Tonsillectomy Recovery Day by Day
Day 5
A collection of various experiences of adult tonsillectomy patients on their fifth 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 5. 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.
Order today. Have it tomorrow from Amazon.
Please feel free to add your own experience with tonsillectomy day 5.
-Greg Tooke My short bio
- Tonsillectomy Day 5 : Can I take the pain killers every two hours?
- Oh God. PAIN. …And why am I constipated??
- So, the pain is a little better today. I took Tylenol at 2:00am and didn’t need it again until 12:00pm – I’d consider that progress! The coughing is still present. I’m trying to avoid it, but it’s harder than you think. There isn’t much to say about today. I’m talking a little more, but don’t want to strain my voice even more, so I’m still writing a lot down. I had soup again today and canned peaches are awesome – even though I had to puree them. All in all, the throat is feeling okay; the ears – still painful.
- Day 5 and so far it has been pretty tolerable
- Day 5: so today i woke up feeling pretty good, my throat was a little tender but once i took the meds the pain was almost gone and i didn’t need to have any ice or Popsicles. i ate some noodles and pesto sauce. drank water and coca-cola and had some ice cream. I ate potato smileys for dinner. they went down pretty well although thier was a little pain but once i drank some pop it went away. The scabs fell off today as well and i didn’t feel it at all just the occasional tickle and i could feel them hanging down but then i looked in the mirror and they were just gone, so i’m assuming that i just swallowed them :s ( kinda gross)
- Day 5 and still not getting better. When does it start getting better?! Im nauseous all the time because I have no food in my stomach but i have to take my pain meds because the pain is incredible! I started out weighing apprx 108lbs and weighed myself today and I weigh 101lbs. I hope I dont lose much more. This is depressing
- Day 5 for me and definitely the worst day yet…woke up so nauseated and was so nervous about throwing up and ripping a scab off..got a hold of my doctor who ordered me some anti Nausea med’s
- Day 5. I’m very thankful that I’ve had a great recovery so far. No major pain other than a sore throat. Today I substituted a dose of the Hydrocodone for a dose of ibuprofen and am doing well. I’ve been eating since the very first day (applesauce, grits, milkshake)
- Day 5 and I had my best night sleep yet last night. Had to stop by Drs office yesterday. My tongue felt swollen and getting a lot of itching with the Roxicet. He said I was doing fine. Still taking Benadryl at night though. I find if I talk I pay for it later on so trying to talk as little as possible. Went to my office for an hour to do payroll but had to leave as I wanted to talk. Still eating good and no stomach issues at all. Hoping to get out of the house tomorrow even just to take a short walk.
- Throat is a little more tender today, and ears hurt when i swallow now. From what i have read/heard it is just the progression of the healing.
- Day 5-7–nothing exciting to tell, tried to eat a few more interesting things, but throat hurt too much since I wasn’t taking pain meds. Soft boiled eggs were my friend. Getting bored being home by myself all day so I went shopping for an hour and had to come home and take a nap!
- day 5 and so far it has been pretty tolerable. First day I had only soft food and lots of coke and water but from day 2 I ate normally. Doctor prescribed Voltaren 100mg suppositories which works like a charm for 8 hours, the 4 hours before the next dose however is excrutiating to say the least.
- Day 5- horrible morning, good during day.
- Recovery Day 5 (post-op day 6):This day was pretty much a blur. More pain and not a lot of food or water. Was in too much agony to do much of anything. Taking the liquid Tylenol and chasing it with a teaspoon of lortab each dose time.
- Tonsillectomy Day 5 : Day 5: I am still trying to just get through the day. I sleep much better at night and have noticed a major difference in how I feel; I have more energy and I feel rested after sleeping. I cried today over mashed potatoes and small curd cottage cheese. I am not a happy camper.
>> Next – Recovery Day 6 >>
Day 5: Necessities; 1 – Humidifier, 2 – Crushed Ice (at all times), 3 – Chloraseptic Lozenges, 4 – REST (nap time). Make sure you are actually taking your pain meds when you’re suppose to because if you don’t then you’re going to be stressed out, and know this, the less pain you have the less stressed you are and the quicker you will heal. Chloraseptic lozenges actually numb your entire mouth, so this is good if you’ve already taken your pain meds and still have a slight pain. Day 5 has been a walk in the park, I woke up feeling like death (which is expected) but once I took my prescribed dose of roxicet and popped a Chloraseptic lozenge I was squared away. I try not to think about what the inside of my mouth looks like because I know if I do I’m going to find something in there to freak out about. I’ve had jello and oatmeal already today (with ease) and I plan on having some sauceless tortellini for a late lunch (which I had for dinner last night).
Day 5! 28/f What a start to day 5! The pain is intense. My heating pad is my best friend today! I finally ate some mashed potatoes last night and I think thats whats causing all my pain today. Would love to be taking pain meds every 2 hour, just trying to get through the other 2 hours I have left! Im still only sleepin 1- 1 1 /2 hrs at a time… starting to get hungry sleepy and just plain sick of being sick! Hope I feel better soon. Im drink what I was told to drink. Wish the swelling in my tongue an jaw would stop hurting!
I am feeling the same exact way…this sucks. I keep having little coughing spells that wake me up as if I am choking then of course turns into coughing…I’ve been having trouble drinking water anything for that matter. I have just prolly should be getting more. What’s the heating pad for? First time I heard about that… I’m Just ready for this pain to be over with!!
Hello I was wondering about the coughing :/ I’ll fall asleep for a few then get this dried feeling in my throat (and it’s not dry) and start coughing. I assume it’s the scabs healing but it rough because its making the pain worse 🙁
The best that can be said for day 5 was that the pain didn’t get appreciably worse. The drugs are definitely making a difference, and they seem to be relieving pain from about 40 mins after I take them to about 4 hours after. I suppose that means that for 3h20 in every 6 hour cycle, the pain is relieved. I tried switching from codeine to dihydrocodeine in the hopes of a better effect. However I found that an hour after the dose I felt nauseous. It passed pretty quickly, but after the second dose the nausea lasted a good 2-3 hours. I’ve always been surprised to read of people suffering nausea from painkillers as it’s never happened to me before, so this was something of a shock. I can’t say whether the dihydrocodeine worked any better than the codeine, but I’m back on codeine for now. The dose is still small (16mg every 6 hours), and if I could go back 2 days I’d have upped it to 38mg (I have 8’s and 30’s, the latter prescribed when I had a peritonsillar abscess and which made not the slightest difference at the time, so I can reliably say that this pain really is not as bad as that was). I guess that’s the best indicator that things are taking a turn for the better (now, on day 6) , that I’m not preoccupied with improving the painkillers. On the other hand, there’s no point in putting myself through unnecessary pain, so I may yet go for the 38mg. Will have to wait and see. Eating and drinking have become a bit of a trial, and despite doing both almost normally until the morning of day 5, it took a real effort to psych myself up for lunch (at 3pm), and then couldn’t face swallowing down dinner at all. So dinner on Day 5 was the first time since the op that I was unable to eat. Whether that’s because the pain was worse or because I had had enough of it, is hard to say. In terms of liquids, I’ve been drinking 3 pints of water a day, which is what the consultant recommended, and more than half of that is merely the collateral damage of having to swallow 20 pills a day. I’ve also had a pint of milky coffee (mainly milk with a couple of shots of espresso) each morning, which helps keep me going but I don’t count as part of my liquid intake because of the diuretic effect of caffeine. Strange observation of the day: despite essentially eating normally, and probably taking in more calories than normal due to my choice of food, I’ve lost 4lbs in just over 4 days. I was expecting to be about level, or at most to have lost a pound, so I was pretty surprised. One more pound (which looks to be guaranteed in the next 10 days) and I’ll be lighter than I’ve been any time in the last 5 years. Night 5 was not too bad. I did wake up in discomfort, so spent the hours of 4am and 6am sitting up in bed reading, but it didn’t seem as awful as the night before. That was a long post, but in summary I think the corner may just about be turning. I hope so anyway…
I thought the last few days were bad! Day 5 and the pain just got 10X worse. I can barely talk or eat. I’ve managed to get down several things in the past few days, poptarts, potato salad, even a soft taco! But today, the thought of any of those things in my throat make me sick! Day 3 I woke up naseous because I had so much blood in my stomach from the surgery. ( I also had a balloon sinuplasty; sinus surgery) so I threw up on day 3 ( AWFUL) but since then I haven’t been naseauated, thank goodness.
I had the same surgery 5 days ago. I could eat some before but today I am nauseous from Nasal drainage. When did your scabs come off? Was it bad?
DAY FIVE – Hell On Earth
I am dying…NOTHING can hurt this bad and NOT be killing me, right?!?! Oh my gawd. I’ve had three children and can honestly say that labor and delivery (even before the epidural) did not hurt this intensely – and recovery was a walk in the park compared to this! I just took a nap – I think that was my mistake. I only slept for four hours (that’s the longest I have slept since the surgery) but my throat feels like someone replaced the flesh with sandpaper. It hurts to BREATH because AIR has to touch my throat!!!!!!!
On Friday I had my tonsils removed, a repeat turbinate reduction, and a balloon sinuplasty (sinus surgery). I spent the night in the hospital because I was vomiting, my pain was not controlled with oral medications (I was on IV morphine in addition to my Lortab elixir – I also had IV promethezine for nausea), there was excess bleeding from the sinus surgery, and my anxiety was off the charts (I have a panic disorder, so I knew that would be an issue – I needed IV Ativan in addition to my oral Xanax several times). I was in pretty bad pain on Friday through Sunday, but I started talking in a {{louder}} whisper on Monday and Tuesday – I even used a “normal” voice a few times. This is WORSE than Friday. They should just schedule patients to come BACK into the hospital on Day Five to go back on IV pain meds.
I have a few questions:
– Is it normal to feel like I have been hit in the jaw by Mike Tyson? My chin hurts all the way around, which I don’t understand. I get that my JAW would hurt on the sides, but I can’t even touch the skin on the front of my chin.
– When will my EARS stop feeling like someone stuck a Q-tip dipped in fire all the way in and when will they stop feeling like they need to POP? I can’t even yawn to try to get them to pop because yawning makes my throat hurt so bad that I start blacking out.
– Has anyone else had these sinus surgeries with a tonsillectomy and, if so, does this add additional recovery time? I WILL say that I have to blow my nose (a lot) because of the sinus surgeries (I am supposed to use Afrin every two hours and that is making my nose drip even worse) and I am not supposed to swallow all that snot (I’ve had to cough it up a few times – I thought I was going to pass out). I know that nose blowing and coughing to bring up phlegm are no-no’s with a tonsillectomy, but I have no choice. Any suggestions?
– When will I be able to TALK again?!?!?!
On top of everything else, my husband is at work and it is a snow day, so my kids are home. I feel like the worst mother in the world because there is NO WAY I can do anything for them…I have to write what I want to say on a white board (thankfully my six year old is a great reader!). My oldest is almost 13, so he is taking care of his 10 yr old and 6 yr old sisters for me – that child is earning some major Mom-points today. They are all wonderful about getting me drinks and translating what I need to say on the phone, but I wish I could take them outside to play in the snow {sad Momma}.
Hello everyone and thank you for sharing your experience. It’s incredible help to vent and relate to people in exact situation. Today is my day 5 post op. and I feel very discouraged because it is absolutely the worst day pain wise. I drink a lot, but that’s about it. Can’t eat anything, even Jello seems to firm and causes pain to slide it down my throat. I am on pain medication- narcotics. And I read a lot about people taking antibiotics. I wasn’t prescribed any antibiotics. Should I ask my doctor for it? Would it speed up my recovery?
Ellie, the antibiotics won’t speed up your recovery I don’t think, more to prevent an infection. My doc prescribed them to me. Day 5 was bad for me too….hang in there and eat what you can. Have you tried things like mashed potatoes, thick soup, or applesauce? They worked well for me in the early days post op. Also, frozen banana slices felt good going down. I keep the ice packs on my neck before and after eating which helped a ton with the pain. Hang in there….hope you start feeling better soon!
Sylvia, thank you so much for responding. Thanks for the info on antibiotics. I iced my throat before trying to eat, andI did eat chicken noodle soup today, it tasted like the best thingI’ve ever had, and I had to take meds right after I ate to calm down the soreness. Thanks for the tip!!!
You’re sure welcome Ellie, and hope you have smooth sailing from here! I’m on day 12 and feel almost normal now. Just taking the occasional Tylenol, and it hurts a bit when swallowing still, but I’m mostly back to eating my normal diet now. You’ll get there! 🙂
Hi I am also on day 5 the pain is unbearable, I was better on day 1 and 2 . yesterday, day 4 I had to go to my gp to ask for stronger painkillers, he refused to give me any saying the one I have codeine 30mg and soluble paracetamol are enough he gave antibiotics though saying that it might be infected. So I hope you go see your gp and ask for antibiotic, I hope this pain goes away right now I can’t sleep because of pain and I decided to take ibuprofen I don’t know why coz a lot of articles and columns are saying it causing bleeding. I just want the pain to go.