would hurt, but not this much. I woke up with my throat throbbing, it hurts to swallow, i’m trying my hardest not to clear my throat of cough, and I can barely keep my liquid medicine down. I had a popsicle for breakfast (what a way to start your day) and ever piece I had hurt like heck. But, it’s only day two, and it can only get better from here! Good luck to everyone!