Last night I started spitting...chunks out...and I think its the white stuff covering where my tonsils were. I'm wondering if this is the scabs? Its soft though..its not scratchy like a scab.
The surgery went well, the first thing I told the nurse as she was waking me up was "it doesn't hurt that bad", then I started crying from the anaesthetic. My pain level went from 1/10- 4/10 as everything was wearing off, and it was mostly just where the oxygen tube was...the sides didnt hurt at all at this point.
I was only slightly nausious after surgery, and it was when I was still trying to sleep and everybody was talking. Other than that, there was no nausea.
Since I'm under age they kept me in the hospital for three hours and then I went home. I slept most of the first day. On the way home I was able to eat jello, and that night I ate rice pudding, popsicles, and more jello.
I was prescribed an antibiotic and liquid loratab, which I'm still taking every 4-6 hours.
- Day 2 my boyfriend came over, I was able to eat some ice cream, I tried a few bites of noodles, but choked and gave the bowl back. Still able to eat rice pudding, drinking lots of gatorade and water. Pain level was a 6/10, it hurt to swallow, and I was able to talk in a few sentences but I kept to a minimum for the most part.
-Day 3 I woke up, was feeling pretty good, ate some rice pudding, took my pain medicine, all was fine and dandy, then I decided to go for a ride in the car. Of course I was not driving because I was on narcotics...Still..Not a good idea. After 20 minutes I got really dizzy and nauseous, and once I got out of the car I was throwing up. Felt fine after throwing up though. We went out to eat, my throat burned, and I tried to eat mashed potatoes...with no success. Picked up my pay check from work and went home.
The horrible taste in my mouth and bad breath was beginning.
Day 4- I felt fantastic all day. I skipped two doses of the pain medicine, and drank frozen chai all day.. I think the continual drinking played a large part in my feeling so good. That night I was able to talk almost normally, I had minimal pain with painkillers 3/10. I was able to eat alfredo and macaroni without extrodinary effort.
Day 5- Today is my day 5. Last night my scabs started coming off, and today their coming off. It tastes disgusting, but it feels better after their off.
My throat is sore, maybe a 5/10, but I'm gonna try my frozen drink again and see if it helps. Slightly nauseous this morning, I believe thats due to the scabs coming off though, I woke up coughing and choking... I have some moderate ear pain in both ears today as well..overall, I don't feel terrible, more like I have a flu.
This is not the best experience I've had, but is by far not the worst...I got my wisdom teeth out 3 months ago, and that was not only a traumatic experience, but the pain was 3 times worse...Dry socket...is the worst pain you can imagine.
I do think however that I may have gotten lucky with my tonsils, I think I may be ahead of schedule on healing. Heres my suggestion to anybody thinking of doing this surgery.
1. Be sure you need it..Get a few opinions.
sounds exactly like mine right now. stiil have to figure out a nam for my uvula though ha ha
Hi everyone!
I'm 37 and had my tonsils removed 14 days ago. I'm still sore and still have a hard time swallowing but it's getting much better. I read up on what to expect and yes, some days are worse than others, yes, ice sure does help and yes, keep your meds nearby. I barely slept, barely ate (other than ice chips, what a godsend!), dropped 17lbs in 10 days (which is awesome for my waistline! LOL!). I was scared of the bleeding but it never came. I still have white scabs but the pink of new skin is coming through. I do, however, have horrible breath (I brush my teeth often, and tongue, to help). I am back to work but would have probably needed an extra week off. I'm still not eating a lot (pasta is great, but food in general seems to be reaking havoc with my stomach). My word of advice is to keep yourself hydrated, stay away from milk products the first week (creates mucus at the back of your throat and irritates it), ice your neck, eat ice chips which helps soothe the pain and rest.
I love the comment about the person who wanted to figure out a name for their uvula. I agree with them... mine's huge! Tongue is still swollen and a bit numb on the sides and I still sleep propped up (as I choke on my uvula if lying down flat).
Keep reminding yourself that you're one day closer to full recovery!
I'm a 21 year old student, who was suffering from frequent tonsillitis. I got mine removed 14 days ago. I have to say that reading a lot of posts on post tonsillectomy/ recovery process made me have second thoughts, and they really frightened me! But, I felt like I had a very easy recovery, with VERY MINIMAL PAIN (that is, if you do everything right for your body to recover in a short amount time), and I took a very MINIMAL amount of pain killer!!! And I did not even take a day off from work or school (total of 14 hours a day) since the surgery! So this is a brief summary of my recovery:
1st day (day of surgery): Since I was on general anesthetic, I didn't feel like doing anything. BUT I drank a lot of water (2 liters), had some congee that I've made (the rice was broken down into smaller pieces by using a hand blender!!!). I made sure that it was luke-warm to cold. It did not feel bad at all. Oh and I made tons of Jell-O beforehand, and it was the easiest thing to swallow!!!
2nd day: Slightly more painful, but completely tolerable. I had 5mg of ketorolac the night before, just in case I might feel some pain the next morning. Tongue felt like it was swollen, maybe due to the fact that my mouth was hard to open... ate some vegetable soup (chicken broth with any cooked vegetable, again blended using a hand blender).
3rd day: Pain was similar to 2nd day. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was around 4. From this day, I decided to take pain killer (this time, 2.5mg of ketorolac) before I went to sleep (after eating, of course), and the morning after, just in case I might be in pain. I was kinda crazy, and started craving peanut butter sandwich, and I ate quite a bit of it. My throat became slightly painful. Totally a bad idea, but I couldn't help it!
4th day: Went back to work and school. The pain probably went to about 5, but it almost felt like the time I had a really bad tonsillitis. Completely tolerable... I decided to carry a 1.5L water bottle with me to put on my work desk, so that I don't forget to drink water! I had almost 3 L of water everyday since the surgery. And I had a HUGE container of Jell-O! My work required talking/discussing, and I did not stop talking or singing after the surgery... I know it is not recommended, but I was completely fine.
5th day: I was scared to face this day, since most people told me (including my ENT) that the most painful day would be the 5th day. But no...the pain was the same as the 4th day. I decided to bring couple of jars of baby food with me (strawberry puree, etc.), as well as jello. It wasn't bad at all....EXCEPT that night, I apparently chocked on my own spit and started coughing like crazy (since it actually hurts to swallow your saliva), and failed to realize that during my sleep. When I woke up, there was a massive blood clot on one side where the tonsil used to be, and I was scared to go to the ER. So, I still went to school, ate baby food, jello, as well as drinking Ensure (not recommended, since it does cause phlegm to form), called my ENT doctor, and he told me to gargle with diluted hydrogen peroxide to slowly dissolve the blood clot. Luckily, it never bled again.
6th day: wow, the pain decreased. It almost felt like I could eat normal food again, but since I didn't want to risk any bleeding, I still stuck with jello, baby food, a lot of ensure and soup.
7th day: everything got easier afterwards; the blood clot was still visible but was getting smaller in size. Again, the same diet.
And basically, I was able to eat hot food after the 10th day, and I saw my scabs at the back of the throat were getting thinner and thinner, revealing the pink color. But don't let this fool you! Just because you can start eating normal food, it doesn't mean that you can start eating everything you want! The 10th night, I ate oranges, and it was painful!
My suggestions/summary:
1) Drink lots of water, even if you don't feel like it! Have a large bottle or container of water and tell yourself that you have to finish it in a certain time frame. Because I drank so much water, I didn't have to worry so much about having my throat dry up at night. Also, it is helpful to have ice cold water in a bottle at the side of your bed.
2) JELLO is your life-saver! My pain killer came in tablet form, so what I did was put my painkiller on my jello, then I scooped a huge piece of jello and swallowed the pill with it! Completely painless.
3) A hand blender is also your best friend. You need to eat food that doesn't get stuck to the back of your throat and food that doesn't require biting. Trust me, biting food is not pleasant.
4) Remember to EAT, EAT EAT! I had so much food with me all the time (such as soup, jello, baby food, ensure). I also tried to eat soft 'normal' food. I don't think I would of have been able to withstand my hunger. I don't think I lost weight at all, haha. Don't let the pain associated with swallowing scare you from eating. You have to eat to have fast recovery!
5) Try to do normal activity stuff when you can (don't force yourself though). For me, I didn't do anything differently after the surgery, and I had to do intense amount walking, talking, lifting things, etc. It's bad to put strain on your body, since this may cause you to strain your throat muscle????? and you might start bleeding again! So do whatever you can do. It's your body, and you will know your limit.
6) You can drink Ensure if you want to, though it causes phlegm. HOWEVER, drink it during the day so that when you drink water, your phlegm will slightly go away. You DO NOT want to drink it at night for sure... I have lots of phlegm naturally, but because I drank a lot of water, it just slowly went away. This goes with any dairy product (if you want to have it. I would stay away from it as much as possible).
By doing these things, I got away by just taking 2.5mg of ketorolac before I slept and the very next morning (with meal). It was only 1/4 of the whole tablet that they give you. This was a weaker painkiller than tylenol 3, because tylenol 3 was too strong for me and I was afraid that I was going to feel nauseous and start vomitting.
All in all, it wasn't such a bad experience at all. At most, it just felt like a bad sore throat for me. I know that recovery is different for everybody. So, don't be freaked out by seeing or hearing people going through a lot pf pain during their recovery. It's a once in a lifetime experience for sure. Just do the right thing for your body in order to have speedy recovery! Keep yourself busy to forget the pain!
Good luck to those who are having the procedure done. I have my fingers crossed that those stupid tonsil stones won't come back, after full recovery.
so I am 4 days out from surgery and have a little bit that might help the black stuff is from it being cauterized and that will mostly shlep away by day 3, but then you see huge white patches that look almost worse but aren't . my uvula was huge to and omg the pain when trying to swallow unreal as you know if I even could it was so painful I went back to my doctor and he gave me steroids to take to help with the swelling whew what a big help they were in reducing the swelling not sure why they don't give you that to fill with all the other pre surgery med, he also has me on liquid amoxicillin again helpful. the humidifier is a must ! I am still not able to eat anything cause it gets stuck in the chasm that is now the back of my throat and it just isn't worth the pain to try and get it out, I am on liquid loratab and it has helped the pain but I have to take double what he prescribed and told him so when I went to him so he gave me more look I get we knew it would hurt but dang doc help a patient out !! Also super important stay hydrated the more ice cold the drink the easier it is to swallow also I found if you lightly gargle with ICE cold water it gives you some relief but be sure to spit out after u gargle do not swallow it hope this helps ya and prayers fast healing to you also stay away from milk based ice cream and products it seems to make more flem GOOD LUCK