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.
Hi all, I’m on day 7 of recovery. I’m at the point where I just need to know if it gets better. I’ve progressively been getting worse, and although the pain isn’t unbearable it’s the fact that I’ve had it for a week that is making this so hard. It’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint to recover. The constant pain really can bring you down. Day 7 for me has been the worst so far, and I’m just praying that tomorrow it starts to look up because I don’t know if I can handle another day of worsening pain. I can’t tell if my scabs have started falling off or not because my throat pretty much looks the same but because of the increasing pain I’m assuming they’ve started to fall off. I’m just hoping today is the worst day and tomorrow I’ll wake up feeling even marginally better.
Day8/9 should be a significant improvement. Day 7 for me was the worst.
Hang in there, it will be worth it in the end!
Hey guys!! I’m an 18 y/o girl (19 next month) and I had my tonsils removed on July 17th. I refused to get the surgery for months despite my tonsils being literal boulders ((my surgeon was impressed with their size)) and constant sinus infections because I saw my friend undergo the recovery last summer and didn’t think I could handle it. I visited her on her sixth recovery day and she was sobbing and hadn’t left her bed yet. I am here to tell you that this is not the case for everyone!!! If you’re getting them out soon, relax. It’s probably for the best. So here’s how it went for me, and I’m not sure if I’m an anomaly and I’m not suggesting anyone does what I did, but here it goes:
Day 1: I was so shook the day of the surgery I didn’t say a word to my parents. The IV was actually the most painful part of the surgery for me, I knocked out pretty easily. When I woke up I was super out of it. My blood pressure spiked like crazy, they suspected this was from the pain, so they gave me meds and it lowered eventually. I left the hospital in like 40min after eating an ice pop and drinking some ice water. The first day was a piece of cake, I took my pain meds and even had some friends over bcs misery loves company, but I had no voice. I slept for maybe 4 hours before waking up in pain.
Day 2: I felt minimal pain, I even had my mom get me BWW chicken wings which I later learned was a poor idea. I ate apple sauce and hard boiled eggs and tons of ice pops and could somewhat talk. I slept again maybe 4hrs.
Day 3: HELL at first. I woke up throwing up and hating myself for those damn chicken wings. I took many meds and ended up feeling better. As the day progressed, I had some friends over to swim and went in the pool myself (only on a float). My reckless self actually went to a party that night because I was going stir crazy but I didn’t drink or smoke (despite unbelievable desire) bcs the pain was just that bad. I left early bcs I realized parties are kinda pointless when you’re sober and can’t talk. I wrote “I just got my tonsils out so I can’t talk” on my hand so I didn’t have to keep explaining, people got a kick out of that. I slept for 2hrs that entire day with no naps or anything bcs sleep just wasn’t worth the pain.
Day 4: oh my god this day felt like I was in dante’s inferno and I wanted to actually die at times. I woke up relatively easily but was nauseous. I ate rice to help with that but started throwing up, and I now know that there is no worse food to throw up than rice. I hated every single grain that came up my throat and I will never look at rice the same way. I ate more after that so I could take my medication but ended up throwing that up too so I just gave up on eating and taking anything other than Tylenol, not even extra strength. I also got my period two weeks early which was my breaking point as I had chills, period cramps, nausea, unbelievable throat pain, and was spitting up mucus all at once. I have never felt that much pain before. it was another night of no sleep.
Day 5: still in lots of pain, but probably a 7/10. I managed to go to the mall with my sister and a frozen raspberry lemonade from Cinnabon virtually saved my life (no straw though). I have found that walking has helped my recovery tremendously as it speeds up my blood flow. Also, I have been eating real food since day 2 which I also think helped not only my body but my throat in the recovery. I had some friends over that night and was able to hold an almost conversation if I whispered. I also went out that night to a friends house to watch movies and found that getting out of the house helped tremendously as long as I had gatorade on hand. I ate pancakes and eggs and muffins which all helped. yet ANOTHER night of no sleep, I now believe I may be going insane.
Day 6: Today! I woke up with pain per usual but this quickly became bearable. I took a two hour nap which hurt afterwards but helped my body be okay w/ itself. I went out to a diner with my dad and had a malted milk shake and half an egg sandwich on a hard roll (I regret the hard roll but I’m living with it). I’m home now, and haven’t taken anything besides Tylenol in almost 24 hours which I find helps tremendously with my stomach and bowel movements. However, I’m going to a friend’s grad party tonight (the one that got her tonsils out last summer ironically) and I’m planning on taking my hydrocodone before I go so the pain is tolerable. I’m hoping to mix it with gatorade and jolly ranchers to make the taste bearable because the first time I took it I gagged uncontrollably and hyperventilated. I’ll let ya’ll know how that goes!!! I’m also terrified for day 7 but I’ve learned optimism is my best friend and the only way I’ll survive this.
Moral of the story: it will suck, for what feels like an eternity, but you will survive. If you have a positive attitude and use ice packs on your neck it is completely bearable. I’m not sure of the status of my scabs because it hurts too much to open my mouth super wide but I’m thinking they’re disintegrating at this point. It doesn’t hurt too badly to swallow anymore and I have little to no ear pain and no jaw pain at all. Going into this I thought I would be a dead girl because all of these forums told me so; however, I am here to tell you that is not the case. You will be okay. I cannot wait for my tonsil-less life and my voice to not sound like I’m talking with marbles in my mouth anymore 🙂
Will, you are on point!! I have questioned many times if this was worth it and I know that it better be. Of course, they say 1 out of 3-4 people get thrush which is a yeast infection in their mouth and of course I had to be the 1 out of those 3-4 so I had to go back and get medicine for that. Then on Day 4 I started having horrible fevers and so they had to put me on an antibiotic that is so strong that you have to eat with it or you’ll be sick. How are you supposed to eat with this surgery? Day 1-2/3 plays a real good trick on you thinking that it’s not going to be all that bad and then bam you feel like you’re dying. I wish anybody that has the surgery good luck it is absolutely horrible and that’s not a secret by no means and make sure you keep somebody with you at all times. What are the most important piece of advice is to take something from the beginning for the constipation!!!!
Sorry to hear about your thrush issue. I was worried I was getting it at one point but didn’t seem to be the case with me. I hear you on the antibiotics though…2 of the ones they used to attempt to eradicate my strep in the previous months were like that too…definitely not fun and definitely not something I’d want to go through right after having this surgery.
Just thought I’d throw out my experience so far for everyone. I’m a 37 year old male. Had my tonsils removed on July 5th and am currently on day 14 of my recovery. Never had tonsil or sore throat problems before this year, but then contracted a case of strep throat in December 2016 from one of my kids that I just could not shake. Went through 7 months of antibiotic treatments, ENT and doctor visits, etc, but would either not go away or would recur within 2-3 weeks after completing treatments. Tonsils never really swelled, but one side would always have stones and pus coming from it. ENT gave me the option for surgery after a couple of treatment attempts and finally went through with it.
Day 1: The day of surgery was not that bad. My surgery was scheduled for first thing in the morning. I was really, really nervous (never had a surgery before), but it was a lot of worry about nothing to be honest. I did not feel anything during the procedure, they sedate you right after they bring you into the OR and I blacked out within 2 minutes of them starting the sedation (they let me know everything they were doing right before they did it). The next thing I remember I’m in the recovery room and the nurse is watching my vitals and telling me to breathe deeply as I’m coming out of the anesthetic. It’s a bit odd feeling coming out of that if you have never had an anesthetic before but wasn’t a big deal. Pain the first day was not too bad (I’d rate it about a 3/10). Everything is swollen and feels stiff. My uvula especially they were concerned with as it swelled considerably but they gave me a steroid and it helped to keep it under control. Sent me home with painkillers, anti-nausea meds (I don’t get nausea that easily so I only used these sparingly), and told me to take a stool softener due to the pain meds. I would highly recommend anyone that takes hydrocodone to take a stool softener immediately as I waited 2 days before starting it and I was not able to have a bowel movement until day 8 (the day after I stopped the hydrocodone) because of it slowing down my digestive system so much.
Days 2-3: These two days gave me a real false sense of security. Pain was there (about 4-5/10), but was bearable with the meds and just taking it easy. Was able to eat pasta, eggs, soup, and mashed potatoes these days without much issue. Ice chips and popsicles were my best friends and felt awesome on my throat during these 2 days especially. I couldn’t really drink too much but just sucking on ice chips constantly felt good and kept me hydrated. Sleeping is one of the worst times but during these days I couldn’t really sleep more than about 2 hours at a time and needed to keep taking the pain meds every 4 hours so.
Days 4-7: Parts of my scabs began to come off on day 4 and the pain skyrocketed as this started (I would say a constant 7/10 and 9/10 at certain times during these days, especially waking up after sleeping for more than about 2 hours). During these days I really started to question whether the surgery was worth it or not as it was just god awful. Pain radiated into my ears, through my neck,and into my jaw. Finally figured out about day 5 that eating ice chips was actually making my throat hurt worse at this point. It actually felt better to drink room temperature water than anything too cold or hot on these days. Could barely eat or drink anything but forced myself as much as I could. Could only eat broths and popsicles. On day 7 I actually did not eat any food as I felt so terrible both from the hydrocodone on my digestive system and my throat from the surgery. The only calories I was able to get were from sports drinks I had stocked up on. These 4 days were the absolute worst pain I have ever felt.
Days 8-10: Day 8 finally started to see a turn around. At this point about 60% of my scabbing was gone. I joked with my wife that it looked like marblized meat in the back of my throat. I hadn’t had any bleeding throughout the whole process except for an occasional pin prick of blood I would see near my scabs as they would disappear, but they would be gone within 1 day whenever I saw this (I was lucky in that respect). I was finally able to have a bowel movement on the morning of the 8th day which finally relieved a lot of my stomach discomfort. As day 8 started the level of pain was down to about an 8/10 and by the end of the day was about a 6/10. Day 9 was significantly better. Pain was still about a 7/10 when I initially woke up but dropped down to about a 4/10 after the first hour. Day 10 was about the same as day 9. Noticed my neck felt raw and my muscles in my neck would slightly spasm occasionally, but if I just laid down when this started to feel uncomfortable, it would relieve it quite a bit. By day 9 I was only taking tylenol for pain and had completely stopped the hydrocodone. Entire body felt extremely worn out…like I had been working out constantly for the previous 8 days. Was finally able to start eating some more solid foods again like tuna salad, pasta, eggs, and mashed potatoes again these days.
Days 10+: Each day after day 10 felt better than the day before. Scabs are about 90% gone at this point. Getting more energy back each day, able to eat most normal foods except for extremely spicy foods or crunchy foods (like chips). Neither one seems to cause a problem, but just uncomfortable. Feels just like a mild sore throat at times these days…nothing hurting worse than you would get with a cold. Throat still aches a bit at times but that bad. Significant turn around after day 10.
My biggest advice to everyone is to just hang in there as you will have about 5 or so terrible days as your scabs start to come off (for me it started at day 4) and at this time you will really get worried that something is wrong, always looking for the next dose of pain meds, and questioning why you even had the surgery with all the pain you are going through. Just really push yourself to get through these couple of days as there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it does get better.
Hi Everyone it’s 1 am and here I am still afraid to fall asleep on day 8 still on a one hour timer before I take aspirin. Realized what works best for me is having soluble aspirin in my water pack and sipping water every hour. The pain is part of the process however what makes it bearable is reduces inflammation. And for those that are having difficulty swallowing ask your doctor for diclofenac suppository which may be easier that swallowing but works just as well. Good luck everybody never have I seen pain that joins a band of brothers
I had my surgery on Monday, 7/24/17, and I’m struggling. I haven’t been able to eat at all – I’ve had a couple applesauces, popsicles, tried mashed potatoes and mac n cheese but to no avail. My uvula is still so swollen it makes drinking water unbearable. I’m hoping this week things start to turn around. It’s like you need 3 weeks of recovery because you need a recovery from the recovery! From reading your entry it seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel!
I’m at about 1 month at this point (August 4th)…still have aching in my throat and jaw at times when I talk a lot. It did take about 2 1/2 weeks before I felt pretty back to normal, although not 100%. And my uvula did take about 3 weeks to return to normal size (although not near as swollen after the two weeks). Usually feel pretty good at the beginning of each day and throat will look pretty good, but aches a bit and gets a bit red in some of the spots still healing by the end of each day after I get home from work and have been talking to co-workers and stuff throughout the day. It does take some time, but definitely is pretty bad that first 10 days or so.
Hi!! My name is Linda and I live in Arkansas. I ran across this thread as I was searching tonight for what to expect for the surgery coming up in a couple of hours for my 15 year old son. I haven’t slept a wink, I’m so nervous for him. He has never had a surgery before. Although he seems to be fine with it, I so dread the recovery for him. Im getting out my humidifier before we leave this morning and plan to put my husband in my sons bed for a few days so that I can keep a close eye on him. Luckily, we are out of school for a few more weeks and he will have time to heal. So glad I ran across this. Very good pointers. Good luck to you all in your recovery process.
I have tonsillectomy on 13 5 17 now wound place becomes really and I have pain
What can I do now