Adult post tonsillectomy recovery, what's worked for me

Hey, I smoked too when I had mine done eleven days ago! To be fair
Having a smoke has been the last thing on my mind since the surgery and I smoked almost 20 a day beforehand! It hasn't bothered
Me in the slightest which really surprised me!! Good luck!!

Hi everyone I wanted to share my tonsillectomy experience with you all. I am a 28year old female, currently on day 10 of my recovery and feeling good. Before I went in for surgery I was doing LOTS of research and picked up some tips that really helped me which i will share with you all. I woke up from my surgery and although I was sore it wasn't that bad, i even managed to eat a yoghurt while in my hospital bed. I was sent home with paracetamol, Ibuprofen & a gargle/wash for my throat, that was it. By day 3 I was in tears with the pain, I went to my own doctor for stronger pain relief which he gladly gave me. I was taking painkillers every 3.5 hrs without fail, I was recording this on a note pad so I didn't over do it. I was setting an alarm to wake me up to take them (when i first read about this I thought "you crazy, if i'm asleep i'm not in pain so forget it" NOPE, NOPE, NOPE because while that was true, when asleep it's not hurting you gotta wake up some time and then its HORRIFIC!!) I was drinking LOTS and eating as much as I possibly could.

I think the key thing is fluids and protien...the basic building block for tissue re growth....I have a huge tub of protien and I'm going to start taking some tomorrow as well as eat some oatmeal blah blah blah ....my uvula is unbearabely big also its actually the worst part in my opinion cuz I'm constantly choking on it.

I'm a 27 year old male and had my tonsillectomy done 23 days ago. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

My experience may be different from everyone else's, being that I also had my sinus cavity and deviated septum worked on as well.

 

Day 1 - I woke up from the surgery could breath better than I ever have in my entire life. All I wanted to do was sleep and that is just what I did.

 

Day 2 - After sleeping the entire first day I woke up around 630am the next morning to an excruciating pain, a swollen throat, and drainage from my nose into my throat. I tried to take my pain killers (liquid hydrocodone) but the drainage caused me to choke anytime I tried to swallow (being that I couldn't breathe through my nose to elevate the pressure from swallowing and I can't swallow with my mouth open). Ended up going to the hospital for dehydration and was given 4 IV's and a bunch of pain killers. To help you not go through that I would suggest you set your alarm every 4 hours to ensure you have just enough time to take your meds before the pain comes back and you end up not being able to swallow.

 

Day 6 - My doctor was going on vacation so I ended up going back to see him on this day. Besides the 2nd day I haven’t had any problems.

 

Day 7 through day 11 - for some reason I went through more pain killers these days compared to all the rest. Day 10 is when I started eating solid food again (nothing hot but nothing cold as they will hurt like hell). I found that for some reason the soft foods actually caused me more pain then solid foods. Mashed potatoes hurt me like no other, yet I was able to eat pizza.

 

Day 23 - I still have to sleep with my head elevated otherwise I wake up and it feels like my throat is swollen. I still have a little bit of bleeding in my nose, I have to use Q-Tips to get some of the boogers and what not out (again because I also had work on my nose). The left side of my tongue for some reason is different. I really don’t know how to explain it other than it's different. It feels like it numb but at the same time it's. I also still have trouble swallowing, it seems like my food is getting stuck right behind my uvula so I'm constantly drinking liquids with food to push it down.  

 

Before having all this done I was in great shape (In the Military) able to run a 1.5 mile in under ten minutes, do 60 push-ups in a minute, and do 60 sit-ups in a minute. Now I currently cannot finish even a mile I stop around .75 because my throat hurts. As for push-ups forget about it, I can't do so much as one without my throat hurting. Sit-ups are fine, no problems there. However, weight lifting hurts. I was up to 215 lbs (lifting my body weight) and after the surgery I can't seem to get over 100. I'm pretty sure it was due to the water and Jello diet, when you starve your body the first thing it eats is muscle then it moves on to eating fat.

 

 

 

 

A few pointers:

Days 1 - 3 take your meds on time every time and drink ice cold water, eat ice cream and crushed ice, and also cold jello. If not on your pain killers it could possible hurt like hell. This will help keep the swelling down.

 

Once the swelling is down make sure everything you take in is warm (not hot and not cold) it's going to suck and you will hate it after the first day or so but it will help.

 

I wouldn't eat any solid foods until at least days 8 or 9 to ensure you don't rip off a scab and have to go into the ER to start all over again.

 

Smokers: Don't smoke! Wait until at least day 12 or so until you resume your habit, it's not going to be good for your healing. The suction (you sucking on the end of the cigarette) and the hot smoke are going to hurt and only damage your throat prolonging the healing. I smoked when I had my wisdom teeth out and learned my lesson there. Although I don’t smoke anymore, I'm confident it will be close to the same effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

sorry I used MS office for this because I dont have my glasses so I cant really see what I'm typing. Don't know why it put a link there, also that is the same reason I seemed to have missed a few words

I had my tonsils out 7 days ago. I found that my crunchy food craving could be satisfied by eating Gerber Graduates Puff cereal snack. I picked banana. Crunchy but "moosh" to swallow. Also helps to get something more substantial on your stomach for all the pain meds. Soaking the inside of french bread in the chicken noodle soup was good too.

hiya

so sorry to hear how much pain you went through with your recovery.

just so people know who are looking to maybe get it done this is not the same for everyone .



i am recovering now and the pain is very manageable with the medication given!

the first day i had them out i was in such shock that my throat hardly hurt at all and felt so smooth !

since then (im on day 7 now) i am able to eat and drink fairly normally since like the 3rd day but not much and extremely slowly and soft food.

as i can move my mouth very well . i cant speak well due to movement of my mouth and tongue increases pain to the throat.



but like i said the pain is very manageable and nothing like the pain i have endured when the tonsil were in my throat and infected !



maybe my surgeon did a slightly better job ! maybe he was more gentle and not a rough :S !



hope your throat feels great now :)

however reading other people comment just now it seems people are given different drugs to go home with so maybe this was why .

i was given paracetamol , strong pain killers i don't think u can get over the counter . antibiotics , and the pain relief wash .

After my tonsillectomy I found that tea was a life saver and Pepsi seemed to soothe my throat, I had to be admitted to hospital on day 3 due to bleeding (I lost a couple of pints) but I was out on day 7. It is now day 11 and my throat is much better but due to another infection the rest of my body is feeling rough. Tough times with this operation, even though I am 17.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Just looking for advice and ideas as I take care of my post- op 23 yr old son.

Today marked the 5th day of my post tonsellectomy + uvuloplasty. I thought the pain will be lessen at this point in time, honestly it's nerve killing sensation, cateregorically painful. I'm on regular pain killers but seems it works only a quarter than expected. I'm hungry but I can't, ice cream, cold ice water and cold milk are the only supplements I can tolerate.

I had my tonsillectomy a couple months ago, but as this page gave me some reassurance beforehand I wanted to still come back and put my experience.

I'm 20 year old female, this is the first surgery I've ever had so I was pretty nervous. As soon as I woke up from surgery the recovery nurse gave me a popsicle to eat, it was really hard and I felt like I was going to ckoke on every bite, it didn't hurt since the anesthesia hadn't worn off, I just felt like there was something obstructing my throat. I don't know if this is standard procedure at other hospitals but they said it was to keep the swelling down. For that first day it really didn't hurt much at all I went hope took a nap, and then ate some mashed potatos and later some pudding. The secon through fifth day for me were pretty much all the same, it hurt more, I was nauseated from the pain medications but got something for that from my doctor. I took my painkillers every six hours as directed, but since my doctor perscribed them in pill form they were very hard to swallow. I would eat about thirty minutes after taking them as I found this was when it was least painful. I know a lot of people talk about ice cream after a tonsillectomy, but i found that it was way to sugary, what worked for me was warm things like soup, mashed potatos... I also ate popsicles. Around day four and five I started having really intense ear pain, as if I had an ear infection. My doctor said this was normal.

For me the turning point came at day 11, I started eating more nowmal foods, just slowly and in small bites. I was able to stop taking the painkillers all the time. As I started eating solid foods I noticed that it didn't hurt right away but several hours later. I think this was due to the stuff at the back of my throat being scraped off. Over the next couple of days the scabs kind of started to flake off (you swallow them, just try not to think about it, "its just tissue" as my doctor told me).

Just a couple tips that worked for me

Get a humidifier- when you sleep your throat gets really dried out and makes it incredibly painful to swallow anything, but this helps a bit.

I would eat a popsicle everyonce in a while for swelling, but I also kept an ice pack wrapped in a towel around make neck all the time.

If you fell nauseated after the pain medications, you may throw up, this idea really horrified me, as I was thinking about that acid feeling in my throat in the condition it was in- it wsan't that bad, I threw up on day three and it didn't feel any worse than normal

Kind of gross but in the nature of full disclosure- painkillers probably in combination with my diet cause constipation, I didn't poo for two weeks, some people suggest getting a perscription for a laxative

Overall I would say this surgery leaves you feeling very bad of course, and while I don't have anything to compare it to, I can't imagine that its worse than childbirth or other conditions that its been compared to. It just lasts longer and sometimes you start to feel sorry for yourself and feel like you are going to feel bad forever, but it does end, like I said for me that turn around came about day 11.

One last thing, when I first woke up from the surgery I was crying even though I wasn't in pain and had this feeling of doom or dread, at the same time I knew they were irrational and I couldn't figure out why I felt that way. My doctor said that was a normal reaction to the anesthesia, so I would say just prepare yourself and know you're going to be okay. I hope this surgery works for yall I have found that it has helped most though not all of the throat issues I was having.

 

I am on day 10 right now and pain is easing up a bit but not enough to quit the pain meds yet! My main issue right now, is all the phlegm i have been having. it's so much that it's ridiculous. i feel like i cough every minute all day long trying to get this stuff out! i've been gargling and nothing seems to be working for me. i haven't been sleeping a lot lately because it seems to affect my breathing sometimes because it gives the feeling like theres something stuck in you, which there is, phlegm! Called and talked with the nurse and she said it was normal but i just wish that it would hurry up and ease up or go away because i can't take this anymore. my post op appointment with the ent doctor is april 16th 2013. guess i'll see what he says.

You can put it back in as soon as your done it won't hurt anything the only thing it will do is make everything taste like metal

I'm 25 and I just got my tonsils out yesterday. My pain has gotten worse through the night. I have phlem too which is scaring me! It's a brownish color which reminds me of dried blood... Is this normal? I'm also afraid to cough but I have been a little to get it out. It doesn't hurt worse when I cough but I'm just so afraid of bleeding. Anyone else have this problem??