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.
I am 22, currently on day 4 of recovery. I have found little to no relief in anything, trying to eat as much ice as possible, which feels good until it’s time to swallow. I expected it to be rough, just not this bad. If I could go back and not get it done, I WOULDN’T. Please tell me it’s going to ease up a little bit soon! Right now I feel like I’ve tried all I can & I’m sitting in a pile of regret full of emotions 🙁
You did the right think getting those suxjera ourmt; but there us a short lives price to pay. My worst days of recovery were says 5-7. The pain to swallow, the ear pain, and beating myself for have having thw procudure done. This, too, shall pass. Our host, Greg Tooke, has listed loads if helpful hints and other resources at the top of this page, read them! They work
Keep us updated, we want to know you’re you doing.
Jan
I Definitely agree with u. I wish I wouldn’t have gotten this procedure.
In fact I feel like if it’s not a life or death situation this procedure shouldn’t even be mentioned to any patients!
Im 21, currently on day 4 of recovery. Having the tonsillectomy has shown no positives so far and feeling extremely down and in massive amounts of pain. Haven’t felt any improvement yet and struggling to find something to ease the pain. I’ve been given codeine and paracetamol for pain. I’ve tried taking both every 4 hours for the first 3 days and now on the 4th day I’m staggering the meds every 2 hours to try and see if it improves at all. Talking is extremely difficult, I’m unable to move my head much due to the jaw/ear pain. I find now that whenever I manage to sleep I wake up needing to cough and clear my throat. Eating has been a massive struggle. I’ve tried mash potatoes, ice cream, yogurts, soggy crumpets and even some spaghetti hoops – nothing yet seems to go down easily. Just looking for some advice really on how to get through this.
Also concerned about how my throat looks, hasn’t changed much visually since the op, still extremely swollen and yellow patches(scabs?) seem as if they are getting larger. Is this normal?
Yep, sounds very normal. Likely to get worse or at least be very similar until day 8/9 which it will start to get better. Hang in there. I found crushing up Paracetamol and mixing it in with water then drinking it made it work better. I even managed to eat quite well 10-15mins after the paracetamol crush.
It will get better and your throats will feel great in time.
I’m a 17 year old girl and got my tonsils taken out last Thursday, it is now the 5th day and is a Tuesday.
During my op the doctors cut through both my arteries so was bleeding thoughout. I had to have stitches so am in extra pain. I woke up and wouldn’t stop throwing up blood that I had swallowed when I was under. Ngl it was mank and a lot of blood. I had to stay over night as I defo wasn’t fit to go home. The next morning I was fine just tired and in abit of pain, when home ate scrambled eggs and beans and then had a burger and fries from McDonald’s lol. Since then I’ve been eating fine, like normal food anyone would eat however since yesterday (4th) day and today it hurts so much to eat. I actually haven’t eaten that much just because it hurts so so so much! I Just want to go back to sixth form, recovering isn’t going well in so much pain but I’m just so fed up and bored of watching Netflix. Think I’ve watched everything good on it. My throat looks mank as well, just wish I was normal again 🙁
Hi Em,
All things considered, it sounds like you are doing extremely well. You are at the hardest part, for most people. Day 5 sucks, big time. This will only last for a few more days, so find some more Nexflix movies to watch. The best thing you can do to feel better is drink a LOT of water. The pain sets in when the scabs dry up, so keep sipping. Take Tylenol for the ear pain and try to get humidifier in your room where you are sleeping….it helps. Good luck, let us know how you’re doing. Btw: you are normal. It will be okay. 🙂
Hiya so it’s been a week now and it’s abit better thanks:) had some morphine so it’s been all Gucci. Had a pal come visit me so was good and managed to focus on practising driving etc, still in pain though but your reply made me feel abit more at ease!
Thanks for the concern, hopefully I’ll be fine soon and idk what a humidifier is but I’m sure I’ll be okay without one 🙂 thx xox
38 year old female from California.
On 9/7/17 I had a tonsillectomy plus palate opening surgery plus work on my nose to open nasal passages. All to fix sleep apnea. Currently day 9 post-op.
I’m writing because I felt like I had a slightly different story than some of you as I was well-informed and had more procedures. I get the sense many aren’t warned by their doctors what is involved which is a shame.
I had no idea I had issues with my tonsils until I started working with a sleep specialist at Stanford. The doctor took one look at my throat and said that the tonsils were the problem. They were narrowing my airway. He suggested a tonsillectomy. I thought “great, that should be easy”. But then he explained that a tonsillectomy as an adult is super painful to the point you don’t want to even eat. My enthusiasm was deflated and we ended up doing a sleep study where it was determined that I had mild obstructive sleep apnea from the tonsils. I didn’t have the greatest job at the time so taking time off & the out of pocket hospital costs were daunting. After trying CPAP and an oral appliance I final decided to see the a surgeon at Stanford that specializes in sleep surgery to correct situations like mine. Again he was amazed at the size of my tonsils and warned me how painful it is but said he would find removing them “very satisfying”.
I decided to bite the bullet and saved my days off for work and my portion of the insurance costs. I arranged with work to take 2-3 weeks off work (2 weeks minimum) and arranged with my partner and my mom to take care of me for 2 weeks. At the pre-op appointment in August they gave me all my medicines in advance so I had everything I needed: oxycodone, anti-nausea medicine & stool softener. We also talked about taking medicines on a regular basis even in the middle of the night. Keeping a constant dose of medicine keeps the pain from flaring up and also helps prevent addiction. They gave me all my post-op info in advance so I could read and understand it. Also based on this forum I got a humidifier and because I was concerned about sleeping propped up I ended up buy a wedge pillow set from Relax the Back (the PureFit Adjustable Wedge system) which wasn’t cheap but I knew being comfortable at night would make the investment worth it.
My doctor actually had me stay overnight in the hospital which I would highly recommend if you can arrange it. Staying overnight means you can get really well hydrated via IV before going home. They could also make sure my meds were ok and in my system before I was on my own.
About 9 days in I can say that I think it wasn’t as bad as I feared. I’m not sure if I got lucky or if it was because I also had nose work. There’s nothing more distracting and constantly frustrating than having plastic splints stuck up your nose for a week. It caused me to struggle to breathe through my nose, lose my sense of smell and generally make me uncomfortable like I had a bad cold or sinus infection. Going into it I was most worried about the tonsils and while it wasn’t pleasant I barely went over a 6/10 in pain. I had expected to be close to 8 or 9 for multiple days. My lower pain level allowed me to keep well hydrated which I think is a self-reinforcing cycle of benefit.
Now that’s day 9 the pain is starting to ease and I’m looking forward to starting to taper the oxy soon as I really don’t like how it makes me feel.
My recommendations:
-plan for the worst but hope for the best. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as you fear. It happened to me and it could happen to you.
-put your medications in your smartphone as timers that will remind/wake you up. My iPhone allows me to label the reminders so when it goes of it also tells me what medication to take.
-Have someone available to be home with you during the recovery period. Taking care of yourself is hard. Being babied and catered to will help.
-Focus on soft smooth foods for the first week. Eat whenever you’re hungry even if it just a little bit. I found that food that was too cold (ice cream, smoothies) actually started to hurt worse so I gravitated towards stuff not frozen, just refrigerated. It’s all those raw nerves.
-Truly take 2 weeks off work or school. Don’t push yourself. I just planned to Netflix and relax and the doctor said that would make recovery easier than trying to push too fast.
-Take walks. This is something my doctor recommended. It is good for narcotic-induced constipation and is good to get some fresh air. Walk just a little bit each day. You don’t need to be bed bound and it will make it worse if you’re too lazy but just don’t push yourself too much.
-Change your clothes, take a shower, brush your teeth.
-Plan to rest your voice. Use a white board & your iPhone can actually speak for you.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. In 2 weeks I will undergo the same procedures as you’ve described in an effort to help me sleep better as well. When my doctor told me I’d have to take 2 weeks off from work I thought that was a bit excessive, but I see now that I’m probably going to need it! The thing I’m most worried about is not being able to breathe through either my nose (from the obstruction) or mouth (from the pain) at the same time. A few years ago I had bronchitis very bad, it felt as if there was a tennis ball in my throat that I couldn’t swallow past. It was so painful and difficult to swallow I became very panicked and distressed. I’m really hoping I don’t experience anything like that during my recovery. I will make sure to follow your advice. Thank you again.
Oh by the way, have you noticed an improvement in your sleep quality since your recovery?
Hi Stephanie, sorry for the slightly delayed response. (I didn’t get notified that there was a comment to my post and it actually didn’t look like my post had gone through so I came back to check. Glad I did.)
I’m now about 17 days post-op and I’m feeling so much better. Going to to go back to work this week. I think you definitely need to plan for 2 weeks. I now it sounds like overkill, but trust me. The first week is the pits and the 2nd week had me weaning myself off the oxycodone, working on eating solid foods, walking longer distances and getting my strength back up. (Instant mashed potatoes saved me.)
I definitely recommend a humidifier (since breathing through the nose is hard you will be breathing through your mouth at night & moisture is your friend) and I really think the splurge on cushions to sleep fairly upright will really help. The nose part sucks and honestly I was so focused on the tonsillectomy pain that I really didn’t think about the nose. Once I realized what that involved I just followed all the post-op directions about keeping it moist and clean with sprays and neti pot rinses and trust me when you get those splints out it feels amazing.
I’m still healing and I can feeling that things are still sore and swollen but I can breathe so much better already. My nose is so open (and I’m honestly struggling with allergies so it’s not perfect) and my throat while still slightly sore doesn’t have those huge tonsils in the way. I’m sleeping better already and my boyfriend says he notices a difference at night. I wasn’t a major snorer but he notices that my breathing is a lot quieter. They’re going to do a sleep study on me after 4 or 5 months to see if I still have apnea–that’s apparently how long it takes to truly heal.
Regarding pain I had a really bad case of strep at the same time as a sinus infection this time 3 years ago and honestly I think that was worse for me than the surgery, but I know I have a high pain tolerance. It sounds like it was similar to your situation and I’m not going to lie there will be days like that. Just keep the fluids up especially in the early days and keep the pain medicine constantly in your system and just wait it out.
Know that it is going to suck but it’s temporary. Your tonsils aren’t going to grow back and the nose surgery is probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing as well. That’s what kept me going. Two unhappy weeks and then it’s done and you don’t ever have to do this again. It feels so good to face a fear and be on the other side. Right before I had it I kept telling everything I just wanted it to be a month later and I’m almost there and I have a big smile on my face. You can do this!
I had tonsillectomy last year at age 32. I’m so glad I read forums and comments online because they prepared me very well. I’ll summarize my experience.
Day of surgery – felt nauseous after waking up but no pain. The nurse told me Tylenol extra strength is very good at keeping the pain at bay. I rolled my eyes at her and thanked my doctor for prescribing me hydromorphone. (Foreshadowing). Tried to capitalize on the fact that I had no pain and tried to eat as much as I could (room temp soups, popsicles, etc). I was to take 2 to 4 mg of the hydromorphone every 4 hrs and started with 3 and decided to go up if I needed.
Day 1 – Pain was around a 2. I felt mostly nauseous. I tried eating cream of wheat, mashed potatoes etc but everything already started feeling so bland. I made sure to drink plenty of small sips of water to keep my throat moist. Also before going to sleep, I swallowed a tsp of coconut oil and I think it really helped keep my throat moist. I slept with my head a little upright and woke up several times. It was uncomfortable but nothing agonizing.
Day 2 – Because of the hydromorphone, nausea was getting worse. It also made it difficult to urinate (relaxes muscles, makes it hard to contract your bladder) and I got super itchy. I felt like I was under the weather (something other than just having had surgery) and later that evening, my fever was up to 38.5 degrees celsius. It being a Friday evening, neither my family doc nor my surgeon were available. I debated going to emergency. My breathing had slowed, I felt like I was about to pass out. Later that night my fever climbed to 39.5. That’s when I decided to self medicate with my leftover antibiotics from a previous bout of tonsillitis – Azithromycin. What a life saver. I also took regular Tylenol along with the hydromorphone to keep the fever at bay. I suspect that I was in the midst of developing tonsillitis before going to the surgery and that’s what happened as opposed to having contracted an infection during the surgery.
Day 3 – Fever had subsided and I started feeling a little better. Continued with the antibiotics. I hated the foods I was eating. I craved salty fries. That night the nausea got so bad I started panicking that I was going to throw up and irritate my scabs and I was going to end up bleeding to death. I decided to lower the dose of the hydromorphone.
Day 4 – I started taking only 1.5 mg of hydromorphone along with 1-2 tylenols every 3 hours and it worked! The nurse at the recovery room was right (what do you know, a health care professional knows more about this than I do). I ate tiny chunks of plain pasta with butter and it tasted AMAZING.
Day 5 – The dreaded ear pain arrived. My surgeon hadn’t told me about this and if I hadn’t read all these forums I would have been in trouble. So thank you past survivors! I already had a big rice bag and ear drops for pain relief. I had my husband heat the rice bag and I would put it down on my pillow, put my right ear on it, put the ear drops on the left ear, wait a few minutes and then rotate. I put the ear drops in every however many hours the bottle recommended. Both that and the heat helped so much! If it weren’t for the heat, the ear pain would be about a 6 or even 7. I was worried about the heat being close to the throat because in case of bleeding, you don’t want the vessels expanded but pain management was key.
Day 6 – More of the ear pain. This is also when I started smelling and tasting burns. This was the most disgusting thing ever. I can’t even explain it. The scabs were starting to fall so I would feel some sweet and burnt skin at the back of my tongue. It was mortifying. I cried several times wanting this to be over. I wasn’t even in pain but just being weak constantly for the past 6 days had taken its toll. I ditched the hydromorphone completely at this time and was only taking Tylenol. Again, my throat just felt sore mostly. The pain was in the ears and the heat was taking care of that.
Day 7 – The burning smell/taste was still there but I was feeling much better overall. I had linguini with a ton of butter and even some salt and it felt great. I had a scare this day – I got a cough from the scabs falling and I felt a piece of scab stuck in my throat and I just couldn’t swallow or get rid of it and I was trying so hard not to cough but I had to. Again, I started panicking that I was going to have all my wounds “explode” and this rush of blood was going to come spewing out of my throat and this was going to be the end of me. I had seen a pic of Miley Cyrus’s brother bleeding from his tonsillectomy complications. Google it at your own risk. That is all I thought about. This lasted for about an hour.
Day 8 – Turning point. I felt really good. Scabs were still falling and every now and then I’d get that nasty smell but the ear pain had gone away and I went down to only taking 1 Tylenol every 4 hours.
The rest – I was up and moving, I went out, I shopped, I ate almost everything in little bites. So overall I think my recovery went very well for my age. So be prepared for the ear pain, coconut oil and honey are great for keeping your throat moisturized. Give Tylenol a chance. And take it easy. It will ALL pass.
It’s been 1.5 years and I went from getting 5-6 tonsillitis episodes with high fever and about 10-12 days off work to having only felt under the weather twice since the surgery with no fever and only 1 day off work. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I want to let you know that this post has really put me at ease. I just had my tonsillectomy on September 20th and am 8 days post surgery. Your post fits perfectly how I have been feeling…. I’ve been slowly feeling better since the end of Day 6 and have been stuck in this fear that the worst is yet to come. It hasn’t been that terrible yet so I fear that it means I will just be feeling that later. But I really do think staying hydrated, using your pain meds in the beginning, and using honey have really helped me. It’s nice to know a story where someone feels better by day 7 and continues that upward motion without a backslide. 🙂