Sophie’s Tonsillectomy Surgery and Recovery
I thought i’d share my surgery/tonsillectomy story and give some tips on how I managed to get through it.
Now this was my first surgery I have ever had in my 19 years of being.. and I was petrified of the thought, but it was necessary. I was having tonsillitis 8 times a year, every year from 2012-2015 and a few occasional emergency hospital trips where once I had spent an entire week in hospital as my infection was so severe, this was the turning point for me.. I knew something had to be done.
So I had arrived at the hospital after an hours drive from home in the early hours of the morning, my admission was at 8AM but wasn’t until around 11AM (I think) that my surgery occurred. I was shown to my ward and room where I then had to get changed into the surgical gown and cap and answer a few of the mandatory pre-op questions. I then waited what felt like hours.. and hours, knowing it could be my turn at any second. It was 10:30AM when the surgeon came in to whisk me away and surprisingly I wasn’t as scared as I thought I was going to be at that moment in time. I went into a small, uncomfortable pre-surgery room beforehand where they inserted the cannula into my arm and just did some general prepping where I then waited for half an hour. They then took me away and pushed my bed into the operating room – this was the moment that panic set in. This was when I briefly wanted to change my mind and just escape. There was something about the small, flat, metal table that I was required to lay on, surrounded by machines and surgical tools that set me on edge but I pushed through the fear and went with it. They lifted me onto the operating table where I was then hooked up to machines. The comforting woman who was standing above me put a mask over my face and told me she was giving me oxygen and that I needed to take lots of deep breaths, although now I don’t know if it was oxygen or not, I took several very deep breaths and with each breath got dizzier and dizzier. I started having a laughing fit and was told to keep breathing and this was when everything went black.
I remember coming to and being in the recovery room and slightly aware of my surroundings although I didn’t have the energy to move or open my eyes but overheard the nurses discussing someone messing up my medication or something, oops. But maybe I was hallucinating, who knows? 
I was taken to my room where I took a few sips of water and remember my throat feeling very tight and uncomfortable, although not very painful as I was still under morphine’s beautiful influence. My friends and family were there to greet me although I didn’t really talk very much for obvious reasons and soon fell asleep for the rest of the day, I was kept overnight for observation and what I wish I had appreciated then and there, slept peacefully with only spikes of 6 out of 10 pain. I didn’t vomit or pass out when I got out of bed, my time in the hospital was quite pleasant when I think back to it.
Heading back from hospital my dad bought me a coffee which I drank with minimal pain and I then spent the rest of the day sleeping.
So I’ll try to make my summary of the days short:
Day 1: Pain was minimal (5/10 average) – talking was almost impossible as everything was so swollen and my jaw was very stiff, slept most of the day – drank coffee, lots of water and ate some pumpkin soup. Took panadol elixir regularly and tramadol when pain was worse.
Day 2: Pain was worse when I woke up at 4AM needing water and pain medication, lived off of yogurt that day (had to crush up very large antibiotics into my yogurt, was disgusting. (7/10 pain average)
Day 3-5: Worst days of recovery, throat needed to be constantly moist and if it wasn’t I knew about it. Woke up every 4 hours in almost unbearable pain, took me so long to work up the courage to even take my pain medication because of the pain in my throat. Didn’t eat much on these days. Antibiotics had started to give me diarrhea and I started to feel very ill with fevers, nausea and shakiness. It was around lunch time on day 5 when I took my liquid panadol and immediately threw it back up, this then ruptured a blood vessel in my throat where I was spitting up a lot of blood into the sink. I was taken to the hospitals emergency ward where luckily the bleeding had stopped but I was given pain medication and fluids to treat the dehydration. (Easily spikes of 10/10 pain on each of these days)
Day 6: Pain had started to subside and I had gotten hold of medications to numb my throat and worked a lot better for me than on the earlier days. Ate mostly soup and a small amount of noodles.
Day 7: Was the day that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, the day the pain wasn’t so bad as before and I felt like I could function and start leaving the bed and stay awake all day. I went for a little walk outside and just felt generally a lot better. Took antibiotics with water and could talk better, had my first proper meal of chicken wings and mashed potato. (6/10 pain)
Day 8: Still improving – had my first quite large meal of roast chicken and veggies, helped stretch out my jaw and has felt much better since. (5/10 pain)
(Current) Day 9: Went into town for the first time and ate a chicken kiev and some amazing chocolate, feel as though it is just a case of tonsillitis now and I am so excited to be able to function again as I am so close to normality.
I am on day 9 and have lost 5 kilos/11lbs, I only had occasional earaches, my teeth hurt quite bad when I began to chew normal food again, the surgeon cut off part of my uvula for some unknown reason which made the recovery more painful but I believe it may have stopped my snoring.
TIPS:
Set alarms to drink water and take pain medication before the pain becomes so bad that it wakes you up (this is what I did.. and it was not a fun time.)
KEEP HYDRATED!!!! By any means, the pain of dehydration is so much worse when combined with tonsillectomy pain, take it from me it is not something you will want to experience.
Buy dissolvable aspirin/ibuprofen tablets and lozenges WITH anaesthetic!!!! Put 2 tablets in a glass of water, drink it slowly and occasionally gargle, then suck on a lozenge.. your throat will be completely numb for 20 minutes giving you enough time to eat whatever you want to but doesn’t give you that weird numb tongue feeling that the numbing liquid does. This was how I managed to survive my recovery past day 5. It even works better for me than the strong pain killers.
Don’t force yourself to do anything too strenuous and try to get a person that is willing to bring you everything you will need (trust me.. you will love this person)
That’s all for now and good luck with your healing!