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How long does it take to recover after tonsillectomy?
Tonsillectomy recovery time is unique for each patient. The recovery timeline for children is much shorter than for adults, with seemingly less pain. My own eight year old son was back to his old self in less than a week after his tonsils taken out. This may have fanned the flames of my unreasonable expectations of my own recovery time as an adult. His was fairly typical of a child his age. Children’s bodies heal faster than adults’ do.
Tonsillectomy Recovery Time
What to expect after tonsil surgery
The timeline for recovery for an adult is a different story. Age matters. In fact, it appears that the older an adult is at the time of their tonsillectomy, the longer the recovery is, in general. Based on my own adult tonsillectomy recovery, and the stories of thousands of my readers, I’d put the average adult tonsillectomy recovery time at approximately 10.43 days. Yes, I’m that good!
Humor aside, ten days seems to be pretty typical. I added the .43 because so many people, myself included, thought they had it licked and went back to work around day ten, only to find they weren’t quite ready. As scabs slough off in second week of recovery, many adults experience a bit of a pain relapse, just as they thought they were almost recovered. This is a really tough period for many. They’ve spent almost two weeks with minimal sleep, minimal nourishment, minimal activity, and lots of pain medicine. It can be downright depressing for adults recovering in this second week.
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I do hear from many adults whose recovery times are closer to a week – perhaps due to my good advice, perhaps due to genetics. It’s hard to say why some adults’ recovery timelines are shorter, and their experiences less traumatic. There are also cases that drag out further. If you’re one of a small minority that requires re-cauterization for bleeding, or don’t take the proper precautions, (many of these are outlined here and in my book), your tonsillectomy recovery time may be as much as three or four weeks. I want to make an important point here- one that I cannot overemphasis: Stay hydrated! Keep drinking fluids! Dehydration is the worst enemy of the tonsillectomy patient.
My advice: ask your employer, your family, your friends, and the rest of the world to give you two weeks for your adult tonsillectomy. You may surprise them, hopefully for the better.
Recovery is unique to each individual- sure. We know that recovery time for adults is longer, and maybe harder, than for children. I remember my own son bouncing back in less than a week! My own experience taught me that ten days off from a job that required lots of talking was a bit light. I generally advise two weeks. As I’ve said, most employers will let you come back early. That’s easier than asking for more time after the fact. I’ve read the accounts of thousands of tonsillectomy patients- most of them adults. I’ve learned that the time required varies. I wonder though, how many tonsillectomy patients never really post about their experience.
Are you one of those quiet ones lying in the weeds? I’d like to get a better feel for the average adult tonsillectomy recovery time. Please take a moment and share your own experience in recovering from tonsillectomy surgery. You can help us all!I’ve put together a collection of items that I think would be helpful, if not essential, to making tonsillectomy recovery a little more pleasant. Check out the Tonsillectomy General Store.
-Greg Tooke My short bio
Hello. I’m a 30 year old female. I’m on Day 10 post adenoid and tonsillectomy. I would’ve preferred to give birth to both my boys over the last 10 days than endure this!! Pain subsides faster, and you have quite the gift. 🙂 If you have 2 little ones like me, call in your village!!! My husband is amazing, but I know how hard it is to do it all, and he would still need to work a bit! I prepped frozen meals and grocery shopped so all ingredients for other meals were ready for him to make. Stocked up on snacks other caregivers could give my kiddos and take with them on outings, and of course many things for myself that I thought I may need. Finally today I felt good enough to let my husband take a nap while I was with them for a few hours.
Night 2 is when the pain started settling in and finally gave me a bit of relief Day 8. It started with the throat and then the stabbing ear pain is what really got me. I could not sleep longer than a half hour without waking up in excruciating pain. I’ve graduated now to about an hr of sleep at a time, but at this point nighttime has become a bit of an anxiety induce even though my pain has improved. Tonight, Day 10, has been a hard night of worrying how I would feel if I fell asleep. I’m so tired by this stage of recovery!
I was prescribers liquid Vicodin every 4 hours at first. By Day 3 my husband called the dr to see if there was more I could take. It would last about 2 hours only. We added childrens liquid ibuprofen to alternate every 3 hrs knowing that if bleeding were to occur I’d need to stop the ibuprofen. That change helped a lot!! At first, I only wanted cold things and ice packs. As the hard days dwindled on, cold started hurting so I switched to room temp/warm water and a heating pad. The two things I always have next to me as of Day 10 are a cup of crushed ice and a cup of warm water. I’m not sure why the coldness of the crushed ice doesn’t bother me, but I’m going with it! I found myself saying many prayers of strength in my hardest days and reminded myself this was only temporary. My husband helped me through the worst nights just by being there, handing my medicine and water, etc. I also visited this page often on the middle of the night, as I am now. It brought me comfort! Afternoons seemed to be when I felt best each day with mornings being hard to slough off and evenings things would start to hurt a bit more.
Day 9 I decided to replace the Vicodin with liquid Childrens Tylenol, as I felt it was keeping me in a funk. That helped me feel more myself. I also took a few bites of “real” food…..the outside, moist bits of a small muffin and some soft white fontina cheese. Day 10 led to watery oatmeal, mac n cheese, summer squash (well cooked with skins off, eaten when warmish) and cottage cheese. Dairy did bother me in those hard days bc it left so much mucus in my throat. Drs orders also recommended using a humidifier and coating my mouth with honey a few times a day. I had to stop the honey for a while bc the sugar just hurt too bad. Drinking warm broth and Panera”s broccoli cheddar soup further puréed to the last few hard days was a lifesaver! I also used the Notes app on my phone when talking or even whispering was too hard. Luckily my 5 year old can read so we could even have conversations like this jay he thought were quite fun!
I know each day will get better from here but trying not to overdo or rush it. If you are waiting for your surgery or in the thick of it now, remember in the large scheme of life, this really isn’t that big of s timeframe. I have seen my dad suffer through and beat 2 cancers within a year and a half. If he can do that, I can make it through this!
Im 28 and had my tonsils and uvula removed 10 days and I’m still miserable. No sleep, tons of pain, and like a full, went back to work 6 days after surgery in a job where i have to talk all the time. Nothing seems to manage the pain either.
Hi guys im 20 i am on day 7 of recovery and honestly before the surgery I watched YouTube videos && read so many stories and heard nothing but negative things about the recovery but my pain has not been all that bad so far but im sill waiting on my scabs to completely be gone i know that is when the pain will come i have lost 7 pounds so far im proud that i am already talking and out moving around the worst thing about this is all the mucus build up yuck !
Good luck everyone
I’m a 21 year old female and currently on day 10 post op tonsillectomy. Honestly the days are starting to blur together but I I figured I would do more of a post on some tips or things I was surprised and not really prepared for during this time.
Before hand I would be prepared to have someone who can take care of you for AT LEAST the first week if not the full two weeks. You will be surprised how just getting out of bed to get a drink can make you feel so awful. Also make sure you have lots of your favorite drink ready and in the fridge (mine was Gatorade). Everything tastes different and off for a while be prepared for that. Take a shower the night before because honestly showering was horrible even on day 3. I wasn’t able to shower again until day 7 because just standing made me so nauseous and dizzy. Have pain pills and a notebook ready beside your bed to keep track of when you take your meds.
Day one is probably the easiest day I had, you come home still drugged from the anesthesia and other good pain meds they give you there. I remember just sleeping a lot but it was a little hard to talk and drinking was A LOT harder than I expected it to be.
The next few days kinda blurred together but days 2-8 just got worse and worse each day. My biggest advice is take your pain meds as percribed and If okay by your dr also take Ibuprofen along with it. I was taking my pain meds every 4 hours and trust me I knew when that 4 hour mark was coming because the pain would become brutal. One of the things I was most surprised with during these days were was the amount of mucas and saliva I had in my mouth. Also I don’t so super great with pain meds and considering the most I would eat was a popsical my stomach was empty and I got super nauseous. It got to the point where I was throwing up anywhere from 1-4 times a day. At times I was throwing up blood but hardly any so it wasn’t anything serious.
I can’t remember what day it was I believe Day 4 that got the best of me but I ended up getting a blood clot and was very dehydrated. I ended up having to go to the ER and get put on an IV where they gave me morphine and fliuds for the dehydration. They wanted me to stay overnight to watch over the blood clot but it was visible enough that my mom (a nurse practitioner) could watch over it. My biggest advice for this is to stay hydrated. I really failed at this.
Also another huge thing that caught me off guard was how HORRIBLE your mouth tastes when the scabs are forming. It seriously tasted like a dirty diaper (sorry I know it’s gross) but seriously your breathe will smell horrible and taste even worse. Honestly it was probably the main cause of me throwing up the taste and chocking on the mucas and scabs.
I didn’t expect drinking to be so horrible either, If it’s too cold it hurts! Also i couldn’t drink more than a sip at a time for the first 8 days. Eating is pretty much impossible. I didn’t even try most days more than a popsical.
Coughing has become an issue in days 7-10 I find myself getting in coughing sprees and it hurts. Feels like something’s stuck in my thoat.
Today (day 10) I ate some very soft noodles and some potato soup and it actually went down decent so I got cocky and tried one of my sisters McDonald’s fries (it was even very soft) and it hurt pretty bad. I feel basically back to normal other than the fact it still hurts a little to swallow my own saliva and liquids and the fact that I still can’t eat super solid foods. Hoping within the next few days I will be able to eat more stuff. That’s the hardest part right now cause I just want to get back to normal and it’s frustrating!!
I just weighed myself and have lost 15 pounds in 10 days. (I’m only 5’1 so that’s a lot of weight). Today I have only taken 3 ibuprofen earlier in the day and nothing besides that. The pain is definitely tolerable. It really just feels like a sore throat at this point. Sadly today’s the first day I have actually got out of the house and did something without feeling awful. My two week checkup is coming up in a few days so I’m hoping dr says all is looking good and I am able to get back to normal activities.
Sorry I know this was a super long post but honestly I wish I would have read some of this before had because the littlest weirdest things caught me most off gaurd and I didn’t feel fully prepared. Hopefully this will help someone in any way!
i remember reading this before i had my tonsillectomy on Oct 9, 2017. it helped a lot. Thank you.
I am on Day 24 post adentonsillectomy today. I still have intense pain on the left side of my throat, mainly on swallowing. Still hurts to talk more than a few minutes, yawn, sneeze etc. I have a lump on the left side of my neck. GP thought infection so put me on antibiotics 5 days ago. Will see my surgeon later today for his review. Will post back with his thoughts on my pain. Was expecting to feel a lot better by now – right side of throat has been pain free for nearly a week now. Still very tired, needing panadeine a few times a day, heat packs at night etc.
Surgeon said what I’m experiencing in normal as we forget the tonsil beds extend almost halfway down the
Neck. If we broke our arm, they can put it in a cast to help it heal but they can’t do that to our mouths! Perhaps I’m a slow healer? I was expecting 2 weeks of pain and then once the scabs come off it’s all good… no it’s not. It’s still going to hurt after 2 weeks. I’m experiencing enough pain to need Oxynorm (oxycodone 10mg). I’m 30 and had both adenoids and tonsils removed on 25/5/17.
Hi Caris. I’m so sorry you are having trouble. The bulk of my pain went away around day 26. I was like you. The right side stopped hurting much earlier than the left side. I’m still taking Tylenol about every 6 hours and today I’m on day 31, but the pain is only like a very small sore throat now. I found that putting arnica salve on my neck/under my chin really helped for the uncomfortable lumps and pain. I didn’t start comfortably yawning or sneezing until about day 29. With talking, really give it time. Once it comes back it comes back quickly. I found that carrying a water bottle around everywhere and chewing gum helped. The moister you can keep your throat the better. Sleeping was an issue for me up until just recently as my throat would get dry at night. My humidifier saved my life. Sending prayers and healing your way. Don’t lose hope, you are so close to feeling normal again. Wishing you the best!
Chloe