Tonsillectomy for Tonsillitis

Hey y’all! I’m a 25 year old female who is finally on day 11 post-op!

I decided to get my tonsils out due to very swollen tonsils from constant tonsillitis & those awful tonsil stones! I NEVER thought I was going to get to this point. Whenever I was super miserable, I would get on this forum and feel a little closer to the light at the end of the tunnel!

Surgery Day- My surgery was on August 18th. My ENT does surgery times based on age, so being 25, I was the last surgery of the day. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink after midnight, and my surgery wasn’t until 1:30 that afternoon- this made for an even longer day than expected! Surgery went as planned, by 2:00 the doctor was already in the waiting room telling my mom that I no longer have tonsils or adenoids. It took me about an hour to wake up in recovery, once I woke up my oxygen levels started dipping so I had to stay an extra hour after they were regulated again.

I ate a few popsicles, drank a LOT of water, and headed back to my parents house to recover! At this point I still wasn’t feeling too much pain, I’m assuming it was mostly because of the anesthesia & oxycodone- so I helped myself to some mashed potatoes & pudding for dessert. It felt great to finally eat! Around midnight I started feeling tired, and quickly learned I couldn’t lay down without a decent amount of pain. I tried sleeping on the recliner couch, I slept around an hour and woke up miserable. I gave up trying to sleep and resorted to watching Netflix.

Day 2 The pain is starting to set in. I started taking Oxycodone every 5 hours, along with Children’s Tylenol every 4 hours. I tried taking Ibuprofen pills, but my throat was so swollen, I couldn’t get them down! I was hopeful and tried to eat more mashed potatoes for breakfast- nope. Didn’t happen. I resorted to popsicles. I would say my pain was 6/10 all day, and the swelling continued to get worse. Hiccups, I was getting hiccups almost every hour ALL DAY. They were the most painful hiccups I ever experienced. Still no sleep on day 2!

Day 3 Pretty much the same at day 2. I didn’t try to eat anything other than popsicles and a milkshake. The milkshake wasn’t too thick, so it actually felt pretty good on my throat! It took some of the burning away for a little bit! Sleeping was still an impossible task, thank the heavens for Netflix to keep me entertained!

Days 4,5,6 My advice, water. Drink all the water you can. These were the days I started to regret going through with this surgery. Too many sleepless, lonely nights gave me entirely too much time to think about my pain. At this point I was tired of watching tv, and started listening to the radio to get me through the night. My goal all along was to leave my parents and go back to my house around day 4, and boy was I wrong! On day 4, I was a total mess. I was still not able to eat anything more than popsicles and ice chips, only sleeping 1-2 hours a night, and very heavily medicated. My medicine was helping, but it wasn’t taking the pain away. This is the day I started getting nauseous. If I laid down, I was in excruciating throat and ear pain. If I sat up, I was nauseous- nothing was helping at this point. I just opted for being miserable. My mom came home on her lunch break to check on me, and she found me crying on the floor in excruciating pain- 11/10. I didn’t know pain could be this bad. My tongue & uvula were swollen and I could barely get water down. I started doing more cold compresses on my throat to get the swelling to subside, after a few hours I still couldn’t get any relief. My mom started to panic because I couldn’t really talk due to the swelling, she called my doctor and he said to eat another popsicle while doing the compresses and hopefully it would go down. 3 popsicles and an hour later, I finally got the swelling to go down!

Days 5&6 were just as bad as day 4. The days started to run together, and I couldn’t keep anything straight!

Day 7- 1 week post-op- I’m still regretting this surgery. I’m now down 7lbs. Still hungry, tired, and medicated (I avoid taking medicine as much as I can). The swelling is starting to subside, so I ate a frozen go-gurt, and it felt SO good! It left a thick residue on the back of my throat, but it was totally worth it to feel like I actually ate something! My scabs felt super large at this point. I could constantly feel them and it was so annoying! I slept 4 hours today! I felt so accomplished!

Day 8 I slept a couple hours, but woke up choking (I’m assuming on scabs, but I don’t really know). It was a terrifying experience, I chose not to lay down again after this. I decided to try to ween myself off of oxycodone. I took it at 2AM, and didn’t need to take it again until around 7PM. My best friend was in town, and hosting a pool party at her parents house. Although I didn’t feel good, I did go hang out for a few hours with my friends. It felt really nice to get out! I overdid it. I stayed out too long and was in a good amount of pain once I made my way back home.

Day 9 My scabs are finally coming off! The smell though is so strong and gross! I haven’t really tried eating yet, but I know I’m getting close to having some good food again!

Day 10 I finally slept 8 full hours! I did wake up in pain after sleeping so long, but let me tell you- totally worth it! I took some tylenol to ease the pain, it didn’t help too much so I took half a dose of the oxydocone. Once that wore off, I started feeling good! I hung out with my family, ate some mac & cheese, ran a couple errands, did some laundry, and went to dinner with my momma to celebrate!

Day 11 Today is day 11, I tossed and turned all night but I did get some sleep in! My throat feels pretty tight today. I do see minimal scabs left, so I’m feeling confident that I’m at the end stretch. I am off work for another 6 days, so I’m very hopeful I’ll be feeling close to normal by then! If you’re deciding if you really want to go through with this surgery, please do it! Yes, it hurts. Yes, you’ll have days of misery. But I would go through this again if I needed to! Tonsillitis had me at my breaking point, and my body is already feeling better! I can’t wait to see how great I feel once I’m fully recovered!! There is an end to the pain from having a tonsillectomy! You can do it!