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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
On day 7. And the pain is getting worser. As i read from other forums, this is normal. I still cant yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. But are hopeful…
Note. I also cleared out one side of my sinuses. This may or may not be affecting my recovery.
Hi Barbara,
My thoughts are with you! I had my surgery at the beginning of the summer. Not fun. This is one nasty experience, huh? Hang in there. It might seem awful right now but remember that it WILL end! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Stay postitive! Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Best,
Chloe
Hi I’m 55 and female from Baltimore on day 6 of recovery from tonsils and uppp surgery. First few days weren’t so bad. No appetite but kept plenty of liquids down with ice cream and popcicles. Yesterday day 5 all hell broke lose and swallowing brought tears to my eyes. Major pain right on schedule from all the recovery blogs I have read. Scans must be getting ready to fall off. Sleepless nights, A few little projects around the house until I get lightheaded. Only want warm drinks for now so microwave soups, Mac n cheese, but takes all I have to swallow and get down. Pain meds every four hours now with water and ice pack around my neck -throats helps. Wake up about every hour with throats pain. Hope this stage moves on by day 10 when I see doctor for a follow up. Planned to go back to work around day 14-15. Have not talked since day 4 when pain began worsening and ear aches are a major everyday appearance too. Gargling with plain water every day helps and seems to be helping with removal of some tissue or scanning (?) Hope I’m normal with recovery and not the 3-4 week abinormal patient! All for severe sleep apnea and this has about an 80% success rate. Fingers crossed. Probably should have had them out years ago but better late than never!
Hi Barbara,
My thoughts are with you! I had my surgery at the beginning of the summer. Not fun. This is one nasty experience, huh? Hang in there. It might seem awful right now but remember that it WILL end! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Stay postitive! Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Best,
Chloe
Hi I’m jade, I’m on my 4th day of recovery. I was in hospital 3 hours after my operation and then I was allowed home.
I’m eating normal foods and drinking normal. Not had no bleeding but it’s healing quite quickly. They say the better you eat because obviously something has been removed from your mouth so your mouth hurts more because there’s changes at the back off the throat, so your throat is just getting used too all the space.
I’m on ibruphen and co-codomol. Through out the day the pain ain’t that bad, I brush my teeth 5 times a day because of infection, I also gargle with salt water and drink plenty of fluids.
I’m suffering with earache and headaches in a morning and at night and I find my throat hurts more before I go bed. I’m doing everything like I would do normallly through out the day keeping my self busy, the longer you lay around I find it will take longer for healing.
I’m in tears in a morning because I can’t swallow or talk so it hurts so much. So I get up so my teeth, take my pain killers, rinse with salt water and then have a brew and then I’m back too normal. I can see my scabs coming off my mums a sister on A&E and she said that the normal food you eat the quicker the healing because your scabs will just fall off.
I can’t wait too be back in work 🙂 the only time I go back bed is when it’s bedtime lol. I just do my normal activities through out the day 🙂 it takes my mind off the pain. I’m just wondering when can I actually start smoking because it’s my 4th day without a fag and I feel like killing someone lol. It’s very hard this none smoking too everything is healed lol.
Hello! I am a 20yr old male and I am currently on day 7 of this wild surgery recovery. I always heard recovering from a tonsillectomy is one of the worst pains you can go through (in respect of both painfulness and it’s long time). My entire experience from day one has been nothing but miserable pain.
Though it has been a full week now and I still haven’t eaten too much, I found it odd and a little relieving that I wasn’t remotely hungry at all during the first maybe three days. I didn’t even think about food. I think that is maybe a side effect from post surgery and with all the medication.
So they have me taking oxycodone every four hours along with two rinses; chlorhexidine gluconate (which tastes like a mind mouthwash) and lidocaine viscous soln. Now I use to actually take all three every four hours however the pill already hurt enough to swallow and the rinses would leave me spitting never ending sticky spit into my sink for a good minute. The lidocaine rinse was so unbelievably gooey it’s like trying to mush pudding between your teeth, and it only hit my mouth so my throat was even being treated right. The rinses were also a nuisance to take because I realized my breathing through my nose was altered. I could only inhale through my nose, and if I tried to exhale it was like my soft palate was so inflamed it stopped me from doing so.
I remember trying my best to blow my nose with what power I could force and bloody chunks would come out. And also, something I never even thought would be a problem was the amount of stinky mucous. My breath STINKS. I’ve tried brushing my teeth to help prevent the stink but really it’s not use, it’s my torn apart throat.
My doctor recommended to sleep up straight, so I do try that, because I’ve noticed from sleeping on one side I’ll either drool or a lot of the pain will shift to one side of my throat. Trying to sleep sucks. I wake up every few hours from coughing/choking on mucous. Even though it hurts I try my best to just hock whatever flem is in my throat out into the sink. I know it sounds nasty but I have to be real here.
As it goes for eating, what I’ve managed to eat best was some pudding, lobster bisque soup, pancakes, mac n cheese, and of course ice chips. I did go through a small ice chip faze however after a while the coldness begins to hurt my throat. Talking is also very very limited. I miss talking! Or at least talking in my regular voice. A lot of the times when I even try to speak it just hurts and I can’t get the first few words out right away.
Over all what I miss the most is just being outside and being productive. I hate sitting inside all day and not having many people to talk to. Some moments are far worse than others. Mainly when I eat or attempt to is when I get a lot of problems. So I’ve refrained from eating only unless I’m miserably hungry. And I try to drink enough water to stay hydrated. I just can’t wait until this is over. I am ready to tap out.
your experience sounds a lot like mine. im on day 11. I still have sharp pains at the base of my tongue after i eat and bad in the morning. i still see small white scab pieces attached and my reg doc took look and said i had a lot of scar tissue back there. my diet has matched yours, i try regular food but revert to the pancakes, eggs, applesause because of the scratchy pain. im almost 60 and am tired of all the yearly antibiotics. im also quietly hoping it will help a chronic cough and snoring. good luck to you.