adult post tonsillectomy & adenoidectomy, what to expect

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!! I am now two months post op and all is healed, supposidly, I have been back to work since two weeks after. I can eat solid foods, but for some reason, I can't taste sweet foods, they all taste like metal. I guess that is good for me!! I lost 20 pounds in 10 days after my surgery, but I ate absolutely nothing but one scrambled egg after I left the hospital. I think along with the drinking plenty of fluids, you have to force yourself to eat, otherwise, you take longer to heal.
My doctor said NO WAY to Ibuprophen, so I took Naproxin Sodium instead, two each 24 hour period, along with my hydrocodone... My ears hurt so intensly, I found that sleeping slightly propped up with an ice pack under my head worked so well, in fact better than any of the pills... I didnt have liquids pooling in the back of my throat while I slept, and I didnt snore (my hubby told me anyhow!!!) it helps to keep the pain in check as you are waking up. I kept a bunch of bottled water in my room by my bed and in the fridge. when cold water is uncomfortable, room temp water does the trick. If your ears hurt terribly and the ice pack doesnt work 100%, I also tried the heating pad, on low to medium, on your ear, kind of draws the pain out... my neighbor told me about an old missionary trick, peel an onion, doesnt matter what color onion, do not cut it, peel it, down to the heart, heat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, wrap it in a washcloth or old rag (it will smell like onions, even after washed) and place it inside your ear, it is amazing, it works, but your house will smell of onions and your microwave will reek for a long time... but in my opinioin, it is worth it. it draws the pain out and you can relax. I had the most horrible time swallowing before my meds, I made my hubby plug my ears (or if he wasnt home, I used ear plugs) while I swallowed and got numb. Ceopycol losenges are a life saver, if you can get past the taste initially.
I still get tired easily, but I am also very active. I work 12 hour days, coach volleyball and baseball, am the den mother for cub scouts, volunteer in my middle schoolers classes and am President of my 5th graders PTO. Before the surgery, I could do all of this and still cook my hubby a great dinner and have the neighbor kids spend the night, now I am trying to cut my work hours back and thinking of giving up on some of the extras until I can get my strength back. Maybe it is because I am getting older, maybe it is because I just havent gotten back to my regular lifestyle yet? Maybe it is a lasting side affect? I guess I will find out as I go further down the line of recovery.. my ENT said it can take up to a year to fully recover. I Pray that this isnt the case.....
I wish you all speedy recovery, and as little pain as possible.... Remember to drink, drink, drink and also eat whatever you can.... force yourselves. find your own aid, dont be afraid to experiment, just because soemthing isnt listed here, doesnt mean thaqt it wont work. ask elders, ask friends, ask nurses, experiment.... the worst thing that can happen really is that it wont work... at least then you know!!!

GOD BLESS and feel better soon.....

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all that celebrate them... and Happy Day to those of you that do not.....

AbbeyD wrote:

Hello all, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope all are well and those of you ready to go to surgery tomorrow and early next week are excited to get it over with! I feel pretty good, still taking pain meds but it is much more bearable. Today was the first day I could eat some real food and I enjoyed it! I've lost about 6 lbs so far and I doubt that I will lose much more from this point on. My throat looks like it is healing well and the scabs are slowly disappearing. It's still pretty white back there but there is more pink tissue visible. I think tomorrow will be the turning point in this as I still am tired today but have a little more energy. I've been talking normally since yesterday and have even been lifting my little ones (even thought I'm not supposed to lift for 10 days). All in all it has not been a horrible experience and I am so glad that I got them out! Good luck tomorrow Lilly it will be fine! Make sure you drink, drink, drink water all the time to keep things moist and you will feel better and heal more quickly. I hope your recovery is as smooth as mine has been, I'm sure it will be. Abbey

I'm one week removed from my surgery and just wanted to post some positive thoughts for those of you recovering or considering having your tonsils removed.

The docs decided to take mine out after my second abscessed tonsil. I'm 29 years old and was a bit freaked out, but the thought of no more abscesses was what made me sign the papers!

The surgery was fine, and my recovery has been "normal" as I understand it. I woke up and felt great (b/c I was still on IV pain meds). Two days later, the pain had intensified when talking and swallowing to about a 7 or 8 on a 10-point scale, but the codiene every 4 hours definitely helps. My biggest complaint is how tired I am, but I can't really complain about that b/c it's from the pain medicine!

I've found soup in a bread bowl to be a tasty meal. You get the warmth and taste of the soup and a little extra nourishment from the mooshy bread that you can scrape out. I can also manage mac and cheese fairly well. It just kinda slides down, and again, the warmth is soothing. I've taken to drinking some Boost or Ensure for breakfast. The chocolate flavor is decent enough.

One thing that I suggest that's not medical related is to have lots of support around you. It can get really lonely in your bed after a while, so having visitors of friends and family stop by (even if just for 10 minutes) has really brightened my days.

Another thing that's kept me going is knowing that once this pain is gone, I shouldn't have any more pain in my throat again. If you ever had an abscessed tonsil, you'll understand what I mean. Both times, I was literally drooling into a cup b/c I couldn't swallow my own spit. At least today I can not only swallow my own spit, I can eat popsiciles and speak! I'm not ready to sing the national anthem any time soon, but I can definitely deal with a little swallowing pain for a couple weeks if it means no more drooling into a cup!

Good luck to you all...happy healing!

I am on day 14 and going back to work tomorrow. I haven't had any narcotic meds in 2 days, and still feel slight pain, sort of raw, but I can eat anything. Like I mentioned earlier, I gained 9 lbs in this ordeal, not what I had in mind, but until I came off the good medicine, I felt great. Now, going cold turkey from taking the meds for almost 2 weeks straight 24/7, I guess I'm feeling some withdrawals, maybe? I am dead dog tired and could sleep 16 hours of the day. I mean, I didn't feel this ragged during any point of my post op recovery. Anyone else felt like this? I hope it's only due to the meds, I've never been on heavy duty drugs for more than a couple of days intermittently.

I am post-op 10 days from surgery removing tonsils and adenoids. I seen my ENT today for the first time since surgery and I was excited to hear him say that I was healing just fine and I doing good for someone who is 25yrs old.

He said I was behind on my fluid intake which I couldn't believe because it seemed like I drank GALLONS of water. He described it as a "charlie horse" in your throat. When you eat, take big swallows and fight through the pain or when yawning, make sure you yawn the whole way even if it's painful to work the muscles. It's like a muscle spasm in your throat and you have to work it out. So drink big gulps of gatorade or take bigger bites.

I switched my pain med from liquid lortab to liquid tylenol with codeine due to the "burning/stinging" sensation from the lortab. If anyone has this problem, it's due to the higher % of alcohol in the lortab than the tyl. with codeine. I wasn't feeling too good this morning but when I started my new pain med., I felt like a new person. I was actually able to eat beef stew for dinner and popcorn for a snack!!

The white coating that some people may have after surgery is the scab. I thought the white coating was going to turned into a scab. That is what I was told and that will eventually go away.

I viewed the pictures that I believe a prior person posted (steve's) but I don't recommend looking at that, that is totally GROSS and not anything what mine looks like. It does depend on the person and their healing abilities, also their surgery and how bad it was really was before surgery.

Good luck for everyone on their healing process and I would totally recommend this surgery. I can take 10 days of a very sore throat so I don't have any more tonsilitis, its so worth it.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

I thought I'd add my experience, since I've frequented this page prior to my own tonsillectomy. I had mine out on the 15th, using the coblation method. I can't say it was any different than people on this board who when through it with the cautery method. A lot of pain the whole time. Today is my first day back to work, 12 days post surgery. I still can't eat much. I have two really sore spots in my throat, one on each side. So far I've survived on posicles and oatmeal. Hot has been really terrible for me, so no soups or teas. I've stuck to lukewarm things at the most. Cold has been a godsend. I want to hug whoever invented popsicles, they saved me! The only complication I had was on the 21st, I had some major bleeding that warranted a trip to the ER. After that, only very smooth, cold foods worked. I actually tried a few baby foods and found that they worked okay. Just nothing too acidic.

My major problem was an intolerance to the pain medication. Although it got rid of the pain, the liquid vicodin made me very sick to my stomach. I had a prescription for Zofran for nausea that helped me keep things down, but it was a rollercoaster of pain and nausea.

Another thing that seemed to help a lot, especially upon waking up, was sitting in the bathroom with the shower running full blast with hot water. The steam seemed to really soothe my throat and made taking pain meds much less traumatic.

Hopefully this helps someone. In all, it was the worst experience of my life, but I'd do anything to prevent getting tonsillitis 9+ times a year. Now I'm just waiting for my voice to return to normal and to eat real food. I've been craving pizza ever since my surgery!

Has anyone had a problem with canker sores after a tonsillectomy? My tongue is covered in them!

I had my tonsils out 13 days ago. My doctor warned me that because I am 34 it was going to be tuff. I told my boss that I was taking a month off because I work in a casino and there are a lot of people that come in and out. It's also flu season and it would REALLY suck to get an infection or catch the flu and be out for another month.

When I first woke up, I couldn't feel or move my legs, nor could I talk.....It retrospect it's really funny , but at the time I was REALLY mad . I was in the recovery room for less than an hour and was allowed to go home. Before I had my surgery I told my doctor that Vicodine gave me a really bad upset stomach so he gave me Lortab (in liquid form). I haven't had any problems with it even when I wasn't eating anything. After I got home I made sure to take my meds every 4 hours. After a few days I thought I'd get cute and wait till I needed them......boy was that a mistake. So I decided to start taking them every 4 1/2 hours. Then the following day every 5 hours and so on. You see my mother and brother are addicted to pain killer so I've always been afraid that I would get hooked also. But I'm smart enough to realize that sometimes you (I) need them, so that's why I started to cut back ASAP.

Breath.....A few days after surgery I tried to brush my teeth because my mouth felt really gross. I realizes after the first few times that if i try to stretched my mouth before I brushed it was much easier. Take it REAL slow though and don't push it. For me, moving my tongue was the biggest problem. I started to hold it down so I could brush it a little. It took me about 15 minutes the first time, it gotten easier and faster since then though.

Sleeping....what an adventure. I propped up 3 pillows and basically slept sitting up. It wasn't that bad and actually pretty comfortable. I was only able to sleep for about 2 hours at a time because I had to take my pain meds and antibiotics but it still wasn't that bad.

Drooling.....I would do it when I slept and even when I was awake. When I slept I put a towel on my pillow. And when I was awake I kept a tissue handy and made sure I used a lot of facial and lip mosturizer. And that pretty much solved that problem. But it did make me feel like I was 4 years old.

Scabs.....My first scab came off on day 5. It was kinda gross because of all the warm blood that I swallowed, but I just started spitting it out. I gargled with cold water and after a bit it stopped bleeding. That was the only scab that came off for 2 days. On day 7 I was going crazy because some of the scabs were dangling and making me choke. So I decided to take a look and try to do something about it. Now keep in mind I'm NOT encouraging anyone to do anything at all. I'm just sharing with you what I did. I CAREFULLY started to take the scabs off that were driving me crazy. I felt 1,000 times better. I was a little afraid to tell my husband but after I did he was happy for me because I wasn't choking and coughing anymore.

The swelling in my throat gets a little better every day. Hot showers and baths seem to help as well as ice packs. I can also talk better every day. I try to drink as much water as possible. For a few days I didn't drink much water and I paid for it. I was VERY dried out and my throat was killing me........duh. Also, since it's cold outside we've had the heater and the fireplace going, I suggest that if you have your surgery in the winter get a humidifier. It will help a lot.

Eating.....I didn't eat anything for the first dew days. All I did was drink ALOT of ICE COLD water, which is really funny because I don't use ice in my drinks at all, not even in restaurants. I went through 10 lbs. of ice in the first week. Afterwards I only had water, the broth from chicken noodle soup, and the broth from ramen noodles, and ICEE's until day 11. I made myself 2 scrabbled eggs that day. For some reason this is when hot foods/drinks started to help soothe my throat better. I also got brave and had a few chips, but it chewed the heck out of them am practically let them melt in my mouth before I swallowed. Day 12 I tried to eat pancakes with my favorite strawberry syrup but that was very disappointing, I couldn’t taste them. Slowly but surely my taste buds are coming back. I went to the grocery store yesterday and got some soup from their deli I started to eat it and my throat started burning. I had my son try it and asked him if the soup had pepper in it and it did. Another disappointment, I could actually taste the soup and it was good.

Going out in public.....I had to go to a doctor’s appointment less than 1 week after surgery, but beforehand I asked my manicurist if I could have one of her surgical masks. I was/am afraid to get sick while I'm still healing. Be warned if you decide to wear one, some people will stare and others will be Very rude and make some NASTY comments about you. It's VERY annoying but I'd rather be safe and healthy.

About the only problems I have now are: I have a little pain in my throat, I can't open my mouth all the way yet, it's still swollen, I can't talk completely normal, I still have to be careful about what I eat, I still have to sleep propped up a little, I've also had pain in my left ear since the surgery but that's getting better also. That's about it. Nothing serious or life threatening.

To those of you who are afraid of having the surgery done, don't be it sucks but it'll all be fine. All in all it hasn't been that bad. Yes it's the worst sore throat I've ever had. No I wouldn't want to do it again. Yes if I had to I would. No I don't regret.

Wednesday is my post op appointment hopefully all goes well, I'll let you all know what the doctor says.

mdokter wrote:

Has anyone had a problem with canker sores after a tonsillectomy? My tongue is covered in them!

I had a couple of small fever blisters on my lips, which I usually get from taking antibiotics. I try to stay ahead of that by eating a lot of yogurt with active cultures during that time. My wife gets the sores inside her mouth, like you, also when taking antibiotics.

Hi all, I am now on day 13 post op from coblation tonsillectomy. I haven't posted in a few days so I thought I'd drop a note...

I had my post op appointment yesterday and all is well. I'm healing well and he said to continue to avoid any ibuprofen for another 10 days, don't gargle or use mouthwash for another 10 days and basically to go on my way without my diseased tonsils! I feel pretty good and today have not taken anything for pain. I took some lortab yesterday evening when my throat started burning after I ate a piece of pineapple -- don't do it if you're thinking of it! But I hadn't taken anything stronger than Tylenol for 2 days prior to that. It has been a manageable experience and I'm glad they're out of my throat! Hang in there everyone going through it right now, you'll be feeling better very soon. I am very tired all the time and feel like I could nap anytime if I could. I am back to my "regular" schedule with my little ones and lifting everyone/doing the usual stuff. It would be nice to have a babysitter a couple of times a day so I could nap but I'll manage.

I haven't had a canker sore problem, but is anyone having problems with food getting stuck in the holes where the tonsils used to be?

Abbey

Hello Everyone,

I'm a newbie to this site and I must say this is waht I've been looking for. I jsut got the news that I should have my tonsuls removed - I am 28yo. When I was 12 ym dr adivse me to have them removed and he later said it wasnt necessary, so of course i didnt and no i regret it. Long story short - ive decided to have the surgeroy in 2 weeks. I am a big guy 220lbs, healhty and fit, but i am scared. mostly of the pain. this site has been very helpful for real experiences. Can anyone please put me at ease and reassure me that everything will be fine. Any advice and help hints will be much apperciated.

Thanks in advance and I wish you all great happiness and healthy.
Noah