Tonsillectomy Recovery Day by Day
Day 8
A collection of various experiences of adult tonsillectomy patients on their eighth day of recovery
Check out our new tonsillectomy recovery video- Caution: Not always pretty
Please feel free to add your own experience with tonsillectomy day 8.
-Greg Tooke My short bio
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : Crying. Just… Crying
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : So I woke up this morning with a dry throat. I wasn’t able to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time without coughing. Even while drinking water, my throat has been so dry, it’s like it just isn’t staying moist. I got so fed up, I asked my mom to go buy me a humidifier today. I know I’m a little late, I should have had it from the beginning, but I guess I thought I really didn’t need it. My post-op appointment is in 1 week and I really can’t wait. I definitely have a few questions to ask him! So, I finally got the nerve up to look into my throat, and even though it was a little hard to see, I do see a lot of gray areas. I thought I lost more scabs than I see in my throat, so I was wondering whether or not all of the gray areas are scabs, or if some of it is not scabs. I was told that it is all scabs, so I guess the scabs are going to take longer to fall off than I thought. So, I thought I was doing really well today and then all of a sudden my throat started squeezing really tightly when I swallowed. I slept for about an hour and woke up and it was gone. After talking to my dad who has dealt with panic attacks his whole life, he confirmed that he has had the same thing before and it is in fact mini panic attacks. Great, panic attacks – that’s all I need! I had one in the afternoon and then another one at night. The best way for me to deal with it is to sleep through it.
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : day 8..I thought someone had tried to bite off the back of my tongue and tried to scrape the white spots off with a nail filer…Also my feet were swelling, and I began to have a migraine and vomit, I was afraid i was going to rip my stitches..they had become so big me and my bf had named them “shrek ” feet
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : day 8 today and I felt terrible when I woke up! The pain was like a bruised/burning pain. I also feel like I have hay fever(which I don’t). However it’s now lunchtime and I feel considerably better. It feels like day 7 which I can cope with. Hoping day 10 will be the major turnaround day. I swear this feels like the longest recovery!
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : Day 8. 33 yrs old. Thanks for the info on the swollen tongue and the marks on it from my teeth. That makes total sense!! My throat feels much better, but the difficulty in eating seems to be coming from the underside of my tongue and my jaw. I will continue to take it easy in hopes that everything will continue to heal up. Im down 12 pounds. Its going to be hard not to put all of the weight back on. I’m starving!! lol
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : Days 8 – today – Pain has slowly begun to decrease, however, it’s remained at about a 3/4 for the last two days. However, my body has slowly begun to feel better. I feel like a human again. That’s a refreshing feeling.
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : Days 8-10–able to eat a little bit more everyday, but it was different every day. Pudding and mac & cheese were good one day, bad the next. Chicken noodle soup was also good, couldn’t eat anymore jello 😛 Throat still sore, still doing the Advil/Tylenol rotation. Waiting for scabs to fall off, but throat still all white.
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : Day 8, Ok I am feeling much better. Last night was rough. I had taken my pain meds around 11:30 PM , and around 12:15 my earache was unbearable. I had a problem eating yesterday. I just wanted to eat a Popsicle. I got down on my knees and prayed to God to let the pain go away so i could eat. A few minutes later, the pain in my ears subsided (Thanks God!). I ate 2 Popsicles.
Tonsillectomy Day 8 :Day 8- while I felt really crappy all day long I stayed home all day & rested and this evening I feel just a lil better.
Tonsillectomy Day 8 : Recovery Day 8 (post-op day 9):
Had another relapse of pain today on my right side and into my right ear. At this point I am just so exhausted from lack of sleep and lack of proper food. I had my post-op appointment with my surgeon today. He said i still have a ways to go but it is beginning to heal. He said my tonsils were extremely large and that the tonsil beds (where the tonsils were) that are now left behind are so massive that it will take extra time to heal since there is so much damaged tissue back there from the cauterization. I was able to eat some of a baked potato today with cheese and bacon.
Today is day 8 for me. It started really well, as for the first time I was able to eat something. Until now all I could manage was coconut water (which I am now so sick of- the mere smell makes me nauseous) and crushed ice. I tried some broth the other day (no luck) and even dairy-free ice cream was a no-go. I’m sticking to the no dairy thing– on day one I made the mistake of trying a protein drink which contained milk:the mucus build up was unbearable .
Today though I was feeling positive as I managed some lukewarm creamy rice cereal with coconut milk. Encouraged, I tried broth again at lunch time and it felt like swallowing a bag of razors.
By this evening an unbearable pain had spread to my right ear. Absolute agony. And this morning I thought I had passed the worst.
Wrong.
Also a first today was I had hiccups. Not. Fun.
Day 8 and finally things have taken a turn for the better. Days 1-3 were pretty much fine, things turned very quickly bad on day 4, and then proceeded to get worse through to this morning, the morning of Day 8, when I woke up with daggers in my throat. I experimented with dropping the painkiller dose during day 8, and by evening I was bold enough to go to bed on half the dose I’d been using for the last few nights. It actually worked, and whilst night 8 wasn’t perfect, it was way better than any of the preceeding 4 nights. Weight loss continues, and after 8 full days I’m 8lbs lighter. The only frustration is that wherever it’s going from, it’s not anywhere I can see. I’m in reasonable shape to start with, so I’d expect 8lbs of weight loss to have a fairly dramatic effect on my face and stomach. So I wonder how much of the weight loss is just fluid loss. I’m drinking nearly 2 litres a day, and keeping the air humidified, so I’m stumped! But in summary, the good news is that Day 8 really seemed to be a turning point.
Hey all… I’m 23 and had a tonsillectomy last tues so I’m on my 8th day now… The first few days were absolutely awful I honestly wondered if i was ever going to feel normal again. I spent 2 hours I’n recovery room after my op as was feeling really sick and dizzy, I then went upto my room and pretty much slept all day, the first 5 nights I barely got any sleep, was waking every 1-2 hours in pain… My ear pain and jaw/tooth ache was chronic it started from day 3 and has now gone, I used a hot water bottle(what a saint) I struggled reali bad to swallow so the first 2 days I didn’t drink as much as I should of, but ever since then I was drinking non stop would always makesure I had a mug in my hand, I had warm boiled water every time which was so soothing a lot nicer than the ice cold I found .. I managed jelly and ice cream for the first few days then on about day 4 had mash potato with gravy then from then onwards iv been having the same but putting mashed up carrots with it too, also a pear sliced up into very thin strips is nice and tinned peaches… Iv been having weetabix since about day 5 I just found with any food to keep a cup of water next to you to take a sip after each mouthful, it helped it go down a lot!! Last night I slept for about 7 hours and when I woke up I actually felt ok, it just feels like iv got a sore throat now n that’s it.. Id recommend staying in bed for the first 4 days and getting as much sleep and rest as you can with plenty of water, n then just take it easy lounging round the house for the rest of the week!! Hope this helps and good luck it will all be over soon!! Ps I used a de-humidifier as there meant to be amazing and help to stop your throat from drying up
Please, answer my questions if you have insight! At 12:00 pm this afternoon, I will “celebrate a compete week” into my tonsillectomy. Yesterday was insanely painful and throughout the night, I took percocet every 3 hours during the night and couldn’t get the ear pain and burning to subside in my throat. A small piece of scab broke loose, but there is still plenty in tact. Will this happen each time a scab comes loose?
Also, my jaw clicks and feels as though it’s out of place when I chew…it’s painful and awkward…is this normal?
Finally, with the ear pain at it’s peak and ready for a new round of percocet in 30 minutes, I decided to forego the warning that ibuprofen causes bleeding and took one tablet 200 mg and within a 1/2 hour my ear pain subsided and I was able to eat some cream of wheat, drink water, and go to sleep for an entire hour with a cepacol to keep my throat moist. So I haven’t :touched the percocet since 4:00 am, but am wondering if I should take another dose in between ibuprofen, which I took at 7:30?
I appreaciate these posts as they keep me distracted and normalize my pain. Thanks for you feeback!
I’m on day 12 and still have pain when swollowing and i am still unable to speak for more than a few minintes at a time. Day 7- 10 were the worst for me in terms of pain- a lot of burning and sharp pains. I think that happens when the scabs come off since the skin is so sesative underneath. My scabs are coming off slowly, but at still mostly intact after 12 days! I didn’t not take pain medicine at all during this recovery, just tynenoyl,so not sure when you should take them etc….
Hope you are feeling better soon! Another week and you will feel much better!
Oh and I remember him saying you may have head, neck, jaw pain as it is referred pain due, so think that’s normal although I did not have that.
Props to you because I would of never made it through the last 8 days without pain meds!
Post Op Day Eight:
Holy Cow – Stacie Has A VOICE Again!
Well, it’s official…I CAN talk again. I’m not sure if the kids and husband are happy about that or not, but it sure is nice to be able to communicate without that annoying whisper or scrawling on my white board! So…that is the GOOD news for Day Eight. Now, on to “the rest of the story”…
Ow Ow Ow Ow. OOOWWWW!!
Pain Scale Today:
7/8 at the worst when I wake up and my throat is DRY &
3/4 when the pain med is peaked and my throat nice and wet
Pain Issues:
Throat, ears, & sinuses/headache-y
Other Issues:
Extreme Nausea & ANXIETY (I have a panic disorder, so I get anxious when I am in pain)
My Lortab elixir is just about gone – I’ve been trying to make it last as long as possible by taking the smallest dose that I feel will take the edge off the pain, but there are only two to three doses left. I am supposed to take 15ml every four hours, but I have been cutting it down over the past few days – first to 10ml and now 5ml every four – six hours. I take Vicodin 7.5/750 tablets three times a day normally for my severe fibromyalgia. The doctor gave me extra Lortab elixir so my fibromyalgia pain would be covered along with the surgical pain during my tonsillectomy recovery time (Vicodin and Lortab are just different brand names for the same drug – hydrocodone plus acetaminophen). He didn’t want me taking my Vicodin with the elixir because a) it is easy to take too much Tylenol/Acetaminophen (which is in the Lortab/Vicodin – they are the same drug) in a day – there is a 3 gram limit per day to protect the liver and b) he knew I would not be able to swallow the huge Vicodin tablets. Well, I took a half a tablet of Vicodin twice today to supplement the Lortab elixir, but it does not work as quickly as the elixir and was VERY hard to swallow. I tried crushing it, too, but it tastes SO BAD no matter WHAT you mix it in AND I don’t think it makes it work any faster. I can’t take ibuprofen yet – the doctor didn’t want me to take anything that can cause bleeding until my first follow up appointment, which I have in six hours…I should probably try to go to bed between now and then, but I fear sleep because I always feel the worst when I wake up. This follow up is for my balloon sinuplasty and turbinate reduction (sinus surgeries) – I need to find out if I am still supposed to be having so many sinus headaches and so much mucus drainage in my throat from those procedures. The tonsillectomy follow up is not for a while (I think it is a full two weeks from the surgery which would be Friday) – is it normal for the tonsillectomy follow up to be so long after the surgery?
Food…oh how I long to eat…
I am still living on Special K Breakfast/Protein Drinks – at 180 calories for a 10 ounce bottle, I don’t feel bad about drinking three or four a day (but I know they’re expensive…I haven’t asked my husband how much they are and I don’t WANT to know). Warm broth (through a straw of course lol!), sugar free Jello with Cool Whip, and orange sherbet push-pops make up the only sustenance I am getting right now. I tried to eat a few soft, cooked veggies in my broth today (carrots and baby butter potatoes), but it really hurt AND food seems to get stuck in the opening where the tonsils used to be. Is it going to be like that forever?? It’s like there is a little shelf there and food just sits in it. Gross.
The wet scabs are still looking good – they have started to dissolve a bit, but are mostly intact. The nurses on the surgical ward told me the longer the scabs stay put, the better chance the new skin has to get established.
That’s Day Eight for me. Tomorrow will be the first time I have left the house since I left the hospital and I will also start driving the kids to and from school this week. It is bitterly cold here in Iowa right now with a ton of snow on the ground and I feel completely zapped of energy all the time, so I am NOT excited about leaving my warm, comfy house (not to mention having to actually GET DRESSED, put in my contacts, and make myself look halfway presentable after living in my pajamas for over a week).
Wishing the best to you all!!
~PEACE & BLESSINGS~