Post tonsillectomy

I just got a tonsillectomy on monday the 16th, and it is now saturday the 21st. it f**** sucks. i hate it. thank god for the f****drugs is all i have to say, its day six and most people are feeling better. well i feel worse, its getting worse....fml!

I had my tonsils out almost two weeks ago. My recovery is very similar to the stories that you have all shared. Here are some tips that I found that helped me, and can maybe help others in the future who undergo a tonsillectomy.

1) Drink lots of ice water. Although it may hurt to swallow, the constant flow of cold water helps keep swelling down and minimizes the pain. A dry mouth can worsen the pain after surgery. Juice is good too. You'll need the sugar from liquids since you won't get very much from food, but I found that juice burned my throat.

2) Make sure you take your pain medication when you're supposed to take it. Sleeping is especially difficult and painful post-tonsillectomy. Set your alarm for every couple of hours so you can take a few sips of cold water and take your pain medication as needed. If you fall behind on your pain meds, you'll pay for it later.

3) Eat before you take your pain medication. I know it hurts, believe me. Do your best to choke down some pudding or whatever you can swallow. This will help avoid nausea when taking medication. And trust me, vomitting after you get your tonsils out hurts MUCH worse than eating. Several days after my surgery, I didn't eat because it was too painful and I took my pain meds anyway. I ended up vommitting because my body couldn't handle it on an empty stomach. So, eat. Choke it down.

4) Use a heating pad for ear pain. Most people experience ear pain several days after surgery, and in my case the ear pain was far worse than the pain in my throat. Laying on a heating pad helped reduce the pain in my ears considerably. However, be careful. Set it on the lowest setting and don't fall asleep laying on it as to avoid burning yourself.

5) Take time off of work. Most people need about two weeks to recover. Get plenty of rest and don't try to come back too fast.

I'm on day 6 and it is the worst so far. I ended up in the er this morning getting fluids through an iv. Today on top of the ear pain, my tongue hurts horribly! Any time I move it or try to swallow it Burns, I can't even drink water without it burning. Anyone else have a problem with their tongue ?

I am 24 years old, and am now on day 6 of recovery. I had like a 5 minute period yesterday where i thought i was getting better. It only lasted 5 minutes. THIS IS AWFUL. I still can barely swallow, eating is out of the question unless i want to submit myself to a massive amount of pain. I'd rather starve. I drink as much liquids as i can, but that hurts too. I find it easiest to drink a ton of water overnight because i wake up still half asleep, nice and drugged and start chugging the water without being concious enough to feel the full effect of the pain. During the day, and evening, and pretty much the entire time im awake, im miserable. FREAKING MISERABLE.

I have lost 6 lbs in 6 days. I call this the tonsillectomy diet. I dont wish this on my worst enemy. My throat is covered in white and yellow c**p. I am hoping those are the scabs everyone is talking about. They havent started to fall off yet, but everyone says tahts the most painful part. I cant imagine having MORE pain.

I'm 16. I got my tonsils removed on 11/10/10, so this is my 5th day of recovery. I've honestly never felt so much pain. If I would've known it was gonna hurt this bad I would've never got this surgery. My mom is a nurse and she wants to send me back to school on november 12th.! I can't do that.! I'm in so much pain it's terrible. I'm always trying to drink cold water but it hurts so much. I'm out of hydrocodone and am getting a refill later today. my pain is worst from when I get up till about 7pm. And I can never stay asleep for more than an hour. I got that white pus/scabs about day 3. I'm feeling a little better today but it feels like my tongue is numb and unable to move. my breath is awful and the pain is overwhelming when I brush. I spit often (not without emmense pain) to check for blood, but it comes up grey/green/yellow. Ugh! I don't eat anything, I tried jello, pudding, things like that and it's too painful. I want to cry all the time but I start to and it's even more pain.(of course!) The medicine makes my mouth smell DISGUSTING! And I bet it's just my luck that I will be a slow healer. I've read stories of people taking 5 weeks to heal.?! God, please, not me! Next week is thanksgiving, none for me, thanks!
:cry:

I had my tonsilectomy 1/20/2011. I made the decision because I had strep 7 times in 2010. I am a mother of 4 and can not afford the time off work or to be sick at all. I knew it would hurt badly, but the choking on my uvula was a surprise. DAY 1 there was barely any pain, that because of the cocktail they give you at the hospital. I was sick and threw up twice before I even made it home. My throat started hurting then, i thought that would be the worst of it. DAY 2 I wasn't able to get much sleep, because I felt like I was choking everytime I woke up, scared me to death. The pain is horrific, and once the pain meds wore off I didn't want to swallow anything. So all I ate was a bowl of sherbert ALL DAY. This is the beginning of DAY 3, I am going to follow some of the tips on the thread and drink ice cold water and use a cold compress for my throat. And set my alarm to take my meds on time

Hi everyone! ive been reading these stories which were pretty helpful and thought i'd tell you my own. I'm 17 years old and am on day 7 of my tonsillectomy recovery.. the first few days were not that bad, it was just hard to breathe because it felt like there was a giant hairball stuck in the back of my throat. i was on tylenol with codeine and that helped for the most part but by day 2-3 made me very nauseous and gave me a constantly pounding headache, so day 4 or 5 i went off the codeine and started using regular tylenol. i started feeling a little better and was able to eat pudding and jello for one or two days, but soon i had constant pain in my throat and went back to only eating icepops and drinking gatorade.. im on day 7 and still haven't been eating anything else, although i should be able to eat soft foods by now.. i have a low tolerance for pain and decided that swallowing was too painful so i'd rather just not eat instead.. but the one thing that helps a lot is slushies like from 711.. they feel great on the throat and are a great source of liquids! im hoping that in a few days i can start tolerating soft foods, and might even try mashed potatoes tonight, but for the most part i've lost my appetite entirely....

IT IS WORTH IT!!!!!
I would do it again, knowing first-hand what I've been through. It's about quality of life - I wasn't going to live the next 60 (hopefully) years dealing with the problems I was having every day. It's two weeks versus 60 years...no-brainer.

Day 1 - Came home from surgery, didn't feel as awful as I expected.
Day 2 - Started to feel pretty awful.
Day 3 -13 - Progressively worse and then started feeling progressively better around the 11th day.
3 months later - only problem I'm having now is the left side of my throat (on the inside) is still swollen - will be checking in with the ENT in another month if I don't see progress. (but I was told he had to cut a lot more on that side)

I haven't found many updates from anyone that has gotten the worst past them so I figured I'd offer up some advice for anyone checking.
This surgery is worth it! Yes, it hurts but it's worth it - it is MUCH easier when you are younger...as you get older it takes longer for your throat to heal. I thought my doctor was joking when he said two weeks - after all I've had 3 c-sections and was up walking around (well, sort of walking) within hours of having my kids...I'm superwoman - NOT! SERIOUSLY - if you are in your 20s or older YOU NEED TWO WEEKS!
I had my surgery done a few weeks shy of my 40th birthday because I've been living for years with chronic cryptic tonsillitis (google it - it's pretty dang gross) and I was tired of it ruling my life. I could smack my parents for not getting me this surgery when I was younger, I needed it then but they didn't want me to hurt. (well 3 days of a bad sore throat sounds like heaven compared to 2 weeks as an adult)

* As you've seen, everyone is posting that you need to drink constantly. DO IT! If you don't, the scabs in your throat (the black/white/yellowish things everyone is talking about) will start to dry and that hurts beyond belief. Think about skinning your knees or elbows when you were a kid...once you got a scab and it dried, remember how it felt to bend it...uh huh, well just consider that happening in your throat. Ow doesn't cover it so DRINK! You will need to drink water constantly for at least 10 days. Just realize that and stick with it.
* Dentyne Ice is your friend. This gum was the best thing I ever did. It soothes and cools the burning feel in your throat and it works your jaw.
* Speaking of your jaw - because your jaw was clamped open and your tongue clamped down, your jaw will hurt. Honestly it will hurt like you've taken a punch from a very large and strong person...and unfortunately jaw pain can cause ear pain....and ear pain made me whimper and cry.
* In my case, my tongue didn't take kindly to being clamped down and started to swell. Three days after surgery my tongue was so swollen I started chocking. My Dr called in some steroid medication which brought it normal in two days. Be prepared that this might happen and ask for and take all of the steroid.
* Pain medicine - I highly recommend liquid Lortab. The thought of trying to swallow pills ...ugh, no way. Lortab is a narcotic so be careful with your dosage. After the 3rd day I realized that if I split my dosages and spread them out over time, I did better. This was because the pain in my throat always returned before my next dose...and when you take the Lortab it coats your throat - yes, it does sting slightly but within seconds your throat has a nice numb feeling that you'll look forward to. Then by the time you've drunk a few more bottles of water and the pain starts to return you get another little dose of Lortab. Do this at night too! Drink your water first and then take the Lortab.

Honestly, there were times when I stood in my kitchen and quietly cried (Anything more hurt too much) BUT every day is one less day of it. Every day is one day closer to never having to deal with tonsillitis again. Bad breath is gone, I'm not so self-conscious when I talk to people, I can kiss my husband without him turning away because of the tonsil stones giving me death breath, I don't wake up every day with a sort throat because my tonsils had swollen and I was snoring. I really feel like a different person. The pain is short term, you're not going to die. Just keep that in mind. Pain is short - peace of mind is the goal.

Hi im on day 4 of my surgery. I am 15 years old, and I must say this has probably been one of the worst experiences of my life. 

Well I am 45 years old and and am two weeks post op....everything they say is true! Saw the E N T yesterday and he says I am doing well...just feel like I have the flu, find it hard to stomach any food, but I force myself to eat! Has anyone else had this problem?? Look forward to hearing from anyone that had this issue,and please say it goes away! Sequinqueen

i had my tonsillectomy a week ago and it has been very painfulm. i thought it wouldnt be worse then having strep throat several ttimes this last, but it was way worse . i know in the long run it will be totally worth the pain and discomfort. im hoping i wont get strep throat anymore. the one problem im really having an issue with is the horribly discusting taste in my mouth that is causing me to have the same kind of breathe. what can i do to get rid of it faster than 2 weeks or more. my own breathe is making me gag, i dont want to think of what its doing to others.

My daughter is 20 had her Tonsils removed December 20th 2011. Bad mistake, never do it during the holidays unless you wanta be blue... Not only is she hurting so bad but now her hearts broken because she hasn't been outta bed in 6 days... She has been having trouble breathing, constapated, stomach pain , head aches horribly and throat.. She drinks , drinks and drinks thank goodness. I wonder is the breathing problems from the scabs or what from? Anyone feel the same? Please tell me..

 

I wanted to post a GOOD review on this tonsillectomy topic. I suffered from tonsillitis for a month straight off and on antibiotics with nothing doing the trick. I was very hesitant to get my tonsils removed because of all the "horror stories" I read online about getting them out as an adult ( Im 24). So Id like to reassure anyone who is older and getting them out that it is definitely NOT as bad as many of these people are making it out to be. I had the coblation technique done which seems to be one that lessens the pain and healing time which Im thankful for. After surgery I wasn't in a whole lot of pain and was lucky to not be nauseous from the anesthesia either. I didn't really feel like talking right away and the first day wasn't bad at all if you continue to chomp on ice chips and keep hydrated like most of the other reviews suggest. I did have a humidifier running in my room 24/7 and am currently on day 3 of my recovery which is said to sometimes be there period where the pain gets worse. I have not coughed up any blood so far and the only real issue I had was the swelling of my uvula which made me feel like it was more difficult for me to breath and my tongue has two sores on each side from whatever they put in my mouth to help keep it open. So for anyone that is worried about the amount of pain, if you suffer from chronic tonsillitis the surgery is completely worth it! The pain from chronic tonsillitis I think helps prepare you for whatever pain you do feel after surgery, which to me isn't half as painful. The worst part is the lack of food intake.

I'm only on day 4 of my tonsillectomy surgery, and out of all 5 of the surgeries i've had, this was definitely the most painful, being that its my throat and thats where you drink, eat, talk, breathe, ect. 
heres how the time line went:

day 1: nerves kick in right before the surgery, but they put you to sleep and it feels like 20 minutes. i woke up and my throat was burningggggggggggggg. it was like i had just eaten habanero sauce. i kept trying to get the nurse to give me more and more pain meds but you know how that goes. overall, when i went home, it wasnt too bad. a little hard to talk, but i made my boyfriend go out and get me some french fries and a burger. (SALT RIGHT AFTER SURGERY=BAD IDEA) took me a bit too eat, but eventually i fell asleep for a few hours.

day 2:PAIN PAIN PAIN. if it wasn't for Cepacol cough drops (THIS IS A MUST!), liquid percocet, or popcicles/ice...i dont know where i'd be. cold water helped alot too. i noticed that this night i couldnt sleep at all. i would wake up coughing/choking and have to numb my throat again.

I had a tonsillectomy when I was 14.. It was painful but nothing you can't live through it took about 5 days to be fully recovered. I realize you posted this over a year ago but I would still consider a tonsillectomy, all these are horrors storys and the younger you are the less it hurts. If an ENT is suggesting she have her tonsils revomed it's definitly a good idea because they will only get worse. My sister didn't go to her fall semester of college because she had acute tonsils, she had to start in the spring. I'd just consider it!