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.
Mine is better today than it was yesterday I slept great last night woke up feeling amazing wat really works is pickle juice it gives a great taste in ur mouth and it cleans out ur wounds so it heals faster cuz theres not alot of pain
My tonsill ectomy was good but on the third day I was crying and was so sore I’m glad go be sharing this with you and I feel much better I hope you guys read it thank you.
Went in to get some stronger meds, ended up an hour late on a dose of meds. BIG mistake. Generally not a pain med taker, but quickly realized the importance here. Now have alarms set every 4 hours for meds including overnight.
Hi, My name is Katie and I’m on day 4 of recovery from a tonsillectomy. On day three, I got ambitios and had some scrambled eggs in the morning because I was so hungry. Also, I had a little bit of mashed potatoes. I was taking regular recommended dosages of liquid hydrocodon 7.5/325 every 4 hours (2-3 teaspoons). At 3pm of day three i began to experience nausea, headache, fever (around 100-101). A couple of hours after I began vomitting. Called my doctor’s emergency line, but he just had his secretary advise me to each ice chips. I couldn’t manage that and as the day went on I couldn’t even think about taking more pain killer even though I was in pain. It would just cause more vomitting. I ended up in the emergency room at midnight where they gave me pain killers that actually worked and anti nausea medice which was a MUST. I went home at 3am and slept like a baby. Woke up early, continued the anti nausea meds and eat pancakes on day four. Started to take only 2 teaspoons of the medicine and further apart. So far I’ve been feeling great. I rinsed my mouth with salt water and some gunk came out. It’s 5pm now. I’m hungry again. Pancakes were a good choice with lots of syrup and butter :). I may have some more.
Day 4: I’m better then i was last night, last night wasn’t the terrible pain everyone is talking about, it was bearable and even so today it’s fine. However, the one thing that is getting worst is the weird tingle in my throat and I can’t tell if I was to cough or swallow, I always swallow because coughing is a big NO and I’m very cautious and don’t want to die from bleeding ? anyway, what is thing tingling feeling? (It feels like my throat is slowly peeling itself)
Hello all,
I am currently recovering on my fourth day post op. To summarize, day 2 was not bad at all pain wise. In fact, i took a little field trip to the zoo with my mom. Day 3, also not terrible however I did get ringing in my ears. We managed to go out to dinner and I ordered soup and cheesecake, both of which went down easily. Today is the morning of day 4. I have been waking up every two hours throughout the night so I can rehydrate and keep my throat moist. For the most part, this has been helping- I have not bled yet! Anyways, this morning I woke up with ringing ears, and a very painful throat accompanied by a burnt flesh flavor In my mouth. THANK goodness for anti nausea medication. I read this increase in pain was normal and had something to do with scabbing. So hopefully this is a blessing in disguise and it will all be over sooner than later! Wish you all the best
Mine is better today than it was yesterday I slept great last night woke up feeling amazing wat really works is pickle juice it gives a great taste in ur mouth and it cleans out ur wounds so it heals faster cuz theres not alot of pain
My tonsill ectomy was good but on the third day I was crying and was so sore I’m glad go be sharing this with you and I feel much better I hope you guys read it thank you.
Went in to get some stronger meds, ended up an hour late on a dose of meds. BIG mistake. Generally not a pain med taker, but quickly realized the importance here. Now have alarms set every 4 hours for meds including overnight.
Hi, My name is Katie and I’m on day 4 of recovery from a tonsillectomy. On day three, I got ambitios and had some scrambled eggs in the morning because I was so hungry. Also, I had a little bit of mashed potatoes. I was taking regular recommended dosages of liquid hydrocodon 7.5/325 every 4 hours (2-3 teaspoons). At 3pm of day three i began to experience nausea, headache, fever (around 100-101). A couple of hours after I began vomitting. Called my doctor’s emergency line, but he just had his secretary advise me to each ice chips. I couldn’t manage that and as the day went on I couldn’t even think about taking more pain killer even though I was in pain. It would just cause more vomitting. I ended up in the emergency room at midnight where they gave me pain killers that actually worked and anti nausea medice which was a MUST. I went home at 3am and slept like a baby. Woke up early, continued the anti nausea meds and eat pancakes on day four. Started to take only 2 teaspoons of the medicine and further apart. So far I’ve been feeling great. I rinsed my mouth with salt water and some gunk came out. It’s 5pm now. I’m hungry again. Pancakes were a good choice with lots of syrup and butter :). I may have some more.
Day 4: I’m better then i was last night, last night wasn’t the terrible pain everyone is talking about, it was bearable and even so today it’s fine. However, the one thing that is getting worst is the weird tingle in my throat and I can’t tell if I was to cough or swallow, I always swallow because coughing is a big NO and I’m very cautious and don’t want to die from bleeding ? anyway, what is thing tingling feeling? (It feels like my throat is slowly peeling itself)
Hello all,
I am currently recovering on my fourth day post op. To summarize, day 2 was not bad at all pain wise. In fact, i took a little field trip to the zoo with my mom. Day 3, also not terrible however I did get ringing in my ears. We managed to go out to dinner and I ordered soup and cheesecake, both of which went down easily. Today is the morning of day 4. I have been waking up every two hours throughout the night so I can rehydrate and keep my throat moist. For the most part, this has been helping- I have not bled yet! Anyways, this morning I woke up with ringing ears, and a very painful throat accompanied by a burnt flesh flavor In my mouth. THANK goodness for anti nausea medication. I read this increase in pain was normal and had something to do with scabbing. So hopefully this is a blessing in disguise and it will all be over sooner than later! Wish you all the best