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.
So I’m a 19 year old male and I got my tonsils out on January 25th, and I do have to say that it isn’t all that bad! I had woke up from the surgery begging them to put me back to sleep because I thought they hadn’t done the surgery!? They had to give me quite a bit of morphine afterwards, this is because of how much pain I was in. I slept most of the day after surgery, I came home and ate Mashed Potato and Gravy this didn’t seem a problem. I kept on top of my pain medication, the doctor had given me paracetamol&Codeine, this just basically knocked me out for a few days, constantly eating mash and gravy (it seems to be the easiest food to eat) day 3 was the same as day 2 and then day 4 I went out for the day with my parents and I didn’t have much pain, haven’t been getting much sleep though and it’s rather annoying as whatever time I sleep I wake up at around 5/6am, I’m now on day 5 now and I’m doing quite alright! Had quite a bit of earache and more pain than normal in my throat. But I think that’s due to my scabs falling off, I’ve started taking ibruprofen instead of Codiene and it’s working wonders, I hope this helps anyone who reads this!
Just remember, drink plenty of fluids and do whatever you feel comfortable with, getting my tonsils removed has got to be a good descision for me, I had tonsillitis 9 times since August 2016!
9 times is actually not that many times. So your tonsils were probably quite small and soft. The more infections you have over your life the harder the recovery. I had maybe 70 infections before I got mine out at 38, it was terrible and still have a little bit of pain 21 days post op. I thought I’d be fully recovered by now. Glad yours went so well.
I had my tonsils out 20th Jan, so today is 2 weeks since I had them out.. just wondering as you’re my age do you still have a pain almost as if somthing is stuck in the back of your throat and head ache?
Thank you for this! I am a 26 year old preparing for my tonsillectomy this coming Monday. Of course I have a flare up 4 days before surgery, I hope they will still go through with it. I am a teacher in a REALLY “challenging” inner city school so I gave myself 15 days to recover before going back, I hope that is enough?!
My main reason for wanting to get these awful things out because of course I get sick often but more annoyingly I get tonsil stones. I am always self conscious due to them.
I am SO nervous about this recovery, mainly because of all the horror stories I have read on the internet! My doctor was honest and said it wouldn’t be an easy recovery but she said that is the only way I could cure the tonsil stones from coming back.
Thank you for your posts, I feel much more prepared now. Wish me luck ?!
I am on Day 10 after Tonsillectomy and I feel much better so now I am going to stop taking painkillers and try to build my strength back up. Good luck and get loads of ice cubes ready in the freezer 🙂
Hi Brittany, I’m Casey & I’m 23. I had my surgery done on the 19th January.
Hang in there! The worst part for me was day 4-5 and the referred ear pain. It’s excruciating! My advice is have ice packs ready for when you wake in the middle of the night. Quickly take your medication (it will hurt, I won’t lie) then put an ice pack on both ears and just try and breath through it and try to fall back asleep. This will help dull the pain but also the swelling of your neck/face.
Regarding pain medication, I would take it every 3 hours, because by the time that 4th hour hits it’s already peaked again.
I’m currently on day 10. I’m able to eat most food, drink with minimum discomfort however still taking panadol 4 hourly. The most painful thing for me is yawning! My god, they don’t warn you of that.
I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. 🙂
I just had my tonsils removed on Thursday 19 January and I was two days away from my 19 birthday which was yesterday. So at the time of the surgery I was 18. Going in to the surgery was nerve racking and when the anesthetist injected me with the anesthetiser it was really painful on my right arm and all I remember before being knocked out was complaining about the pain and then I was completely out. I woke up in incredible pain, really hysterical, crying while asking for my parents. They had to put a heat blanket on me because I was in shock and was freezing and they called my parents to the recovery area, because I was such a baby and have low pain tolerance. this surgery and recovery was very hard for me. I couldn’t drink any water or even have any food in the first day and so had to be hospitalised. I kept being injected with pain medicines and they really didn’t do anything for me. Waking up on the second day was horrendous. I woke up twice, once at 2 am in the morning and the second time at 5 am in the morning. The nurse was reluctant to give me some pain medicines since she had given me some already but I think my complaining persuaded her to give me some. My jaws were BRUISED and I couldn’t even turn my head. My uvula was also really enlarged and I could feel it blocking my throat and making it hard for me to breath properly. After the pain medicine I was feeling about 60/70 percent better and so was allowed to go home.
Day three in the morning was really painful waking up. I kept waking up in the morning and taking my pain Medicines (paracetamol and ibrooroojjne and sometime taking codine) because I forgot to set up my alarm and after reading all the advices in this blog, I ordered myself a humidifier which is coming on the 25 of January which is day seven of my recovery ??. The pain was dulled after I toke my medication but I began feeling a small ach in my abdominal that continued through day three.
Day three was the same as day two. I kept waking up in pain in the middle of the night and sleeping was very hard. I tried to eat porridge and mash potato and that was an absolute fail so I stuck to water, ice cubes and ice lollies (as you guys call it ice popsicals in the US, I’m from the UK if you haven’t noticed from my writing haha) the eating from my side was very minimal because I was afraid of the pain since I’m not good with pain. By day three I noticed that the mornings and the evenings were the hardest.
By day 4 early in the morning (also my birthday -yesterday) I started developing intense abdominal pain and really strong nausea. I called our countries help like 111 and they instructed me to go to the nearest A&E (Accident and Emergence) as I might have ingested too much painkillers. After I went to the hospital they gave me some IV mendicants to counteract the painkillers (I felt pretty stupid but I was in pain and didn’t notice my painkiller intake) they also gave me Medicines that would protect my stomach lining (Omaprazol) and instructed me to be careful when taking my pain medicines.
Day 4 was the first day I ate proper solid food. My mother and sister organised a surprise pizza party because it was my 19th birthday and so I ate 1 barbecue chicken wing and one chicken and sweetcorn pizza which was uncomfortable but not too painful. This REALLY surprised me as I was expecting pain. I also drank a whole bottle of water and so was pretty proud of my self.
Now it’s 1.45 am in the morning in the UK so day 5 for me and I woke up with intense pain in my throat because I sneeze really hard which is a no-no. I noticed some blood in my spit but it’s not heavy bleeding, it’s just a lot of spotting so I’m not that worried. I woke up at 12 pm to take my pain medicine and am not feeling as bad as I did in days 2-3. I’m still waiting for the middnight pain but I’m not that afraid since days 2-3 were the worst for me. I’m hoping that amazon is going to deliver my humidifier soon, however since I don’t have it yet, I’m trying to sleep with my mouth shut. I’m not having really dry throat as I did in day 3-4 because I began sleeping with my mouth closed.
One of the biggest tip I can give is to drink A LOT OF WATER even if it hurts a lot because this will stop your throat drying out and it’ll stop you being dehydrated which is a painful experience. I also advise eating ice cubes because that helped me a lot and don’t be afraid to eat solid food like I was. Just go for it and don’t anticipate it. I anticipated it and it hurt but when I went for the pizza and chicken wing it didn’t hurt that much.
Overall my recovery has been up and down and I’m only on day 5 so hopefully it’ll be better.
Sorry for the long writing just wanted to put all my recovery stages on here.
Many thanks and I wish you all in your best recovery ❤️❤️
Day 5 has defiantly been the hardest for me. I can’t physically eat food soft or hard. I tried to eat some scrambled egg I made my self and that was a total fail. The only thing I could do today was drink water and after a small nap, my whole throats is aching and I’m spitting blood in my spit bowl and it hurts to spit or swallow. I’m in so much agony and i feel so weak. No wonder people say day 5 to day 7 or 10 are the hardest. If athe next few days are like this then I’m very worried. I changed my order for the humidifier to tomorrow and had to pay extra for it because I couldn’t deal with the night pain any longer. I just hope this week goes really fast as I’ve said befor I have very very low pain tolerance
Hi, you need to put ice packs on your neck. It reduces the swelling. DO NOT sleep lying down. Sleep in a chair upright. Even if you only nap for an hour or two at a time. Get one of those airline head pillows to suport your head. Lying down brings all the blood to your neck and makes it big, pain and throb ‘pain’…. pain in your tummy, that is from taking medication with nothing in your tummy. You can take something like ‘nexium’ before your meds and this will help with that. Also if you start to feel nauseous, I found just 5ml of liquid Phenergan really helps that.
I’m on day 11. I can remember how sad I was, especially on days, 4,5,6,7,8 & 9. I’ve finally started to feel better. I also could not handle drinking cold cold stuff. So try room temperature liquids. Can’t stress enough about taking pain mess every 4 hours wether u think u need them or not at the moment. Ice that neck – all the time. And sleep up right only ♡ salaam sister
Thank you for the advise Shondell ❤️ I remember typing this and relised that day 1-3 were not as painful as days 5,6 and day 7 which I’m on. The added ear pains are a nightmare and I feel like crying each time I get them because I keep getting them really frequent. I’ve bought myself an ice pack that I put on my neck area and today I’ve eaten a whole toast which I’m pretty proud off but the whole eating thing for me has been a disaster to be honest. I love my mum so much and she keeps bringing different types of food for me too eat and I just feel sick looking at them. My appetite has gone and I can barley keep down baby apple sauce ?. I’ve received my humidifier but I don’t think it’s helping me. Also I don’t think I can find those medicine that you wrote here in the UK but I’ll ask my doctor tomorrow since I made an appointment with her. I’m just hoping my recovery goes quick.
I’m glad your feeling better, at least your nearly done haha. Have a great full recovery – Salaam to you too sister ❤️
Oops, sorry Chloe for calling you Justin, but my comment meant for you!!
Hi, I’m 12 years old and am getting my tonsils out Friday the 27 (in January) reading through these really scared the crap out of me. I have a quite high pain tolerance but I’m still scared for my throat has always been a weakness of mine. I also despise plain water, apple sauce, jello, basically everything your supposed to be eating… I had my pre op today and they said I could take pills or liquid.. I have been taking pills since I was 2.. but I fear I won’t be able to swallow them. Any tips would help, I’m really scared!!
Hi Justin, I got my tonsils out last month, and it’s all healed and over! I hate drinking water too, but any fluid is better than nothing. Try tea with honey (iced or hot) or sports drinks. It heals faster when you drink a lot of fluids. Popcycles count too! Most of your medicine can be in liquid form. I couldn’t swallow the huge pill for antibiotic, so doctor wrote a prescription for liquid antibiotic and liquid pain medication. Gargle a lot, it actually makes ur throat feel better, even if it’s warm salt water. Gargle then spit!! Have your mom get a humidifier and leave it on all of the time. They are cheap and found at any drug store or Walmart. Get favorite headphones and set up playlist of your favorite songs and movies. Sleep a lot, but have your mom set an alarm to take your pain medicine so you don’t wake up in pain. It hurts the most when you swallow, so swallow slowly with your head tipped slightly to the side. It won’t last long and you get out of school for a few days and can play video games. I believe in you, and know you will do okay. Don’t be scared. Your tonsils are only about an inch long (at your age) so it’s easier to get them out before you get older, it hurts cuz it’s behind your tongue and you feel it every time you swallow. Just take your liquid medicine and get favorite popcycles. You can have mac&cheese if you cook noodles a Little longer. Ramen? Jan (Grandma) in Arizona.
Hi everyone..
Don’t be scared.
I had my tonsillectomy on Monday so tomorrow it will be a week and I am loving my new space in mouth. Everything is still swollen but soon I will be better…it is still painful and hard to swallow tablets or food or drink but I keep sipping water bit by bit and hoping I will get better tomorrow.
It is painful but putting an ice cube or two (not together!!!) in my mouth always helps! Ice cube before taking my medication, ice cube before eating & ice cube just to keep me going…
I have made few herbal tea ice cubes and orange ones too..experiment 🙂
Good luck everyone with the recovery and keep smiling.
Also big THANK YOU to our awesome doctors & nurses xxxx
Bobina
(Slovakian/UK)
I am on day 4 of my surgery and All i can say is OMG what a crucial painful experience this has been. For me it has been really hard to drink anything because of the pain but I do it anyways just so I wont get dehydrated. I must say I have thought many times what in the world did I get myself into but my tonsils needed to be removed. If it wasnt for my mother and twin sister to actually take care of me I wouldn’t know what to do. All i want to do is cry. But reading everyone experience I can see I am not a whoose. Hope everyone are recovered and for the ones going for it Good Luck! Stay Strong.
Brenda
Get liquid medicine pain killers. Make sure you have ice packs for your neck. Nurofen/Advil REALLY helps keep the swelling down. Think of any soft food u actually like and stock up on it mac & cheese made extra mushie is yum. Get a vaparisor. Sleep upright. Get a gurgle mouth number is you can. I found I could only have room temperature drink/food. Sleep when you can. It’s going to hurt – a lot but it does get better. I’m currently day 10 post op and I’m just starting to feel human again ♡
Hey! I had my tonsils out 11 days ago and I found liquid medicine so much easier to take (normally I’m fine on tablets) I’m afraid plain water is the best thing, I have found that anything else really stings – like apple juice, or that they don’t taste the same as before the operation – like milk.
Things I have found good to eat apart from jelly which slips down a treat! Pasta, peas, rice, mash, pears, toast with lots of butter, raspberries, ice cream etc soft things.
Things to avoid, yogurt (it stings!), spice, cheese, cake, salty things.