A collection of various experiences of adult tonsillectomy patients on their sixth day of recovery
From thousands of post comments to the forum I have assembled a sampling of various accounts and impressions of tonsillectomy recovery for each day. Below I share comments about tonsillectomy day 6. 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.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 Scabs bleeding! : I can only eat popsicles. That is all.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : At 5:30am, I started to panic because I coughed a lot and when I spit up some saliva in a tissue (which I have a habit of doing to see if there is any blood); I saw a slight hue of red. RED=BLOOD! So, of course I got nervous. After drinking some water, I tasted some blood but I didn’t see anymore and I was able to swallow with a bit more ease. It wasn’t the full scab that came off, but a piece of the scab on the right side. When I woke up, I drank water and felt a burst of pain in my ear and stinging in my throat for a couple minutes. When I brushed my teeth this morning, there was a little more blood when I spit into the sink, so I’m assuming I lost a little more of the scab. I’ve been sucking on ice chips the past few days and it really feels nice on my throat. I ate applesauce and soup today with a little ease. I’ve notice my ears get worse when I eat. I was craving pizza tonight and it was sitting on the counter (my family had it for dinner), so, I decided to be a champ and try it. I was able to eat all of the toppings off of a slice of pizza minus the spicy pepperoni. Let me tell you, it was a blessing! I tried gargling with cold water and even though I refuse to look at my throat, I can tell that it feel fresher and cleaner. Good news – I was able to swallow the amoxicillin today; it feels awesome because if I had to eat another cup of jell-o and medication, I’d die! Fifth day post-op and I actually stepped foot out of my house today. Since we have a huge snow storm, I had to make sure I was fully covered. Nevertheless, even though I only sat in the car, it felt good – it was progress! I was told that taking a warm shower before bed will help moisten my throat and potentially prevent coughing at night, so I tried it.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 scabs Healing
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Day 6 and the pain is just about the same as yesterday, but that relentless ache is exhausting. I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (and it’s not a train) but when I am tired and weak and freaking out because my Mom went home and my husband decided to sleep in this morning leaving me to take care of my nearly 7 year old son…. Well, I got a little teary.
My husband took a gander at my throat today and declared it “gross, but healing.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Day 6 = Ouch
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : day 6 here and I have to say, it definitely has been the hardest two days so far. I am spent and am sick of not eating the way i want to. I have been sticking to cold drinks and liquid meals. Spoke with my PA today and she said to do my best to keep the scabs on for a minimum 10days by drinking tons of liquids. The longer they stay on, the better the new skin underneath will be…so I am doing all I can to keep these puppies attached. I have given up on eating anything warm or slightly solid,I just want this over with!!
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Yeah, so I slept for about 12 hours. But now I think sleeping that long was the worst idea ever! My hot pot ran out of water and I wasn’t sipping on water for those 12 hours. I just drank a smoothie mix every 4 hours to take my meds. I woke up with about 8/10 pain, tried to get up and passed out in the hallway. Oh Joy! My ears are killing me!
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Side note, i have lost like 12 lbs. Probably not healthily as all i have consumed it water, gatorade, jello and apple sauce. Those products are not known for their nutritional content. I have made two healthy juice drinks using my juicer, but don’t think that compensates for the lack of nutrients for the last week.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : The pain is rather terrible today, it was much worse last night.
At about 3am i woke up with pain, it was as if someone was stabbing my throat with a needle or pin
and i woke up this morning with blood in my mouth. Not a lot but it still scared me! I rinsed my mouth with ice water and sucked a piece of ice and it stopped.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Day 6- good morning, post op app’t- stints in nose removed, I can BREATHE again 🙂 went shopping at the mall for a few hours after- got home exhausted & later in pain ;(
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Recovery Day 6 (post-op day 7):
Another day filled with pain. Was able to drink an ensure today but did not eat much. Was able to eat some popsicles. During the evening time had horrible pain shooting from the right side of my throat and it felt like a burning feeling when I would drink anything almost as if I was drinking acid even when I drank water. Had to take a bit more Lortab to curve the pain. Looked at my throat with a flashlight for the first time since the surgery and it looked like a battle zone in there. Lots of white coating all over the tonsil beds and my uvula is still swollen very large and kind of sticking to one of the sides of my throat. Could see the white scabs as well.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 : Day 6: I cried over applesauce and pudding. It hurts to swallow, I can’t yawn and just try to blow your nose without wanting to fall over and die. This pain is ridiculous. I woke up in the middle of the night with a dry throat and more pain than I could imagine so I dragged myself downstairs and forced down some pain meds to help me take the pain.
Tonsillectomy Day 6 :day 6 of my recovery and in the worst pain ever. I thought I was on the mend, only having pain on the one side but then I started to cough, and it kept me up all of last night and all of that white membrane over the surgery site is starting to come off as well as some of the scabs… is that normal? I am very scared that with my coughing it’s going to cause issues that will result in another surgery.
Hi. Im 17 and i just had my tonsils taken out monday. I know its only been 5 days. But some of you were saying how your 5th and 6th day have been the worse.. my 5th day has been the easiest. Not much i can swallow. Finally drink and eat a little bit. I had to stop taking my medication though because all tylenol 3 did to me was make me sick, dizzy and. Tired. I only take them when i really need them. And lately i havent taken them. Since tuesday night i believe. I find aleeve gets rid of the pain better. I had hot dogs yesterday. I BBC was nice. Sine iv lost 7 pounds in 5 days.
Greetings! I’ve been following your website for a while
now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a
shout out from New Caney Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the excellent job!
I’m in day six, much better than yesterday. The first day wasn’t so bad because of the anesthesia and meds. I threw up the first three days and couldn’t stand the taste or smell of lortab , did not get more than 1 to 2 hours sleep every night until yesterday when my husband suggested I take some zquil. It worked!!! I finally had a full night sleep.
I also was trying to talk from day one, is not worth it, when people say you will pay the price they are not lying!!! I stop talking completely now and making my family work to understand me is a lot more fun and I believe is what is helping me feel better. Good luck to everyone. 😉
Hi folks,
I am so thankful to have found this site. Thank you Greg for starting it and to all those who are sharing their experiences. I am going into Day 6 of a tonsillectomy and UVPPP and it is very supportive and validating to come here and find that ‘I am not losing my mind afterall.’ To see that others are having similar levels of intense misery is somewhat comforting because I NEVER would have estimated that recovery could be this challenging, despite my ENT surgeon’s promise that “You WILL be swallowing crushed razor blades for at least 10 days.” I have experienced the pain of partial airway obstruction and a perforated ear drum while flying due to severe tonsillitis so surely it could not be any worse than that! Sadly, and I hate to say it..but it truly is the worst pain I have ever experienced…and so unrelenting. The throat pain I was prepared for..sort of…the ear pain..prepared for…sort of…but the tongue cramping / spasm was a complete surprise and thought my entire lower jaw would rip apart during the 15 minutes or so of spasm that occured on Day 3 and Day 4 in the early morning. It seemed to be either precipitated by, or aggravated by, the fact that I had slept for a couple of hours and the mucosa of my mouth and palate had become extremely dry. It took nearly 90 minutes of gently sipping to work through the searing pain of separation of the tissues but I resolved to never allow myself to sleep that long again and so far, it has not reoccurred.
For pain management, I am on an elixir of acetaminophen 650mg plus codeine 90 mg every four hours. After Day 3, at night, I could not go to four hours without relapsing into pure pain and misery in my throat and ears so I opted to take it every three hours for a couple of nights and that seemed to keep things manageable with respect to pain and being able to sip fluids. Since the surgeon recommended a blended, soft diet for 2 weeks I am being cautious with respect to food intake. Blended unsalted homemade soup is manageable; the ready made soup from the grocery store was too salty and seemed rather like a caustic compound on my incisions and sutures! NORMAL SALINE 0.9% has been the BIGGEST BLESSING for sipping and fluid comfort, It does not irritate whatsoever..and passes like silk over the tissues in comparison to other recommended fluids. I was finding that water, dilute tea and juices were destroying what little saliva I had and the dry mouth and throat was aggravating the swallowing even more.
This evening marks the end of Day 5 for me…and after a 2 hour nap this afternoon, which resulted in me missing my next dose of codeine by an hour and the subsequent return of ear pain, I am feeling somewhat less miserable. I sipped away about 3/4 cup of blended soup and maybe 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream with a large chaser of the Saline Special…cold saline with saline ice cubes! My wife has noted that the largest and most visible scab over the uvula area and central palate has now started to drop off and is just hanging benignly there. ICK! Maybe the night gremlins will carry it off! Tomorrow is a new day and I am hoping for great things.
Overall I am totally flabergasted that post-operative pain management can be this challenging in the 21st century! Or is it that those who develop pain management protocols and research have become complacent or lack awareness of how serious this issue can be for some patients. It is well recognized in other medical areas that good pain management promotes faster healing; does the ENT specialty share this philosophy?
Comforting thoughts to all of you who are ‘enduring’ tonight!
Well yesterday was a horror, today was 10x better. I ate jello and some greasy chicken. I noticed my scabs are receding from top to bottom (which is the opposite I thought they would go). As long as tommorow is the same or better I will be weening myself off of my pain meds.
Hi. Im 17 and i just had my tonsils taken out monday. I know its only been 5 days. But some of you were saying how your 5th and 6th day have been the worse.. my 5th day has been the easiest. Not much i can swallow. Finally drink and eat a little bit. I had to stop taking my medication though because all tylenol 3 did to me was make me sick, dizzy and. Tired. I only take them when i really need them. And lately i havent taken them. Since tuesday night i believe. I find aleeve gets rid of the pain better. I had hot dogs yesterday. I BBC was nice. Sine iv lost 7 pounds in 5 days.
Hi Zandalee- sorry I didn’t see your post sooner. How have things gone since you wrote this? Hope you are well. Take care.
Greetings! I’ve been following your website for a while
now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a
shout out from New Caney Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the excellent job!
I’m in day six, much better than yesterday. The first day wasn’t so bad because of the anesthesia and meds. I threw up the first three days and couldn’t stand the taste or smell of lortab , did not get more than 1 to 2 hours sleep every night until yesterday when my husband suggested I take some zquil. It worked!!! I finally had a full night sleep.
I also was trying to talk from day one, is not worth it, when people say you will pay the price they are not lying!!! I stop talking completely now and making my family work to understand me is a lot more fun and I believe is what is helping me feel better. Good luck to everyone. 😉
Hi folks,
I am so thankful to have found this site. Thank you Greg for starting it and to all those who are sharing their experiences. I am going into Day 6 of a tonsillectomy and UVPPP and it is very supportive and validating to come here and find that ‘I am not losing my mind afterall.’ To see that others are having similar levels of intense misery is somewhat comforting because I NEVER would have estimated that recovery could be this challenging, despite my ENT surgeon’s promise that “You WILL be swallowing crushed razor blades for at least 10 days.” I have experienced the pain of partial airway obstruction and a perforated ear drum while flying due to severe tonsillitis so surely it could not be any worse than that! Sadly, and I hate to say it..but it truly is the worst pain I have ever experienced…and so unrelenting. The throat pain I was prepared for..sort of…the ear pain..prepared for…sort of…but the tongue cramping / spasm was a complete surprise and thought my entire lower jaw would rip apart during the 15 minutes or so of spasm that occured on Day 3 and Day 4 in the early morning. It seemed to be either precipitated by, or aggravated by, the fact that I had slept for a couple of hours and the mucosa of my mouth and palate had become extremely dry. It took nearly 90 minutes of gently sipping to work through the searing pain of separation of the tissues but I resolved to never allow myself to sleep that long again and so far, it has not reoccurred.
For pain management, I am on an elixir of acetaminophen 650mg plus codeine 90 mg every four hours. After Day 3, at night, I could not go to four hours without relapsing into pure pain and misery in my throat and ears so I opted to take it every three hours for a couple of nights and that seemed to keep things manageable with respect to pain and being able to sip fluids. Since the surgeon recommended a blended, soft diet for 2 weeks I am being cautious with respect to food intake. Blended unsalted homemade soup is manageable; the ready made soup from the grocery store was too salty and seemed rather like a caustic compound on my incisions and sutures! NORMAL SALINE 0.9% has been the BIGGEST BLESSING for sipping and fluid comfort, It does not irritate whatsoever..and passes like silk over the tissues in comparison to other recommended fluids. I was finding that water, dilute tea and juices were destroying what little saliva I had and the dry mouth and throat was aggravating the swallowing even more.
This evening marks the end of Day 5 for me…and after a 2 hour nap this afternoon, which resulted in me missing my next dose of codeine by an hour and the subsequent return of ear pain, I am feeling somewhat less miserable. I sipped away about 3/4 cup of blended soup and maybe 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream with a large chaser of the Saline Special…cold saline with saline ice cubes! My wife has noted that the largest and most visible scab over the uvula area and central palate has now started to drop off and is just hanging benignly there. ICK! Maybe the night gremlins will carry it off! Tomorrow is a new day and I am hoping for great things.
Overall I am totally flabergasted that post-operative pain management can be this challenging in the 21st century! Or is it that those who develop pain management protocols and research have become complacent or lack awareness of how serious this issue can be for some patients. It is well recognized in other medical areas that good pain management promotes faster healing; does the ENT specialty share this philosophy?
Comforting thoughts to all of you who are ‘enduring’ tonight!
Well yesterday was a horror, today was 10x better. I ate jello and some greasy chicken. I noticed my scabs are receding from top to bottom (which is the opposite I thought they would go). As long as tommorow is the same or better I will be weening myself off of my pain meds.