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.
First, I want to thank Greg for this awesome site. I read up before my procedure to plan and check in daily (or more) to track my progress and anticipate. It’s been a Godsend. I also sent it to my family so they could see what I am experiencing since they live 500 miles away. THANK YOU!!! <3
Postop Day 8 (op was Tue Oct 15): Last night was horrible! I woke up every few hours with stabbing burning pain in my throat and ears. Slept propped up and on my side (face up allows my uvula to block my airway), but it hardly helped. Took meds (alternated liquid Lortab or Tylenol with liquid Ibuprofen every 2-3 hours). I moaned and moved my jaw, used a cold pack, and had a humidifier, but it was the worst night so far.
This morning, I woke up and felt human again! The scabs are slowing falling away so it's still tender. One side (the side with the greatest hypertophic tonsil) feels worse than the other and is more red. Pain: L 3/10, R 0/10. I'm SO HAPPY! I expect tonight may be tough again, but I sure hope I wake up feeling this good or better. I took a walk and ate lunch out (small portion of a chile relleno, refried beans, and guacamole). I cannot stand the thought of anything sweet. So sick of ice cream, pudding, popsicles, smoothies…
Here are my learnings for others going through this (or preparing to):
* Follow Greg's advice… get your bedroom ready as you will spend a lot of time there!
* Have on hand things to help you manage – I used prefilled shot glasses of medication next to the bed to make middle-of-the-night meds easier.
* Drink water every time you wake up and as much as possible when you are awake.
* Gargle with warm salt water twice a day – gently!
* Get an Rx for chlorhexidine (the mouth rinse at your dentist's office) and swish twice a day.
* Since flossing is impossible at first, get some of the little between the teeth picks so you can better maintain oral hygiene.
* Use a neti pot to clean your sinuses if you are prone to allergies (like me).
* While ice cream, popsicles, etc are okay, be prepared with some savory options that can be eaten warm/cool. I found boxed soup (butternut squash) eaten at room temperature to be quite good. Also, get/make some MILD guacamole, refried beans, hummus. They are delicious, cold, easy to eat, and especially refreshing after all the sweets we downed at first. Oh joy!
* Plan to take two weeks away from your life to heal properly.
* Remember that you are going to be miserable – so plan for that and have a strategy. I've been watching reruns of West Wing on Netflix, spending time on Facebook, playing Matching with Friends, and texting friends to keep my mind distracted. Distraction from the pain has been some of the most effective remedy in my experience.
* Crying only makes it hurt more so don't cry.
* Remain positive – it does get better, albeit very slowly and incrementally. Two steps forward and a step back is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha!
Best wishes to all of you out there on this journey. May all beings be relieved from suffering!!
Thank you for the kind words Kitty- moreover, thank you for the AWESOME post! These shared experiences are, I think, what really brings this site to life and offers people a light in the darkness.
Best of health to you. I hope you’ll stay in touch.
DAY 8: 30 years old and had tonsillectomy (with adenoids removed too).
So on day 6 I thought to myself “this is the worst it can possibly get…this has to be the max amount of pain I can be in.” Then day 7 came along and it was worst than day 6. And staying true to that pattern, today is hell.
The absolute worst parts of my day are when I wake up from napping. I don’t call it sleeping because I haven’t slept more than 2 hours at one time in over a week. ANYWAY, while I am asleep my throat slowly gets drier and drier (even with multiple humidifiers) and when I wake up I want to die. Then it takes AT LEAST 1 hours to get the pain a little under control again. But I am never really getting the pain under control because it NEVER goes away completely. Even with stronger pain meds it is still constantly there.
Also my body has forgotten how to swallow…not even kidding. Every single thing that tries to make it’s way down my throat is seen as an enemy and the body attacks. And then the frustration and panic (because of course at this point one thinks they will choke and die) sets in and then the tears come. There is no way to stop or prevent the crying…you just have to let it happen and deal with the additional pain caused by it afterwards.
I have also developed Thrush, so that is super fun as well. I was prescribed this oral mouth rinse to be used 4 times a day for 2 weeks…hopefully it will start working soon because the thrush just overly complicates everything.
My scabs on both sides are starting to fall off and I’m having some bleeding again, but nothing like last week when they had to go back in and cauterize again.
I am just ready to have my life back again….
well I have made it to day 8 after surgery day. Last night was the usual hell, take meds, sleep two / three hours, wake in agony with the feeling you have shards of glass in your throat, rush down stairs for ice packs to help numb the pain while I desperately try to sip meds which is incredibly painful. Back to sleep dreading the same thing happening again in two to three hours!! sure enough woke up this morning with the same pain and took meeds, however … Today has been much much better, for the first time since the op I feel more like myself. Got up and dressed and have eaten a little porridge for breakfast, and soup for lunch. My mouth is still really really dry and producing no saliva which is really weird, but no more panic attacks that there is not enough saliva to swallow. doc prescribed me a low dose of diazepam which I am sure is helping. ( note I have never needed to take any anxiety drugs ever in the past and I am 46. ) I am sure the panics were due to the heavy meds I was taking, which my doctor has stopped. Any way I don’t seem to need to take my meds as often ( but still need them when it gets too intense) . I am so hoping I have turned a corner today, I know tonight will be tough again but I am hoping it will start to get better. Just becoming a little anxious about potential bleeds, my scabs seem to be intact still and I kind of hope they stay put for a bit, so the skin underneath can heal better. All in all feel so much better today, feel like there may be an end in sight. I will report back on my day 9 experiences tomorrow, keep strong everyone take each day as it comes .
Today was my best day this far. I’m not even sure how long I slept, it felt like only a few minutes. I woke up in a lot of pain, but I sleep with my mouth slightly open and don’t wake up every few hours to drink anything, so by the time I wake up, I’m dried out and it feels like I’ve swallowed razor blades and then drank habanero juice. I took half of my pain pill (Tylenol with codine) and once that kicked in a little I was able to eat a cup of applesauce and a cup of yogurt. I feel asleep on the couch again for a few hours. I woke up slightly dry and burning a little again. I drank a But if water and forced down a jello cup and a pudding cup and I felt a bit better. Around 7 o’clock I took 4tsp of liquid children’s Advil and ate a pain cheeseburger and a handful of French fries (I’ve been craving a cheeseburger since I woke up from the surgery). I also had a mango pineapple smoothie from McDonald’s, and I actually think that was the best decision I made. After a few sips of the smoothie, I felt AMAZING! The pain in my throat was maybe a 1/10! I wanted to do a happy dance around the house, I was so excited! I had a sneezing episode, which hurt slightly, and then my nose started to run off of my face. I’ll take that runny nose over the burning pain forever if given the choice! By the time I went to bed my throat had started hurting again slightly, sadly.
Yeah day 8 not such a bad day yesterday had lots of hope for today!!!!! But not a hope in hell did I …. The ear ache today was just unreal morning started out as usual dried out hard to swallow so pain killers helped a little but I think as the scabs come away more now the stinging and swallowing becomes unbearable again. Also my throat feels really itchy like I wanna cough up a hair ball the weirdest feeling, as here in England we are told to eat roughage food toast cereal etc to help promote quicker healing I must say I am now managing to eat a little better much later on in the day though ( pain killers in system a bit more I think) I actually ate a slice of pizza which taste amazing!!!!!! So pretty much another sore day but lots more tolerable but still can’t wait to be fully recovered. Also when I talk now I sound terrible so still not able to talk much. Hope you feel better soon ……x