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’m a 14 yr old female and got my tonsils removed March 25th today is day 7 including the surgery day.
Day 1-2 was horrible I kept waking up with horrible throat pain and couldn’t swallow anything. The doctor had advised me to eat solid foods as it will make the recovery time quicker but I couldn’t manage to get much down.
Day 3-4 Were the same as the first two days and I started eating porridge which helped me a lot. I also found out that ice-cream only made the pain worse for me. My throat was hurting but I could manage sips of water and a bit of food.
Days 5-6 is probably the worst so far, I woke up in the middle of the night crying as my throat was on fire. I couldn’t stand the pain and kept regretting of having my surgery done in the first place. Waking up in the mornings is always the worst and because of it I’m always quite scared to go to sleep.
I’m currently on day 7 and I can’t seem to eat much. I just hope the pain quickly goes away because I’m very annoyed that I can’t eat pizza and other great food without being in incredible pain.
I’m also very scared for the scabs to come off and I really hope that all this suffering is worth it in the end.
Good luck to anyone who is also going through this. I hope it isn’t as bad for you as it may seem.
I am on day 11 and the majority of the scabs I had fell off. And i didnt even notice that they fell off. I have been eating soft things like mashed potatoes, yogurt, pudding, Jell-O, ice cream. I ate a piece of bread today and it still hurt a little. My tongue hurts more than anything because of the way they clamped my tongue down. The past couple days I have felt good. Better than I have since I had surgery. Best of luck to you. It does get better think positive. 🙂
I had my surgery on March 16th. I am 26 years old. I had frequent bouts of tonsil stones and some wicked sore throats. I finally decided to get my tonsils out. The day before surgery I wasn’t too nervous I was just ready to get it over with. My boyfriend was more worried about the whole thing than I was. So the morning of the 16th I go into the hospital get changed into the lovely hospital gown they give you and wait. The nurse checked me in asking a bunch of questions. After a while the anaesthestist comes in and asks my medication allergies and then the Dr. comes in. He asks if I have any questions I said nope. The next thing I know there are 2 people from the OR come into my room and give me a nice warm towel, sat bye to my mom and boyfriend. The nurse gives me some “goofy juice” as he called it and off to the operating room we go. The last few things I remember from the OR is getting onto the operating table and seeing a mask come over my face and hearing take deep breaths. Next thing I know I wake up to one of the nurses in recovery taking my blood pressure with one of the automatic machines (which aren’t very accurate and hurt like hell.) Then I get rolled back into my room. I was given Gatorade, and about 4 popsicles. I was beyond ready to get the IV out of my hand and go home and crawl in bed. Finally got discharged and got to go home. I was given hydrocodone/acetaminophen for pain. After surgery I didn’t feel too bad just a little sore. Day 2 a little discomfort. Had a humidifer running in my room helped. I slept ok and didnt wake up with a dry throat. The pain medication I was given didn’t even take the edge off even though I was taking it every 4 hours. Day 3 was awful. My tongue was swollen and hurt like crazy. Started taking advil every 4 hours. That helped more than the pain med did.Days 4-6 still having discomfort, scabs were slowly coming off. Sleeping did not come easy. The ear aches woke me up. Couldn’t find a comfortable apot to sleep. Jell-O, popsicles, ice cream, yogurt, and pudding was all I could eat. Day 7-8 was still rough I had a huge piece of scab on the one side of my throat waiting to fall off. It finally fell off when I was eating pudding. It honestly felt like I swallowed a bug. But I was relieved the chunk was gone. Today is day 9. The mornings are extremely rough for me. I drank a carnation breakfast drink and the ice cold milk about sent me through the roof. When it hit the back of my throat HOLY CRAP PAIN!! Immediate throat pain and ear pain. After that pain subsided I felt better. Later in the afternoon I thought I would give gargling with warm salt water another go. It burnt like crazy but it made it feel a little better. Still can’t eat normal food. I tried to give cheese rice a try and it was a no go. Even on day 9 my tongue still hurts, can’t talk for very long without noticing that pain. I think my tongue hurt more than my tonsils did. I even thought to myself “why did I put myself through this?!?!?” But the pain is only temporary and I won’t have to deal with tonsil stones and tonsilitis again.
I am 22 years old and am on day 10 of my recovery (surgery being day 1) and it has been a very up and down experience with pain. After surgery, I felt great! I was talking, watching tv, and eating/drinking lots of water ice and gatorade. Days 2-4 were rough. I was on hydrocodone acetaminophen and it made me extremely nauseous and tasted so bad I gagged every time I took it. I woke up and got sick in the middle of the night on day 3 from taking it on an empty stomach. The throat pain wasn’t excruciating but I couldn’t talk at all and my tongue was extremely sore. I hardly ate, only pudding and water ice. Days 5-8 is where it got bad..all of a sudden the pain was horrible, which I’ll attribute to my scabs starting to fall off. Couldn’t stand the hydrocodone anymore so I asked my doctor to stop it, but she still recommended 5 mL but also with 3 motrin. It works! However, after days 8/9 I see a light at the end of the tunnel. My jaw doesn’t feel locked, I can open my mouth, and I can FINALLY talk (although my throat starts to hurt after awhile) and left the house both yesterday and today to shop and get my nails done. A few days ago I stopped the hydrocodone altogether am just taking 3 200mg Motrin every 6 hours. Tips: gatorade is your friend! It works better than water to keep the mouth moist. Also, almond milk. Any milk products I try taste awful because my taste buds are out of wack, so I highly recommend it. Plus, regular milk creates plegm. DO NOT GARGLE! Don’t drink out of a straw, don’t try and talk, and definitelty invest in a humidifier and some ice packs. I also don’t recommend any highly salted foods..I put parmesan cheese on my noodles last night and my throat was immediately burning (same with ketchup, sauce, etc.) Good luck to all!
Annie — are you ok???
Day 12…..I’m gonna make it!
I’m a 37 year old female, wife and mom of two boys (ages 5 & 7.) I always had strep as a kid. Bounced from one antibiotic to the next as a kid; wondering why they never took my tonsils. Fast forward to after I had kids and started subbing at the elementary schools where I found myself with strep 8 times in 14 months. It never left me. It continued to get worse, and it was torture. Laid me up in bed for 2-3 days at a time and required everyone to take care of my family when I couldn’t. Get your tonsils out, they said. Ok! It’s not an adult surgery, they said. Ok, well what’s my other option? Exactly!!! So on a Friday morning I went into surgery. READY. I had gotten my last bout of strep just three weeks prior. It was the worst case yet. I needed to get this done and over with.
I was ready for it, as I mentioned. What I was not ready for was the reaction of the nurses when they would see what I was having done that morning….”Oh, you’re going to be one unhappy lady….” Thanks for the encouragement!
Post-Op: Geesh! I could barely sit up. In fact, the only thing I remember the nurse saying was that I was turning green. Please lay me back down….! I hear voices. It’s the 5 year old next to me in recovery who had her tonsils out right before mine. She wouldn’t stop talking. She listed a number of suggestions for her mother to take her out to lunch, finally settling on Panera Bread. I, however, was about to slip out of the bed onto the floor. Then, the lovely nurse insisted I would beat the nausea by getting something in my system. Crackers. The kind with four points around the edges. Not at all helpful. The next recovery nurse saw them and snagged them immediately, after nurse 1 had me swallow down two. Thank you nurse 2!!!! My hero!
Much to my surprise, the sore throat was not that sore. Went home, rested in my bed and my husband (my adorable sweet husband) catered to me for the next 48 hours while the kids were away with the grandparents. (I should note, he took the entire week off of work to take care of our household. We both don’t know how I could have gotten through this without his consistent help – day and night)
Day 2: Noontime. Apparently those meds and I don’t get along, and I began vomiting. THAT was not in my plan. Went off the prescription meds and rode the rest of the days out with Tylenol and Motrin. It was a personal decision that I set in stone after I vomited more on day 2. Pain from vomiting was much worse than pain controlled on Tylenol. So I thought.
Day 3 & Day 4: Eh. Painful, but I was certain it was going to be so much worse. I’ve had strep worse than this. Granted I couldn’t eat a thing. Gatorade with ice and Carnation Instant Breakfasts were the only thing going in. Nights were rough. I had new ice packs on my head constantly (thanks to my ice-pack-delivering husband!) I didn’t really sleep….and when I did, I hated waking up because my throat was so dry.
Meanwhile, this awful smell and taste filled my mouth. I never could have imagined such a taste. Anything that went down tasted like this, so there was no relief. It made my stomach turn. I gargled with salt and water. I brushed as best as I could multiple times a day. My tongue because covered, and felt like the top layer was stripped off. It burned. It was, constant discomfort to say the least. I had hobbies that I had planned to do to keep myself busy. I was going to watch tv series because I just never do. I did nothing!!! My attention span didn’t last more than an hour. I couldn’t find a place to be comfortable. I just dreamt of foods and pinned hundreds of recipes from Pinterest that I planned to make once I was better.
Days 5-8
These days were a blur. They were filled with constant pain, icing, sipping, whincing and rocking gently back and forth while holding a pillow (typically during the night) to shake off the pain. And then one night 5, I spit up a blood clot. And started to bleed. Of course it was at 11pm. Why wouldn’t it be during doctor’s office hours? Panic set it. My husband found our post-op care sheet. Don’t panic (ya, right!) and gargle with ice cold water for 20 mins. I gargled for 30 because I was too scared. It stopped. Thank goodness, the bleeding stopped. But, 30 minutes of using those muscles certainly added to extra
pain that night. And the next night; again. Clot, gargle, stop bleeding. And the next. Three nights of these large clots that had to Coe out (because I could feel them when I tried to lay down and breathe) I hadn’t heard of this happening, but apparently that was a good sign that my blood was clotting itself. Either way, it was THE grossest part of the entire healing process. The nights continued to be rough. Although I never thought I would see the end, it was on DAY 10 that I began to feel human. I continued to dread the nights, but I could make it downstairs to the couch and sit at the dinner table with my family (couldn’t eat, but just felt it was important to be there.) Night 11 I went to bed at 10pm and only woke up once for Motrin and ice. It just feels like a really bad sore throat, but I can handle that!
Today is day 12! I’m almost there! I can eat now. Not everything, but I am ready to try to eat everything. I felt like I had to re-learn how to chew. It became such a process to get food from my lips, across my tongue and then down the hatch. I’ve lost 15 pounds. I have more Italian ice and popcicles in my freezer than I care to ever look at again. I wasn’t able to eat them, as the dyes (mostly citrus) made my throat burn. I have lists of foods that I’ve missed and plan to have a date with soon.
My goodness; what a journey. For something that seems so simple, it really was a challenge. For all of those middle-aged folks about to embark upon this journey…prepare ahead and line up help. You will thank yourself in the long run….
Good luck!!!
Please excuse the few typos. I typed from my iPhone and hadn’t realized the auto correct changed some grammar…. ;( I was too afraid to lose it if I went back to check.
Post op day 5. How do I keep going? This has got to be the worst, most uncomfortable pain. Ever. The worst part is the lack of food I am able to consume. I am doped Up and hangry! What’s worse than that? Thankfully my husband goes to work to escape during the day. I was put on a strict liquid only because I bleed on day 2. After 20 min of garagling ice cold water the bleeding stopped. Amen.
I have been experiencing a cough(mostly if I attempt to talk or at night time) I have been taking robitussin dm which has helped. My cool must humidifier ran out of water last night and I could tell!!! Keep the humidifier going and blowing at you and all times. It helps. I have been icing my neck consistently which also helps. I am on to about 8-10 glasses of liquid a day. It is actually most soothing to drink than to let it go dry. I am approaching (or what I believe) the peak of my pin. Today is the last day of my steroids. I have not switched to oxy yet and have been continuing the hydro/Tylenol and ibuprofen mix which I saw huge help. A lot of people told me to stop taking ibuprofen but my Dr stated that is the best to take and there are no studies to find post op bleeding by taking ibuprofen. I noticed the second I stopped and the second I started. Good luck to the rest of you on this “journey” good days ahead and also a life time with No tonsils!
Hoping you are feeling better!!! I just posted my experience as a reply to yours. Had my surgery on 2/26. Hoping you’re enjoying some nice treats by now…. 😉