A collection of various experiences of adult tonsillectomy patients on their fourth day post op 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 4. 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.
Please feel free to add your own experience with tonsillectomy day 4.
-Greg Tooke My short bio
Tonsillectomy Day 4
I’m currently at the end of Day 4 since my combined tonsillectomy, balloon sinuplasty, and septoplasty. I’m 25 years old This has by no means been a walk in the park so far, but it honestly isn’t as bad as I had feared it would be. Back in October I had an abscess inside my tonsil that I had to get lanced, and the pain from this recovery so far has not been quite as severe as the pain from the abscess. On the day of my surgery when I got home, I slept for 95% of the rest of the day. Woke up around 2am in a lot of pain and had to migrate from my bed to the recliner and continued to wake up every 45 minutes or so. I think this first night was definitely the worst for me because I had packing in my nose from the sinus surgery so I had literally no choice but to breathe out of my mouth. My tongue was like sandpaper (gross I know) even though I tried to drink as frequently as possible. I did not eat anything that first day and just drank water when I could. At 8:30 the next morning I saw my ENT to get the packing removed from my nose thank God. It took most of the second day for the congestion to clear up but once it did it was a big relief for me. Day 2 I would say my pain was around a 4 or so during the day. I was able to eat some popsicles and cream of wheat which tasted like heaven. Again, the middle of the night and first thing in the morning were the worst for me. I was prescribed liquid hydrocodone and a steroid for the swelling. I alternated the hydro every 6 hours with extra strength liquid Tylenol. That seemed to help most of the time. Day 3 was pretty uneventful, tried to incorporate mashed potatoes into my diet but it made my jaw pretty tired and sore. Went to bed, woke up at like 2am again in a lot of pain so I took more meds and put ice packs on my neck which helped me go back to sleep. Today, day 4, the morning sucked as usual but once the steroid kicked in I was feeling much better. Pain was probably at a 3 most of the day. Today I was also able to leave the house to grab a couple of things from the store and made an appearance at a family gathering. I was able to eat some more “real” food there which included potato salad and a roll. After being out of the house for about 1 1/2 I was EXHAUSTED. I guess I’m still building up stamina. Tomorrow will day 5 and hopefully things continue to go smoothly. I know a lot of people say the pain is worse when the scabs fall off so I won’t be super shocked if I start to go downhill but I’m trying my best to stay positive and am overall pleasantly surprised at how well I’ve been doing!
Tonsillectomy Day 4 post op : OMG! I am dying!
Tonsillectomy Day 4 post op: Oh, so THIS is the pain everyone’s talking about.
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : Well, last night was the best night so far – which is nothing to brag about. The ear pain last night was even worse; so far, that is the nastiest part of this recovery. I did however wake up coughing due to a tickle in my throat. As most of you know, coughing and clearing your throat is a no-no…but to me, it was a yes-yes. There was absolutely nothing I could do, but cough! I was drinking water, but it wouldn’t stop. Thankfully, that didn’t trigger any bleeding! The morning was alright minus the _ _ _ _ _ _ _. That’s right; you got it, the EAR PAIN! And I ended up thinking that I made the wrong decision about just sticking to children’s Tylenol. I decided to nix the child Tylenol idea, as it was doing almost nothing for me and moved to taking extra strength Tylenol – obviously I had to crush it up and mix with it with ice cream. I got my mom to call the doctors office to see if there was anything else I could be prescribed. The doctor faxed a prescription for Percocet’s to my pharmacy and I was extremely happy. At this point I could talk a little bit, but very low and even then it hurt, so I had a pad of paper and a pen with me at all times (I guess I’m lucky I got 100% on all of the spelling bees in elementary school)! My mom came home with the Percocet’s and I could have kissed her! It said I could take 1 to 2 pills every 4 hours, but decided to start with one because I heard that they were super strong. I couldn’t swallow it so I crushed it up into applesauce and consumed it that way. Not even 10 minutes later I started getting a stomach ache and got incredibly dizzy. So dizzy that I couldn’t see straight and my eyes felt like they were crossing. My mom called the doctor’s office up and explained the symptoms. He confirmed that it was normal. NORMAL? Is that what you call normal? I felt like I was seeing double (I have glasses, so would that be considered quadruple?) Nevertheless, if I knew of the severity of the symptoms I would have battled with the codeine! I decided to lie down for about 2 hours and woke up with pain still in my stomach; I guess the only good news is the dizziness was gone. Once the Percocet wore off, I dumped the rest of the prescription in the toilet (or the majestic bowl – however you want to refer to it). I ate some chicken broth today, with a cracker that I broke up into a million pieces and softened it in the soup. I got most of it down, so it was pretty good. The ear pain was getting a little hard to manage so I decided to use ear plugs and a heating pad. Both of them together helped to muffle and alleviate the pain. As of right now, I need 2 Tylenol every 4 hours, but it does work better than the children’s Tylenol!
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : 4th morning..and I was miserable…
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : 4 days post-op and overall it’s not as bad as it could be. As long as I take the Roxicet every 4 hours (even in the middle of the night) and the steroids every morning, the pain is bearable.
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : 4 days post op and today was the worst as far as just pain. I’m attempting Mac n cheese here in 5 min. But overall the pain isn’t too bad. 🙂 but then again I’m only 4 days out.
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : To date the hardest part of the recovery are the panic attacks i get. I believe they come from my inability to clear my nasal airway. My nose has splints in it to keep the septum straight, so along with the swelling my nose is constantly congested. The pain has not been an issue yet, but i did a little research and heard from the doctors office that the pain comes typically around days 5-10
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : Day four–out of anti-nausea meds, felt like sick again after taking pain meds. Decided to forgo the pain meds and take advil and tylenol alternating, like my doctor recommended. Throat hurt A LOT but I felt like a human being. Still not eating much, popsicles and smoothies too cold, soft boiled eggs were the BOMB!
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : Day 4- woke up in pain, felt better during day- night was painful.
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : Days 4-6: Very small, almost imperceptible, improvements each day. I was able to drop my Lortab doses from 15ml down to 10ml and even stop taking it during the days and just took Tylenol. The evenings were rough for me though, and I still needed the Lortab (hydrocodone and acetaminophen). Sleep was intermittant, and required me to get up and re-hydrate and take more Lortab. Food intake during these days was very very little. I did OK with oatmeal and instant pudding, but that’s about it. Make no mistake – these were difficult days.
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : I was able to sleep a little bit during the night. Taking the liquid benadryl helps. Pain was bad. Started to be able to feel the scabs in the back of my throat very well today. Ear pain increased a bit and chewing Dentyne Ice gum helps a bit for that. Had horrible diarrhea during the afternoon but was also relieved at the same time because it was the first time I was able to go number two since the morning of surgery. I was able to actually eat a bowl of cream of wheat today and ate some chicken broth with soggy oyster crackers in it. I get bad hiccups at times which hurt really bad. Swallowing is still very tough to do.
Tonsillectomy Day 4 : Day 4: I am out of pain meds and I want to cry. I have been taking 2 vicoden pills every four hours and it is barely helping with the pain. The pain meds are making me very tired and itchy all over so my husband has went to the doctor’s office to get me something different. The nurse at the doctor’s office told my husband that I was not going to feel better for at least a week. Wow, I feel hopeless right now. I was relieved when the hubster came home with Percocet. Percocet has worked a little better and now the pain is bearable.
Day 4- Overnight I got fed up with a large hanging piece of scab (only attached to the remainder of the scab by a single point) and managed to carefully cut it off. It made swallowing easier, as it was no longer getting caught, Pain steadily increasing, almost always using a full 10mL dose of perc at this point. Sucked it up and ate some cheese-its (crushed up) since I had a craving. More broth and chicken and stars. Eating anything warm immediately triggers the referred ear pain; If I east warm I now immediately ice my neck at the same time. Thank god for jello and popsicles
Day 4- my tongue and throat have swelled so much that it is difficult to swallow even water. Pain meds only last a few hours now. The nausea is really setting in now due to not eating anything. The zofran (for nausea) isn’t doing much for me. I’m hoping this is the beginning of the scabbing process and that I’m headed in the right direction
I was given 4 days worth and had to ask for more and got the huffy attitude. The doc gave in due to my uvula almost being torn out by too large a suction. I am so happy they are out but as you all know it was rough healing. I had the blow torch in my throat for about 8 days. They are out and I am rarely sick anymore.
So yesterday was day 4. Still needing to take pain meds every 3 hours and only getting about an hour and a half of relief from each dose. I was feeling just well enough though and figured if I timed the meds right that I could make it to my church’s Christmas eve service (yes, a they were doing it a day early.) I took the hydrocodone just before we left and felt pretty good throughout service. I did not even attempt to sing or talk to anyone, but I did stand, clap, etc. When we got home, I helped my husband make a quick dinner for the kids and then realized something was wrong. I checked my temperature and was at 101. I started getting really bad chills and my jaw was chattering. My post-op instructions said to seek help if my temp hit 101.5 so I figured I would try to get it down on my own. I figured I could take just a little bit more acetaminophen before I hit the 3000 mg daily max so I took my next dose of hydrocodone plus some extra acetaminophen and started drinking ice water. Eventually the fever came back down! I was so glad I did not have to go to urgent care or the ER. I learned my lesson of not overdoing it until I am actually healed.
On day 4 now, and still waiting for the “real” pain to kick in, so to speak. I woke up after surgery to a bunch of people shouting at me to breathe (they sounded properly stressed out about it, too, haha), and then a comment I don’t think they thought I’d remember that they’d forgotten to numb my throat and give me painkillers before leaving the OR (I was told I’d wake up to a choking sensation, but I woke up to a burning sensation instead). Woke up in a _LOT_ of pain, felt like they were burning out my throat (which, I guess, they were). Ended up staying a while longer than expected, spent all of it out of my head on morphine, and then fainted as I was leaving. It wasn’t ideal, but because I’d read that the first and second days were nothing at all compared to the pain of the days to come, I think I was expecting something like that initial experience or worse. So far it’s been a good thing, because no matter how much it hurts I keep expecting it to escalate.
I’m not trying to scare anyone (this all sounded a lot less dramatic in my head)! I lived trough it, and the nurses were attentive and good at making it better.
Very little bleeding, little trouble swallowing (if I take painkillers and use the mouthwash like a good girl), sleeping all right, feeling generally run down and tired otherwise.
Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but all in all it could be worse. Could be better, too, but could be worse.
Day 4- Overnight I got fed up with a large hanging piece of scab (only attached to the remainder of the scab by a single point) and managed to carefully cut it off. It made swallowing easier, as it was no longer getting caught, Pain steadily increasing, almost always using a full 10mL dose of perc at this point. Sucked it up and ate some cheese-its (crushed up) since I had a craving. More broth and chicken and stars. Eating anything warm immediately triggers the referred ear pain; If I east warm I now immediately ice my neck at the same time. Thank god for jello and popsicles
Day 4- my tongue and throat have swelled so much that it is difficult to swallow even water. Pain meds only last a few hours now. The nausea is really setting in now due to not eating anything. The zofran (for nausea) isn’t doing much for me. I’m hoping this is the beginning of the scabbing process and that I’m headed in the right direction
I was given 4 days worth and had to ask for more and got the huffy attitude. The doc gave in due to my uvula almost being torn out by too large a suction. I am so happy they are out but as you all know it was rough healing. I had the blow torch in my throat for about 8 days. They are out and I am rarely sick anymore.
So yesterday was day 4. Still needing to take pain meds every 3 hours and only getting about an hour and a half of relief from each dose. I was feeling just well enough though and figured if I timed the meds right that I could make it to my church’s Christmas eve service (yes, a they were doing it a day early.) I took the hydrocodone just before we left and felt pretty good throughout service. I did not even attempt to sing or talk to anyone, but I did stand, clap, etc. When we got home, I helped my husband make a quick dinner for the kids and then realized something was wrong. I checked my temperature and was at 101. I started getting really bad chills and my jaw was chattering. My post-op instructions said to seek help if my temp hit 101.5 so I figured I would try to get it down on my own. I figured I could take just a little bit more acetaminophen before I hit the 3000 mg daily max so I took my next dose of hydrocodone plus some extra acetaminophen and started drinking ice water. Eventually the fever came back down! I was so glad I did not have to go to urgent care or the ER. I learned my lesson of not overdoing it until I am actually healed.
On day 4 now, and still waiting for the “real” pain to kick in, so to speak. I woke up after surgery to a bunch of people shouting at me to breathe (they sounded properly stressed out about it, too, haha), and then a comment I don’t think they thought I’d remember that they’d forgotten to numb my throat and give me painkillers before leaving the OR (I was told I’d wake up to a choking sensation, but I woke up to a burning sensation instead). Woke up in a _LOT_ of pain, felt like they were burning out my throat (which, I guess, they were). Ended up staying a while longer than expected, spent all of it out of my head on morphine, and then fainted as I was leaving. It wasn’t ideal, but because I’d read that the first and second days were nothing at all compared to the pain of the days to come, I think I was expecting something like that initial experience or worse. So far it’s been a good thing, because no matter how much it hurts I keep expecting it to escalate.
I’m not trying to scare anyone (this all sounded a lot less dramatic in my head)! I lived trough it, and the nurses were attentive and good at making it better.
Very little bleeding, little trouble swallowing (if I take painkillers and use the mouthwash like a good girl), sleeping all right, feeling generally run down and tired otherwise.
Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but all in all it could be worse. Could be better, too, but could be worse.