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 was absolutely terrible. I couldn’t physically eat anything and tried to drink but maybe got a total of 10 oz down in the whole day. I was in a lot of pain. My ears,head,stomach, throat obviously. I tried to take some of my regular anti anxiety capsules and I threw them up along with 8oz of water. I hadn’t eaten a solid or liquid meal in almost 24 hours. I was really craving real food and started a list of things i want to eat once i could eat again. I took a warm bath in the evening and OH MY GOD it was so nice. I wanted to stay in it for hours. I definitely did not have enough to drink and not eating anything day 4 is a mistake, i felt extremely faint through the night.
I think I’m starting to get sick of being in bed all day. I didn’t sleep much last night. Woke up at 3 am to take my children’s Advil and was in probably the worst pain so far; still manageable, but not great. Currently trying to eat a bowl of oatmeal, I’m just nervous the pats are going to get stuck in my sores. Also, I can’t stop yawning, and it’s awful, I think my body hates me. I feel like my ears are starting to hurt which is a little nerve racking. I took a tramadol so hopefully the pain will start to diminish.
Day 4 Post op | 23 years old female. I woke up with a tolerable pain and started to feel that earache everyone was talking about but I managed to drive for three hours with no problems.
Brufen 600mgs twice a day does the trick for me. I haven’t eaten anything solid only ice cream, sorbet, apple juice and custard. Also, drink plenty of water and don’t be afraid to cough. I was so scared when i read people talking about coughing and how painful it is but trust me you’ll be relieved. Sneezing was a nightmare though. My ears popped when i sneezed and the pain started crippling in the back of my tongue but it was time for my second dose of medicine anyeay.
I have no problem sleeping (since day 1) I sleep like a baby and breathe so easily through my nose.
Don’t skip your meds (i hate taking them) but theyve helped me sleep.
Day 4 has been the worst day for me yet. I woke up with the worst pain I can barley swallow anything and I want to throw up so bad but I’m scared to do that as well. I can barely talk and the only day I don’t want to eat I’m depressed and miserable
Day 4 was bad but honestly it will be worth it when you’re out the other side. I had my tonsils out the end of february this year at the time i thought ‘what have i done?!’ But now it was worth it. Keep sipping fluids as often as possible and as painful as it is try to eat toast. You need to eat for it to recover and to reduce risk of a bleed. So as little and often as possible. Get the pain killers down you so you can eat. Rest and be kind to yourself. You can do this and it will get better!
Currently on day 4 and it has easily been my best day yet. I had a lovely 11 hour sleep and woke up to little pain at all. I then ate three hot cross buns as breakfast (which seems a lot but when you haven’t eaten for three days, you tend to take what you can get), my whole day went by so easy. I managed to have a shower, do some coursework, and eat other snacks such as a packet of crisps and some toast, I’ve even transferred from water to Coke Zero. It’s only now as I sit down for dinner that I can feel the pain creep in 🙁 ah well, hoping tomorrow goes on similarly to today.
Age16 female
Day 4 was absolutely terrible. I couldn’t physically eat anything and tried to drink but maybe got a total of 10 oz down in the whole day. I was in a lot of pain. My ears,head,stomach, throat obviously. I tried to take some of my regular anti anxiety capsules and I threw them up along with 8oz of water. I hadn’t eaten a solid or liquid meal in almost 24 hours. I was really craving real food and started a list of things i want to eat once i could eat again. I took a warm bath in the evening and OH MY GOD it was so nice. I wanted to stay in it for hours. I definitely did not have enough to drink and not eating anything day 4 is a mistake, i felt extremely faint through the night.
Day 4, post op ||
18 year old female
I think I’m starting to get sick of being in bed all day. I didn’t sleep much last night. Woke up at 3 am to take my children’s Advil and was in probably the worst pain so far; still manageable, but not great. Currently trying to eat a bowl of oatmeal, I’m just nervous the pats are going to get stuck in my sores. Also, I can’t stop yawning, and it’s awful, I think my body hates me. I feel like my ears are starting to hurt which is a little nerve racking. I took a tramadol so hopefully the pain will start to diminish.
Overall pain wise, today is the worst day so far
Day 4 Post op | 23 years old female. I woke up with a tolerable pain and started to feel that earache everyone was talking about but I managed to drive for three hours with no problems.
Brufen 600mgs twice a day does the trick for me. I haven’t eaten anything solid only ice cream, sorbet, apple juice and custard. Also, drink plenty of water and don’t be afraid to cough. I was so scared when i read people talking about coughing and how painful it is but trust me you’ll be relieved. Sneezing was a nightmare though. My ears popped when i sneezed and the pain started crippling in the back of my tongue but it was time for my second dose of medicine anyeay.
I have no problem sleeping (since day 1) I sleep like a baby and breathe so easily through my nose.
Don’t skip your meds (i hate taking them) but theyve helped me sleep.
Day 4 has been the worst day for me yet. I woke up with the worst pain I can barley swallow anything and I want to throw up so bad but I’m scared to do that as well. I can barely talk and the only day I don’t want to eat I’m depressed and miserable
Day 4 was bad but honestly it will be worth it when you’re out the other side. I had my tonsils out the end of february this year at the time i thought ‘what have i done?!’ But now it was worth it. Keep sipping fluids as often as possible and as painful as it is try to eat toast. You need to eat for it to recover and to reduce risk of a bleed. So as little and often as possible. Get the pain killers down you so you can eat. Rest and be kind to yourself. You can do this and it will get better!
Currently on day 4 and it has easily been my best day yet. I had a lovely 11 hour sleep and woke up to little pain at all. I then ate three hot cross buns as breakfast (which seems a lot but when you haven’t eaten for three days, you tend to take what you can get), my whole day went by so easy. I managed to have a shower, do some coursework, and eat other snacks such as a packet of crisps and some toast, I’ve even transferred from water to Coke Zero. It’s only now as I sit down for dinner that I can feel the pain creep in 🙁 ah well, hoping tomorrow goes on similarly to today.