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.
While I recovered popsicles and 4 bottles of Smart Water every day. Every time I woke up I had popsicle and more as the scabs began to peel off. I set my alarm to go off every two hours because of the pain. Instead of taking pain pills every four hours, I took one every two hours to keep the drugs in my systems. Also, I ate two teaspoon of yogurt every two hours, which helps prevent getting Thrust infection in the mouth. Clo-Sys mouth wash has no alcohol and pretty much tastes like water. It’s great to prevent infection and keep your mouth moist, unlike other mouth washes on the market. It was recommended by a Dentist. I lost 18 pounds in 12 days and I’m not overweight for any stretch of the imagination.
Wish you a speedy, easy recovery.
Hi all,
I am a 22 yr old female currently on day 8 of my recovery. Recovery is not easy, so I wanted to share some tips I learned to make it as pain-free for anyone interested. Here are some things I found helpful:
– I hate the taste of the pain medicine so I mix it with some applesauce to help it go down easier. I also found the slightly thicker consistency easier to swallow than just simply liquid.
– STAY HYDRATED and try to eat something with the pain medicine to avoid getting an upset stomach. On day four I became sick and threw up. Easily the worst 3 minutes of my life.
– make sure you stay on top of the pain meds. Sometimes I found it tempting to stay asleep in the middle of the night rather than waking up to take my pain meds. BIG MISTAKE. When I woke up for my next dose I realized the extra few hours of sleep was not worth it. So, I set alarms for every 4 hours for my meds. Now, I find myself waking up just a few minutes before my alarm goes off every time! (haha)
-ice packs seem to be very helpful, at least for a few minutes while you are trying to fall asleep or before you eat!
– try and keep your throat lubricated. It really hurts to swallow (obviously) but the longer you put off drinking the harder it gets. So whether or not you are experiencing a lot of pain at any given moment, DRINK!
– moving my tongue around too much hurts as I am sure the back of it is pretty swollen. Try and stay away from foods that however soft, may be kind of “sticky” in your mouth. My mom had a really soft brownie that I was able to swallow for the most part but it seemed the gooiest parts of it got stuck to the back of my mouth and I had to use my finger to get it out.
– Some days I was starving, other days I wasn’t hungry at all. So if you are worried about being really hungry all the time like I was you can find some relief in knowing that sometimes you have no interest in eating.
– I found Days 1-5 to be quite different than 6 – now. So I’ll break it up into 2 parts
Days 1-5: I stuck to drinking gatorade and water for hydration. I was able to eat pudding, popsicles, jello, mashed potatoes, applesauce, soup, yogurt and smoothies. I was in a lot of pain, but most of the time it was tolerable.
Days 5-8 (current): Most things burn when I drink them. I think this is because some of my scabs have started falling off and I have raw spots which are very sensitive. The right side of my throat hurts far worse than the left (the left side feels fine). So, I have found that drinking room temperature water is best. Cold water stings pretty bad, as does straight gatorade. I have found, however, that watering down the gatorade helps. Maybe consider G2 gatorade as it is a little less concentrated than regular gatorade. ROOM TEMP chicken broth seems to be a big help right now. I tried it when it was a little hot still and that was pretty painful. Overall, I can get down a lot of different soft foods, some just sting more than others.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
I am grateful to all sharing. Interestingly, though, I have discovered what some say does not work, tends to work for others and vice versa. I am at Day 6 post op. I don’t like ice cream that well and the dairy did not sound good to me. However, I found ice cream shakes are about the only thing I can get down. Before surgery, I had planned to be the best prepared person for a liquid diet. If I had to be on liquids, I was going to juicer and blender delicious combinations. Surprise! Most things I had planned on burned like being set on fire. I had the brilliant idea to blend banana, blueberry, and strawberry with yogurt. Terrible decision I will never forget. Took an hour to stop crying over 3 tiny sips. Banana and milk? No. Again, bad decision. I’ll just say: no fresh fruit. None. It is a killer for pain. Tart juices and energy drinks were a waste of money too. I thought a bite of thin mashed potatoes might be difficult, but would surely go down by day 3. Then I thought I would choke. My tongue and cheek swelling only began to go down on Day 6. Another surprise: ice bag on the throat has been a godsend. So my food routine has been this: hot tea, hot bouillon, shake, and ice water. All those fancy groceries are wasting away. I have been worried about getting my voice back. It’s good to read that is normal. At this point, I can’t imagine feeling normal again but I have faith that I will.
I got sent home on the same day of my surgery 2 days ago, everything seemed okay considering the surgery I just had. I was prescribed co-codomol, very strong ibuprofen and a throat spray. The next day I threw up non stop, my throat started to swell, couldn’t eat or drink – could barely swallow my own spit. My aunt it a doctor so I asked her advice and she said the co-codomol was making me sick so she told me to get an adults version of calpol dissolvable tablets. They barely worked & today the pain just got worse and worse till I was crying non stop. I rang the hospital and they told me to go to a&e – when I got there they discovered that I had an infection in my throat, gave me liquid ibuprofen and liquid antibiotics – I am taking the ibuprofen with the calpol (paracetamol based) and I have been able to eat almost properly for the first time since the operation.
The foods I will recommend are boiled leeks, jelly etc. NO DAIRY oh my god, you might aswell dig yourself an early grave if you have ice cream, cheese, macaroni cheese, yoghurts etc. you will not get rid of the phlegm for HOURS and it causes you to cough so much. Also, anything that’s sticky you must avoid e.g. Apple sauce, porridge, bananas etc. as these will get stuck in your thoat, give you some phlegm and set up home in the wholes where your tonsils used to be – good luck getting rid of it!
Don’t drink cold water, the doctor I saw in a&e said cold water doesn’t soothe as much as warm/hot water does and it’s true – you also have more chance of getting rid of phlegm with warm water.
I was also instructed to eat toast to scrape away everything as well as the infection – I passed on that one but if you get tuc biscuits & mush them up in your mouth then add some hot water, they go down a treat. Then obviously as you feel more brave stop adding the water and take bigger bites, THEN move onto toast – don’t just go for it straight away unless you want a bleeding throat.
I hope some people find this helpful – a lot of websites I’ve looked on have said that ice lollies are good but I find that all the ones I’ve tried have given me phlegm – go for water based ones not dairy ones if you find they help. Also I almost forgot, STAY AWAY FROM SCRAMBLED EGGS – I had these on the day I came home from surgery and they completely blocked up the wholes where my tonsils were & there was no getting it out apart from drinking a butt load of water.
I hope this helps, I wish I had this to read before I went into hospital
One more thing, take your medication on time – even if your not in pain and don’t feel like it because as soon as you don’t & the pain starts creeping back, it’s bloody hard to get rid of again.
Hi all, I really appreciate having this forum which helped prepare me for surgery. I am 31 and had the tonsillectomy yesterday. My cause for surgery was not so much due to frequent bouts of tonsillitis but more so because my sinuses do not drain properly and they drop into my tonsils which then blends with residue from food, causes bacteria to grow and then leads to a buildup of sulfur causing bad breath and sore throats. I am a big water drinker but the couple of nights leading up to surgery increase your intake of clear fluids. The night before make sure the last thing you drink before midnight or your cutoff time is water. My cutoff time was midnight and I literally drank water right up until. The nurse will ask you about the last items you had and time. They recommend having water the minute before the cutoff time so that your body the next morning will better absorb the IV. The surgery itself was no more than 10 minutes. I suffer from motion sickness and nausea easily so I received a patch prior to surgery from the nurse that would help alleviate the nausea post surgery. If you suffer from an upset stomach ask for the patch (absorbs best behind the ear) and also ask for something to control the acid in your stomach. The combination will not only help calm you down before surgery but really helps to prevent nausea from the anesthesia. In the recovery room a nurse gave me ice chips, ginger ale (also to help fight against nausea) and a Popsicle. The ice is the best thing to relieve a dry and sore throat. The nurse also gave me an ice pack for my neck and a dose of the same liquid pain medication my doctor prescribed (Lortab) which help keep pain away a little longer after anesthesia wore off. Anything you drink SIP not gulp. Gulping will irritate your surgery site and cause stinging. Do not leave the hospital with pain high than a 3-4 (if that’s bareable for you). My surgery was at 8a and I was home before 11a. The anestesia wore off about 4p and so I instantly needed the ice pack and meds. I was told to take 10ccs (a little over a tsp) of liquid Lortab (aka Vicodin) every four hours but if needed can slightly increase the dose or frequency. Because I have a high tolerance for pain the average pain reliever doesn’t usually work for me and I am allergic to Roxicet. Do not wait until you feel the pain to take your dose. I counted four hours from the time the nurse gave me to meds and started the routine schedule then and for the first 3/4 of the day tried the prescribed dose to see if it would help. Later that night I increases the doseage to 15cc every three hours just until the pain is bareable. I prestocked the house with smart water (for the electrolytes), Apple juice, Popsicles, yogurt, ensure, chicken stock and pudding. Do not try to force yourself to eat solid foods. Allow your body to tell you what you can handle. Keep a glass of ice water and a tall cup of ice chips close to you at all times. I was also prescribed amoxicillin (antibiotic) since I’m allergic to clindimycin. The nurse will probably tell you to wait until later in the day or the next before taking because they will put some in your IV. For every sip you take, everything you swallow you may need to swallow twice to prevent choking since you will still be swollen from surgery. Don’t be afraid to keep ice packs in rotation and on your neck. In addition to the pain and antibiotic, I was prescribed liquid lidocaine which is a thick substance that you can swish around your mouth as a numbing agent and in some cases swallow. The pamphlets I received from the pharmacy were not clear, one side said swallow and the other said do not. So for the first day I did not swallow. (I was prescribed to take 5ccs (a little less than a tap every four hours). This means only my mouth was numb which helped but not entirely because it’s the back of your throat that needs the numbing. The next day I swallowed just to test if it would help or make me sick and swallowing did help the back of my throat making it easier to swallow my pain meds, water and Apple sauce. I also bought closys rinse to keep the mouth moist and fresh because the meds especially the lidocaine leave an odd taste in your mouth. I am still on day two and in pain but not unbearable. I was able to speak fine yesterday (day of surgery) but am having trouble today. Again do not force it. You don’t want the added strain in your throat. I started sleeping in 15-20 intervals and not can sleep for an hour or more straight. The couch will be your best friend. You will need to sit up to sleep to prevent choking from the fluids and drainage and it prevents bleeding. My couch has arm rests so I prob the back seat cushion of the couch along the arm rest and then place a regular pillow against that for a comfortable way to be propped up. If you are uncomfortable sitting or sleeping straight up, slightly move down so that you are on an angle similar to a recliner. But pay attention to your body because the lower you move down the harder it will be to prevent choking and coughing. Every hour is you can take 10 deep breaths in, hold for a few seconds and let out through your mouth. This will help reduce the amount of fluids in your lungs. Right after you take your medicine walk around for a few minutes to allow your body to stretch and this also helps pass the time until the pain meds kick in making you drowsy. The numbing med (lidocaine) may also make you sleepy or dizzy don’t worry just make your way back to the couch or chaise chair or recliner and rest. Oh I forgot to mention have a cool air humidifier. Do not wait I tol you go to bed to turn it on, have it on ally at least for the first two days to keep moisture in your body. Breathing in cool damp air also help to keep your throat from drying out when you are sleeping. If you are a female reading this, be sure to have yogurt available as it will help to prevent a yeast infection from the antibiotics. I will keep you posted on my progress. Speedy recovery to all!
I forgot to mention do not have any dairy for the first 24 hrs it increases the mucus in the back of your throat and feel free to place ice chips in your applesauce to help make it colder. This will really soothe your throat and allow it to go down easily. Also chew gum every now and then to help loosen the tension that was placed on your jaw during surgery. Before you leave the hospital ask for a cup of ice to go. It will hold you over until you get home/settled. And I can’t stress enough, keep the humidifier on at all times and drink, drink, drink.
My 6yr old just had hes removed sent home the same day …re admitted the next day with bad infection . Was givin milk sake in hos x