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.
Hello. I’m day 8 post op and my pain was at about a 3-4 for the first 4 days. It then ramped up to a 7 from days 5-7. I woke up in the middle of the night with some blood in my mouth and after I spat it out once or twice it stopped and that particular tonsil (which bled) feels a lot less painful. Should I be worried about this? I know excessive bleeding requires immediate hospitalisation, however I’ve read this happens to a few people? Should I panic?
Hello!
I had my tonsils removed on the 17th March 2016. The first 7 days the pain was awful, ear aches and no sleep.
Towards the end of week 2 I felt much better but and now 4 weeks post op I am taking antibiotics, have no energy and feel completely rubbish – has anyone else had this experience too?
Hi Marie
I had mine out on the 1 April and am now feeling the same as you describe. The pain and eating I coped with well. I even started walking last week on the beach up to 5km. But this week my body seems to have crashed. I have run out of energy and by the afternoon just want to sleep. Its as though my body is fighting off flu and yet its not flu.
Hi everyone! I’m day 9 post op. I would like to ease a few minds here. My recovery was easy to say the least. yes it was painful – but buck up buttercup. no worse than strep throat. Everyone has a different experience but going into the surgery I was terrified because of all the horrifying accounts I’ve read online. Went in got the surgery and was eating mashed potatoes and max and cheese day one. my diet consisted of Mac and cheese, potatoes, applesauce, oatmeal, ice cream, Popsicles, and frozen blended drinks like smoothies or frappes from Starbucks. I stayed on top of my pain meds for the first 3 days taking them religiously every 4 hours. by day 4/5 I was starting to feel actually back to normal. Interesting because the doctors say day 5 is the worst! anyways, by this point I was on tylenol and ibuprofen, still doing pain meds at night. Day 6 was much more rough and day 7 was the same. it stung to drink water but the key in this recoevery is honestly to keep eating, and keep drinking, your body will simply not heal as well if you don’t eat or drink. it hurts but choke it down, I even was able to eat pancakes and toaster struedel throughout the whole recovery.
Days 5-7 were personally the worst for me but even then I still slept 10 hours a night soundly.
the scabs are coming off now so it’s a bit uncomfortable but nothing too bad! just when you swallow.
My advice would be don’t be scared. KEEP EATING. EAT ALOT! EAT TWICE OF WHAT YOU NORMALLY EAT. EAT WHAT SOUNDS GOOD. and STAY HYDRATED. the worst part has been the ear and jaw pain for me! but I honestly have to say for as scared as I was going into it, it was a piece of cake! don’t worry! these horror stories are usually worse case scenario! it was a simple surgery. it WAS painful but nothing that prevented me from sleeping eating or drinking. Get lots of rest. it is WORTH IT!
Also: I was able to eat a grilled panini sandwhich day 6 and a burrito day 7.
Thank you for these encouraging words. I am scheduled for this procedure next month and after reading some of these stories, quite frankly, I am scared!! I am 55 and the doctor has told me that the recovery would be painful, so I feel I am prepared to experience some pain, but the stories here are quite frightening!
Okay so I’m going to start from the beginning: I’m only on day 4 but I feel like I have enough information as to how it is.
I am an 18 year old female, I suffered from reoccurring tonsillitis and tonsil stones (almost twice a month sometimes!) So the doctors finally decided to refer me to an ENT.
Night before:
Okay so the night before, me and my boyfriend got a huge Pizza takeaway with sides and everything ( I’d kill to be able to eat this rn!!)
So obviously the next morning I was starving and I forgot to wake up early so that I could eat before 7AM, so I was really hungry/nervous/moody lol.
Day of surgery:
I arrived at the hospital at 12 noon and had to wait for about 2 hours before I had a bed in the ward. After this, some of the nurses, anesthetic nurse and my surgeon came round to see how I was doing, they took my temp, pulse etc and reassured me about everything – they were all really nice! Apart from one doctor who kept on staring at me, she made me feel really at unease, and the fact that I could see all of the other drugged up patients who had just come out of various different operations scared the shit out of me but I just went on my phone and tried to ignore everyone else.
Finally it was time to go through to the anesthetics room, I was really nervous, but the people in that room were really funny so I felt relaxed after a few minutes.They explained everything that was going to happen as well. They were counting down and then I can’t remember anything from there haha.
Next thing I know I’m in the recovery room, and i have the WORSE itchy face ever, and there was a surgeon standing next to me asking how I was feeling and said my face will be itchy as a side affect from the drugs. Then he wheeled me back to my place in the ward where I started. They then took my oxygen mask off and gave me a jug of water, a yogurt and a chicken mayo sandwich. I couldn’t even eat the sandwich I have no idea why they gave me chicken when I could only just about swallow my own spit haha. I tried to eat it though but it really hurt, so I asked for more pain killers and they gave me some straight away. Also, I don’t know what the surgeons did in that room but my mouth had split either side from the clamp, so that was very painful and I had small cuts on the inside of my lip. Then i hadn’t noticed since I showered, I have a fat purple bruise on the top of my thigh! Very odd!
Anyway, after about 3 hours in recovery, they let me go home. I thought I would be very drugged up and dopey but I was actually fine, they handed me my meds and off we went.
That night I got home, didn’t really speak mainly because my lips were so chapped haha, then I had an egg mayo sandwich,
BTW I WOULD ADVISE NOT TO EAT MAYO OR ANY DAIRY! Dairy really clogged my throat and made it hard to breath and every time I laughed i would start choking on the mucus, it was very disgusting lol. Also, don’t blow your nose because it will hurt!And try not to cough.
That night I slept okay, I used about 5 pillows and kept my head upright, I’ve heard some people have woke up coughing from this position but I was okay. I woke up on my side anyway so I must of moved in my sleep.
Day 2:
The next day I had toast for breakfast because I really want to heal quickly and I read that scratchy foods help the scabs develop and disappear quicker, it was a struggle but I managed about a slice which is quite good. I got it down with a lot of water; water is my life atm, I’ve been drinking around 5L a day and my skin is looking amazing for it!
For lunch I had some rice and noodles, went down like a treat with a lot of water.
Dinner was more noodle soup, this was quite soothing.
That night was a struggle to sleep and my ears were hurting soooo bad, but i took my meds, watched some films, had cuddles from the bf then fell asleep.
Day three:
Yesterday was pretty much the same for pain, still there and annoying but not unbearable. For breakfast I had a crumpet with raspberry jam (no butter of course). Then for lunch i had a fry up (well some of it haha).
The thing is, it is really painful to eat but i love food too much so I’ve been forcing myself to eat even if it takes me hours, because eating and drinking speeds up the recovery time soo much and I’m determined to recover ASAP!
For dinner I had noodles again, although I was really craving McDonald’s I don’t think I was ready for that yet.
I fell asleep around 9PM for about an hour then woke up in the worse pain as i forgot to take my meds before i fell asleep, so it then took me a few hours to get back to sleep.
Today is now day 4, I still have a long road ahead of me but I know it will get better with time, it has been the worse experience of my life so far but i know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and that it will be worth it in the end!
My throat seems to look better already and i can already open it a little wider.
Top tips:
Eat a lot of ice lollies as they numb the area.
Difflam spray is a must for numbing the earea before meals.
Do not eat dairy unless you want to choke on phlegm all night.
Do not eat tomatoes, they burn!!!
Stay positive and stock up on TV shows/films.
Good luck to anyone who is going through this, i feel your pain!!
How are you doing now? I just had my surgery yesterday and I can’t even swallow water haha it hurts so bad but I know I need fluids. And how in the world could you eat toast ? omg that would kill me if I had to eat that lol. I hope you’re feeling much better.
Eat lots of ice and leave and ice pack on your throat all day I’m on day three these help most.
I am a 48 year-old woman who had a tonsillectomy March 24th. I am now Day 5 post-op. All I can say is – this pain is no joke… it is unbearable pain that nothing relieves; thus the reason for my 3:41am post to this forum. My ENT gave me 7.5/325 Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen; I then tried 10/325 Oxycodone/Acetaminophen. I can take TWO of the Oxys and still be in pain. I, like many others on this forum, thought I could handle the pain. I have severe osteoarthritis of my right hip and have suffered with constant pain for almost 15 years. That pales in comparison to the throat pain. Due to a scheduled total hip replacement coming up on May 9th, I don’t have any leave at my administrative assistant job, so I have to go to work every day (I returned the day after my surgery). The lack of sleep and constant pain are definitely working together to drive me out of my mind. I just wish I was closer to the end of this recovery nightmare…