I am a 42 yr old male that had a tonsillectomy on Sept 25th 2017 so as of this post I believe I am on day 8. I had the works done including a Septoplasty and Tubinate Reduction. I spent weeks before my surgery reading these boards and expecting the absolute worst. One of my employees at work told me he wouldn’t wish this surgery on his worst enemy. I thought I was going to to have a panic attack the day of the surgery just waiting for my hell to begin the second I woke up. I woke up in the hospital and because of my sleep apnea I got to stay over for night in the hospital for observation. I woke up sleepy but not in much pain. I couldn’t breathe because of my nose surgery but my throat only felt a little scratchy. I remember thinking this isn’t too bad at all and the banana Popsicle tasted great. I didn’t get too comfortable because I figured the IV pain meds made things a lot better for me then I would get at home. When I left to go home I still felt pretty good. Throat hurt but I have had much worse sore throats in my days. I kept waiting for the pain to come but it never came. I don’t think my pain ever went above a 3-4(mostly days probably a 2-3).
Granted I was very swelled, my nose was packed and I was drugged up, so it still wasn’t a picnic but the pain just never really came. On day 4 I had my stents removed from nose and the doctor commented on how well I looked. Told me patients typically look like death by the 4 day. I was smiling and happy and couldn’t wait to breathe again. Told the Doctor I was still waiting for the pain. He told me if you haven’t had it yet you probably never will. I was still skeptical and thought I was still in for the worse after reading most people get the worst pain around days 5-8.
I am now on day 8 and he was right no pain, it only kept getting better. I was watching football yesterday thinking what that hell am I going to do with myself for an entire week(I took off two weeks for work). Now as great as I feel I am still not 100% by any means. I Still cannot eat and if try to eat something rough I will feel the pain then and I still have no energy because of the lack of food. Things are quickly improving I am just about off my meds(1 more day should do it) and I slept through the night yesterday (I think this really improved my sleep apnea) and woke feeling great. My next step is to get my food intake going. I can’t really tell if my scabs have fallen off yet or not. Feels like they have started to fall off in pieces, but because of the lack of pain I have never really bothered to notice whether they have fallen off or not.
I just wanted to post this to show there is hope. You will find 100 horror stories for every 1 story like this but I am not a superman or somebody even with a high pain tolerance. My wife was braced for me being a baby for 2 weeks and to be honest I never asked her for one thing. By day 3 I was even cooking my own mash potatoes and cream of wheat. To be sure this surgery is a long recovery(even without the pain) and one you need to stay on top of. I never missed a pain med dosage and I was always drinking water. The pure swelling the first few days made sleeping rough(especially with the nose) and the constant pain meds (Oxy) made me tired so I was always drifting in and out of sleep. I am a big dude (6-5 and 240Lbs) so I have already dropped 20lbs in a week, but never have I felt hungry or nauseated. I look as that as a bonus. Free diet with surgery ? I have been meaning to drop 25lbs for sometime. Outside of the swelling and mucus which I expected everything else has been completely different than I ever imaged it to be. There is hope and everybody’s experience is different, so try to stay calm until your surgery it just might not be as bad as you think;) Good luck to everybody.