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.
Never again, NEVER AGAIN! Just when I thought there is no possible way the pain could be worse than the day prior? Yea, I was way wrong. Day 7 overnight into
Day 8, was the motherload of awfulness (which is hard to do considering Day 6-7 were a close 2nd place. I miss Day 2, take me back to Day 2!!!!). It is impossible to even drink room temperature water. Warm, Cold, flavored, unflavored–>EVERYTHING feels like shards of fiery glass dipped in acid. I woke up every hour with horrible intense pain and then would spend a half hour trying to manage to get down a few gulps of water in between spasms of agony. I resorted to PRAYING for pain control because at this point the multiple pain meds I am on are doing little to nothing. Praying! I’m not even religious! And yes, I’m currently up on one of these adventures trying to drink water even tho it’s agonizing enough to even swallow my own spit. So I’m literally drooling over a sink waiting for death in between the world’s tiniest sips of water. I would love for you to come shoot me in the face please. If I wasn’t so dehydrated I’d probably be crying. Oh and PS–did I mention those fiery shards of acid-dipped glass travel down the back of my throat and out of my ears??? Every adult patient should read this before undergoing this surgery–because it’s an UNDERESTIMATION of the pain. Oh and not only are there super awesome fun times with pain, but you get to be STARVING but unable to eat and constipated from all the pain meds that aren’t even working. I want my tonsils back and a large glass of wine.
Oh I feel your pain love I’m currently on day 8 post op .. And I’m in so much pain I’m 19 and been suffering with tonsillitis all my life but never new the surgery was going to be this bad .. I haven’t slept properly in a week .. Wish some1 could shoot me in the face to .. Would probelly be less painful than this ..I’m starving and soo thirsty and morning are the the worst ..I hate going to sleep nw as I’m scared of morning pain .. :'( when will this be over!! Anyway I wish you luck
Day 8: tonsillectomy/tubes.
I woke up today with very mild pain and a dry throat but after some water and mild pain killers I feel normal. I can eat solid foods and it doesn’t hurt to talk in the least. I get a little bit of pain when I yawn but its tolerable. I still make sure to stay hydrated because I still have deep sockets and a little scabbing, but I’m looking forward to getting back to my normal life. I think that I am one of the lucky ones.
First off I’d like to thank Greg for this site. It really has been a godsend.
I’m on my 8th day of recovery and it’s 5:00 AM. Woke up with serious throat pain and searing pain in my ears. I quit taking the Roxicet (Percoset and Tylenol) two days ago because it was really upsetting my empty stomach making it even harder to eat. So, I just took a half dose anyway because the pain was unbearable.
I believe my throat is healing and the scabs (white stuff) are sloughing off causing some raw areas and making my throat burn, at least I hope that’s the case. I wouldn’t know any of this without this site, BTW. I find that putting a damp towel in the microwave for 1+ minutes and pressing over and around my ears does wonders for that pain.
This has been the most hellish experience of my life. I would not recommend this surgery to anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. For me, it was necessary. I had trouble swallowing from my enlarged tonsils. I also have developed psoriasis that my dermatologist thinks is connected to my throat infections.
I still cannot eat any solid food. Everything seems to get stuck in my throat and O sound like a cat hacking up a fur ball, lol. I feel like I’m constantly starving and live for the day that I can eat a decent meal.
I don’t know that my doctor quite prepared me enough for the recovery. And nobody seems to get it that hasn’t been through it. There might be something to eating and drinking more for a faster recovery but I just found it impossible because of the pain, even though I was taking the max dose of medicine around the clock.
I wish you all the best of luck and a speedy recovery.
Hi Robin- Glad the site has helped you. Hang in there. Things will get better soon!
Day 8 for me today. Last night I was completely miserable, everything hurt. I felt like I was gunna puke, my acid reflux was kicking in, my ear canals hurt, my throat hurt just to breath through it, my tongue was sore, I had canker sores developing all over my mouth, massive headache, and my sinuses were also in pain. I was almost dead set on the idea that I’d be miserable this morning. Every morning thus far had been worse and worse every day, and they were always worse than the previous night.
But by some miracle, something amazing happened, I woke up this morning in fairly normal amounts of pain. My throat still hurt, but that’s about it. Other than that, I’m feeling pretty great today. I’m still on my percocet and ibuprofen combo, but I’ll probably try going without it tomorrow or the next day if I’m starting to feel much better. I was actually able to eat mac and cheese today, albeit it took me 45 minutes to eat a small easy mac cup, but at least I was able to get it down with fairly small amounts of pain lol.
Looking forward to this weekend, hopefully I’ll be almost back to normal by then =).
This is my first post although my 8th day. I love this site and have found it very helpful. I am a nurse and always am searching for such resources for families and this site definitely meets my standards as reputable. Recap:
Day 1: surgery 8/9/13 1600for one year hx of tonsil stonrs, run down feeling, cryptic tonsils. 46 year old female.
Day 2/3/4 threw up multiple times due to pain meds and no food intake. Ice chips and jello. Pain was manageable. Tongue and uvula very swollen. Slept in recliner due to blocked airway from uvula.
Day 5/6 better. Still no real solid food. Instant mashed potatos snd smoothies. Down 6 pounds. Pain level ranged 4-5/10, but tolerable. Spread pain meds out to every 6 hours with advil in between.
Day 7/8: MISERABLE. Morning pain 10/10. Dont know what changed back to ice chips and crappy netflix movies on tv all day. Pain meds every 4 hours on day 7 with advil in between. Lots of tears on day 8. 🙁 by noon things lightened up a lil. Did have about a cup of lipton parmesean noodles around 5 pm and 1/2cup of sugar free ice cream. I forced both of these down because I was STARVING WEIGHT Loss as of today 8 pounds.
Im hoping to return to work on wednesday and that tomorrow morning is much better. Besides the last two mornings it hasnt been horrible or unexpected thanks to sveryones input. I do have the nasty white stuff in my throat that has really started thinning out. I have not used a humidifier. I started salt water gargles last night.
Heres to a great next couple of days! Thanks for this site and everyones support. Sorry for the lenght.
Thanks for sharing Billie- and thanks for the nice feedback. Yeah, days 7 and 8 were probably my worst days. Hang in there!
Thanks for the feedback, I’m on day 7, I’m completely miserable. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow because the common agreement seems to be that day 7 is the worst and day 8 (sometimes days 9 and 10) are just as bad. Not looking forward to that. I’d certainly rate my pain 10/10 right now and I am using a humidifier!