Planning and Recovering From Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy
Let’s start with my own tonsillectomy recovery story. I wasn’t always this healthy. As a kid I ingested more penicillin than a corporate-raised chicken. I was in the doctor’s office several times each year with a sore throat. As the doctor or nurse peered into my mouth, the reaction was always the same: “Whoa, those are some big tonsils!” The diagnosis was usually tonsillitis, or strep throat. As the doctor wrote the prescription, he’d explain that years ago, tonsils like mine would have been removed, but, “these days,” we try to hang onto them. “These days,” were the 1970’s. I guess the tonsillectomy pendulum had swung back from the days when kids got their tonsils out because their brother was getting his out.
Aunt Kate’s reassurance helped, but I still wrote out some just-in-case instructions for my brother and hid them in my closet. I sheepishly told him where they were, just in case.
“This is temporary. You WILL feel better. Hang in there and stay hydrated!” -Greg Tooke
As an adult I continued to suffer from frequent bouts of tonsillitis. It seemed that I caught every bug that passed through my house or workplace. I guess those big ugly tonsils were a nice home for those nasties. It wasn’t until my 40’s that I also became aware that I suffered from something called, Obstructive Sleep Apnea -a condition in which a person stops breathing while asleep. I snored often and would awake abruptly, gulping in big breaths. I felt tired most days. After raising four babies, I had come to accept fatigue as a normal part of life! One day at a routine physical my doctor remarked about the number of episodes of strep throat and tonsillitis I’d had. We also talked about the sleep problems. While he didn’t formally diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, he suspected that I had it. He recommended a tonsillectomy, because of all the tonsil problems I’d had. As a bonus, I might find relief from the sleep apnea as well. If not, I’d undergo a sleep study. Forty four years old and father of four boys and a doctor finally said it: Those tonsils are doing you more harm than good! As much as I hated those tonsils, I was terrified at the thought of going under the knife. I started reading about tonsillectomy recovery on the internet and talking to friends. That didn’t help. “My cousin knew a guy who got a tonsillectomy and bled to death.” “At your age, tonsillectomy is dangerous.” When I met with the ear, nose and throat specialist, (an otolaryngologist), he told me that the risks are the same for an adult undergoing tonsillectomy surgery as for a child, but tonsillectomy recovery is longer and more painful. He was right about that!
Deciding to get a Tonsillectomy
I scheduled the surgery for the day after Thanksgiving. A traditional day of feasting in the United States. If it was to be my last meal, I planned to make it a good one! As it turned out, I was so nervous and scared that I could hardly eat on that day. I was recently divorced and had shared placement of my four boys. So many people counted on me that I began to question my decision. What if I died on the table? How reckless to leave behind a family, simply to avoid frequent tonsillitis? My aunt, a registered nurse reassured me about how simple the surgery was, and how far anesthesiology had come. I had nothing to worry about. Aunt Kate’s reassurance helped, but I still wrote out some just-in-case instructions for my brother and hid them in my closet. I sheepishly told him where they were, just in case
“My tonsils were like a 400 pound gorilla on my back. I don’t miss them at all. Ever.” -from the forum ________________________________________________________________________________
I took a week off from work, asked my ex wife to take care of the boys that week, and asked my uncle to drive me to and from the hospital. (a requirement with anesthesia) That was about all the tonsillectomy recovery preparation I did. I was about to learn a lot! Surgery went fine. I awoke in recovery with a serving of Jell-o in front of me. (“Jelly,” to my British friends) The nurse said that I had to finish it before I could check out. I swallowed it with great relish. It was divine! I called my uncle and we were out of there. I felt ok. I told him thanks and not to worry. I’d be fine. I believed this. Aside from a couple visits, I spent the next ten days alone in misery. The pain set in after about 24 hours. Streaming movies and television shows were my friends. Sleeping became my worst enemy. I’d wake up with my mouth dried out and my throat on fire. Oh my God. I was not prepared for this! I ran out of Popsicle’s on day three. I ran out of pain medicine on day five. The pain peaked on day seven. I broke down and cried in front of my brother on day eight- a combination of pain, drug induced depression, and sleep deprivation. Since then, I’ve read thousands of similar accounts on the tonsillectomy forum I created. It didn’t have to be so hard. If I’d known what I do now, I could have done so much to make my tonsillectomy recovery better. I hope to reach as many people as I can to help guide them through the tunnel. It has been my passion and taught me more about compassion and the amazing strength of the human spirit than any other life experience. When you shine a light for others, you also light your own path.
In the pages at follow, I’ll share tonsillectomy recovery tips with you that I learned from my tonsillectomy experience and years of coaching others through tonsillectomy and recovery.
Wow. V interesting read. V helpful too. I am
Lisa fron West Sussex. Uk.
I am 42. Staterd smoking aged 11!. I know. And Only gave up Two year ago. So pleased. Howevr I had v bad bronchitis whicj helpd me stop. After that i had recurring tonsillitis. I use a vape pen as i needed a tool to cope. I had throat issues every othr week . I have a hard growth on side of neck but not skin. It is where tonsil is. Had tonsillectomy three week ago. Lump still palpable. I blood clotted on third day after op. Hole visible where tonsil on my left was removed. Is patchingup ok. Today at third week frm surgery i ate solid food. I only drink watrr now. Nothing else. Readybrek. Rice is still iffy. Still feels like stuck in throat. Still gagging but no more pain meds. When will throat feel ‘norm’?? Still under investigatin to neck lump. Had ct on monday. Today is hot hot hot. Lots water but breathing still dries me out. I need to breath! Gosh.
Learning to swallow again. Also i have sinus issues. So pain when i sneeze. Nasty.
Hi guys! I felt the need to post on this site because I want to offer HOPE to people going through a tonsillectomy. I am a 21 year old female. I used to get strept a lot as a kid. My right tonsil has been swollen for the last year and a half and I was diagnosed with Chronic Tonsilitis last August. I also had an ulcer on my right tonsil. I got bacteria infection a lot as well. I got my tonsils removed last Wednesday, June 14th. They told me after surgery that my pain level would be a 12/10 for the first few hours but I never went through that. Ever. Wednesday- Friday I had a pain of about 2-3/10. I mainly only expierenced it when I swallowed. I drank lots of apple juice, Gatorade (Gatorade helps the nauseousness because of the electrolytes), pudding, and jello. I used a humidifier too which made a huge difference when I fell asleep (I really recommend). The time I didn’t use it, I woke up with a dry throat and that was no fun. The most ANNOYING thing was definitely how sticky my saliva got (I know, gross). But when I had something with a lot of sugar in it I kept a paper towel near and literally had to spit saliva out of my mouth because I didn’t want to swallow it ?Lol. Saturday was the worst. My pain was at a 3-4 but I also had an earache and a headache as well. On Sunday my pain went back down to a 2-3. I had rice and it was kind of hard to swallow but it made my throats feel really good after. Today, Monday, I am at a 1. When I swallow I can barely tell my tonsils aren’t there. I think my scabs fell off yesterday and today because every once in a while I felt a slight pinch on my throat. I was so afraid going into the tonsillectomy because of everything I had read online. I think I have a high pain threshold, but I have also had strept that was more painful than this. I understand everyone is different but I just wanted to put some positivity out there. It was not as bad as I thought and I would do it again if you asked me. I had the mindset that it was just going to be two weeks of pain and then a lifetime of freedom 😉 (for the most part). I think that helped. I also reminded myself that there was a chance I could come out with an amazing singing voice and there’s a chance I wouldn’t snore as much either.
I had mine out the same day and am currently day 6 post op…i am hitting my worst pain I cant eat anything and drinking can also hurt. My throat feels like i want to spit all the while which is horrible and earache has taken its peak Ouch!…..i cant open my mouth so I cant check to see what my throat looks like..I don’t know if scabs are starting to fall off? Really hope tomorrow and the next few days settle down… all I want to do is drink properly and in great volume as im so thirsty ? but without feeling like the sips im taking at the moment are going down open holes yuck! Good luck to everyone going through this I take my hat off to each and every one of you and wish you all a speedy recovery to.
I’m an 18 yr old female who had a T&A and am on day 9. It was very tough around days 4-7ish. Night time seemed the most brutal and are still a bit tough (ice pack is great for nights). I tried to drink as much water as possible made sure to eat all throughout recovery. I did run into nausea, but nausea meds were a blessing. But now, I can eat most regular solid foods! I’ve eaten sandwiches, spaghetti (with ranch to dull the acidity), garlic toast, and a burger today (was a bit tough honestly!). I didnt lose any weight, which I was great full because I hardly weigh over 100ibs. At the beginning, I ate popsicles, cream of wheat, chicken noodle soup, some apple sauce (kinda burned), mac&cheese and microwave pancakes. I stopped taking my oxy about the 3rd day because oxy and vicodin make me very ill. To help with constipation, I used miralax and teaspoons of coconut oil (can soothe your throat too). I thought I was gonna die for a while, but to anyone who is scared, you’ll make it through this hell. Day 8, I cut down on Tylenol and ibuprofen.
Ive had surgery on my spine, but think this surgery was a whole different, veryy tough pain, but you heal MUCH quicker, thank goodness.
Y’all are fighters and will get through this!
TLDR: overall good experience, didn’t need to take any pain killers, listened to my body and some of my tips/advice
Hi there! I would like to share an overall positive experience because it seems that either few people go through them, or those that do are reluctant to post??? Anyway, I hope this will be helpful, because I too was constantly second-guessing the procedure after reading horror stories about it online.
Background: I am a 20-year-old female. As a kid, I constantly got tonsillitis, strep throat, etc., but these seemed to decrease in both frequency and severity during adolescence…that is until I got quinsy a couple years back. I also got occasional tonsil stones that were super irritating and gross. In the last 10 years, 90% of my ailments have been sore throats. I didn’t get enough sleep? Sore throat. I got too cold? Sore throat. I got too hot? Sore throat. I didn’t eat enough? Sore throat. I ate too much? Sore throat. After asking around, I realized it wasn’t normal to get sick 5-10x a year.
Surgery: For me, everything went according to plan, except for two things: 1) my veins were apparently too hard, so they had to poke my arm three times to get an IV going and 2) it was my first time going under general anesthesia, so I was anxious and couldn’t sleep for a week beforehand!
Post-Op: They gave me popsicles, water and apple juice in the hospital while they monitored me for a few hours before sending me home. It didn’t hurt to eat/drink, but it felt weird because everything was beginning to swell. I was home by ~6PM and I drank ice water/ate right away. I had fruit popsicles, mashed sweet potato/soft fish and some mangoes. I didn’t take any pain killers because the pain was minimal. Also, I still felt loopy from the general and the drugs were hitting me in waves. I was fine one minute and felt stoned the next (same effect from marijuana, except the “high” was all physical). Before bed, I decided to take the prescribed Percocet just in case things got bad overnight and boy was that a mistake. I don’t know if it was still the anesthesia wearing off or if it was the pain killer (or both combined), but every time I was about to fall asleep, it felt like I suddenly stopped breathing. I would then wake myself up gasping for air and crying because I really wanted to sleep, but couldn’t. I asked my mom to come sleep with me to monitor my breathing, and she assured me that I was indeed breathing and that the weird response was all in my head. I finally managed to drift off to sleep around 6am. I didn’t even feel that tired because I was still running on cortisol. When I woke up the next morning, I told myself that I would not take any pain killers unless I really needed to.
Pain is relative: I don’t know why this didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would (I am a baby when it comes to pain), but I didn’t have the need to take any pain killers (not even Tylenol) after that first Percocet. I never really take medication anyway, unless it’s absolutely necessary, so I guess I am used to suffering a little bit. Also, after all the crap that my tonsils went through in their lifetime, this recovery was very manageable. As long as I didn’t talk, yawn/cough/sneeze, eat, or drink in large volumes (I drank through a straw), there was no throat/ear pain at all. If I did have to engage in any of the listed activities, I just pushed through it and the pain abated quickly after I was done. I must mention that having quinsy and otitis in the past probably helped. In the ER, they had to cut open/drain my quinsy with only local anesthetic (which they injected into my already hugely inflamed and swollen tonsil without any numbing cream). As for otitis, the ear pain never stopped no matter what I did. It felt like someone was drilling a hole in my head through my ears. These two maladies also happened to be the two most painful experiences I’ve had in my life.
Recovery timeline: For me, recovery was up and down…you feel ok one moment and then you’re suffering the next. The first couple of days, I had a lot of trouble chewing/swallowing because everything was swelling. The peak swelling period was around 1-2 days post-op. The pain was okay because the scabs were thick, so even though there was some pain swallowing, it was dull and dispersed. During this time, I also had a very low-grade fever and felt lethargic. Additionally, my jaw and tongue were recovering from being clamped down, so my muscles were very tense. By day 3, the swelling started to go down and so did the scabs. The pain in my ears slowly increased and I had sharper points of pain in the region where they took the tonsils out. During day 4 I tasted a bit of blood after swallowing food, felt sharp pain and had an associated ear ache, so I drank a bunch of ice water and it seemed to stop. I haven’t had any bleeding since. Days 5-7 were the worst (as promised). Although the swelling and muscle cramps were almost completely gone (I could talk again!), the scabs were falling off, so with every bite of food/water, there was either stinging, shooting, or ripping pain in random spots. It wasn’t dull and spread out like before, but rather localized to different regions. My ears were also suffering and water had this weird sweet flavor to it. I think my breath was also rank at this point. I am now day 8 post-op and I feel marginally better. Now, I only feel pain when I eat, especially if it’s a tiny bit spicy/sour/hot. As I said, this recovery has been a roller coaster, and if you’re looking at it hour by hour, it would seem as if you’re taking two steps back for every one step forward. Overall, however, I feel much better this week than I did last week.
Things I did that worked well: My main piece of advice is to try and live the same routine you had before surgery, but with modifications depending on the day of recovery and what kind of pain you’re in. Try to listen to your body and its needs, since there isn’t a “one fit all” way of dealing with this.
If you don’t need pain pills, don’t take them. Take the experience hour by hour and day by day. Pain pills have a lot of annoying side effects (especially constipation) that make your recovery even more miserable than it already is. If you can tough it out, tough it out. Mentally prepare yourself for the pain and the fact that it gets worse before it gets better.
Drink lots of ice water even if you feel like you don’t need it. Just keep on drinking throughout the whole two-week recovery period to help stave off any infections/premature cracks/fevers. I didn’t drink anything other than water (to avoid excess sugar), and I made sure to avoid alcohol too. The body is taxed enough as it is.
Try to resume a normal diet (apart from super spicy, hot, sharp, sour things) as soon as possible. The day I had the surgery, I was already eating mashed up fish and potatoes. Your body needs nutrients to recover, so having a liquid diet without need for it isn’t a wise choice. If you can eat solids, do it. Since days 5-7 were the worst for me, I turned to popsicles and other softer/colder things during this period (I still tried to eat solids though). However, because I was eating normally for the first 4 days, I had enough energy/nutrients to do this and didn’t end up losing lots of weight in the end. Make sure the food you eat isn’t junk either, but super nutritious and filling. I was eating plant-based and made sure to drink lots of green smoothies!
Do very light exercise as soon as possible. Some days, I was too tired to go, but some days (if I felt marginally better), I would force myself to go on a short walk around the neighborhood. I made sure to walk outside in the fresh air/sunshine and avoided crowds to prevent myself from catching something airborne. Not only does this speed up healing by circulating fresh blood, but it also helps with digestion, mood, energy levels, etc. Walking is your best friend for two weeks after surgery. They told me days 5-7 had the highest risk for bleeding, so I ended up being more sedentary then. However, days 1-4, I was on my feet.
Upkeep your oral hygiene. It’s amazing how much gunk collects on your tongue after sucking on all those sugary popsicles. I was brushing my teeth, flossing and scraping my tongue (to the best of my ability) daily to avoid excess buildup of bacteria.
Get lots of sleep with a humidifier right by your face. Since I wasn’t on pain pills, I didn’t set any alarms in the middle of the night to take them. I found that getting a solid block of sleep was worth the morning pain of re-moistening my throat. I tried for the first two nights to set an alarm every 3 hours to drink water, but I found that just disturbed my deep sleep (when healing happens) and didn’t make any difference. As long as you can breathe through your nose, your throat shouldn’t dry out (provided you’re keeping yourself hydrated throughout the day).
Ice packs are amazing. I iced my throat throughout the first few days to help reduce the swelling!
Things I didn’t do, but that might help:
Chewing sugarless gum to help get your jaw back in working order. I found that trying to eat a normal diet was exercise enough for my jaw, considering a five-minute meal took me 30 minutes-1 hour to get through.
Sucking on ice chips to avoid all the excess sugar in the popsicles (bacteria love sugar).
Best of luck!
24 year old/ female.
I had a tonsillectomy and septoplasty on June 1, 2017.
Septoplasty- PIECE OF CAKE, minus the congestion at first.
Best advice- set alarms for your pain meds around the clock. I would set them for 10-15 minute before your scheduled to take your meds. I went to the dr on day 4 for my post-op and she was extremely pleased with how well I was healing and she said that I was definitely a “rare” case. She encouraged me to try to ween off pain meds and switched to tylenol. So, I stopped taking my pain meds on day 5 to see if I could deal without them- bad mistake. I had to end up calling the after hours ENT because my throat was swelling & it felt like it was closing (Just being dramatic).
I “chased” my pain meds with danimals yogurt- something cold and it helped not to take on an empty stomach.
I started eating scrambled eggs on day 2! The more nutrition you can get into your body, the faster your body can heal.
The pain is definitely worse at night and in the mornings. Every morning the first thing I would do would be take my meds, get an icepack, crushed ice and a bottle of water.
Not sure if anyone else has had this happen, but I’ve had a TON of jaw pain, tongue swelling and muscle cramps. My neck/throat muscles are extremely tight. Heating pad helps, though!
I’m 20 years old and I’m on day 10 post op. I ended up having to go to the ER tonight because my throat was swelling and it felt like it was closing in. They didn’t know what to do for it and I’m still in a lot of pain. I’m taking my pain medicine every 4 hours as needed. I’m so worried about this and just want it to go away. What did you do to make yours go away and what did your ENT tell you to do?