Recovery for adult tonsillectomy

Pain has escalated significantly since. The scabs has started falling off from day 5 and pain is now persistent and continuous. Mouth gaggles and perscripted pain killer did not ease it.

Only lozenges numbs the pain and relieves me from the drateful ear pain for about an hour half.

There is another problem... Constipation from the liquid diet. Will see my doc tomorrow abt this.

The next 3 days are extremely painful. I did the right thing to see my doc and ask for a stronger pain killer. It managed to keep the pain down and ease the headache.
I finally ate solid food on Friday. There are some pain but since then recovery has been uphill. I started doing light workouts at the gym and had normal food for all meals. It helps the scabs to clear although I do experience more discomfort at night.

Today, I hardly feel any pain except during coughs or yawning. In total, it only took me 11 days to get well.

I'm 25, had mine out 12 days ago. Yes it sucked. The surgery itself was nothing, I woke up in NO pain, I ate solid food that day. It was the 7 days following that were horrible. And it wasn't the pain that sucked, it was the nausea. I spent the whole time throwing up. Ice cream didnt help and I didnt want to drink anything. I didnt think it would ever end. Once the nausea left on around day 7, the splitting throat/ear aches started, they were bad for about 2 days. I started eating again on day 9 even though it hurt, and day 10 got a little easier, and everyday after was a bit better. It still hurts a little now, but I'm back at work and can eat anything.
I have a high pain tolerance and didn't expect to feel as bad as I did, but it went really fast and I'm almost back to normal yay!
No more tonsillitis for me this winter!

OH, and that gross taste you have in the back of your throat and constant desire to spit it out, I had that, and I just kept trying to spit. Maybe that wasnt a good idea, it hurt a bit but I couldnt stand it so I just kept trying to cough it out. Yuk that was VERY irritating. Just remember to brush your teeth AND your tongue all the time. it really helps.

I want to put my story out there because it isn't anything like what I thought! Im 20 years old and got my tonsils out 5 days ago. Well I had to stay in the recovery room for an extra hour because the anesthesia made me so nauseous.. I was incredibly nauseous for the first, second, and third day. My throat wasn't even on my mind because the nausea was so bad. They sent me nausea medicine and it didn't work. So by day 4 they gave me some new medicine, thinking it was the codine making me nauseous. Well the new medicine made me feel like a piece of c**p. I don't know how to explain it except that I felt disgusting. Up to this point the soar throat wasn't even a big concern.. it doesnt hurt THAT bad. The nausea and feeling like c**p is so much worse. It was about dat 4 I realized I had only been urinating not having any bowl movement. I went to my doctor, who said it could be due to the medicine ( the medicines from hell) that slow your gut down when you take them. The doctor said to take all these different laxitives and enemas to fix it, but it hasnt fixed it at all. I have yet to have a movement and its been 5 days. So by day 5 (today) I stopped taking any pain medication at all and I'm just bearing through the pain of my throat. Still to this minute my throat is not my main concern, what concerns me and makes me very irritated is that nobody warned me of all these horrible side effects! Excessive nausea, bad constipation, and the medicine making me feel disgusting. I still cannot talk. words come out but it's just a faint little voice, and after speaking my throat aches. I also have been only eating jello, mash potatoes, and soup. I have an extreme craving for normal food!!!! I feel so malnourished. So there you go. The throat isn't even the bad part! It's totally tolerable. Hopefully whoever reading this doesn't have the complications i'm having.

I am 20 years of age and had my tonsillectomy and uvula(ectomy? plasty? w/e) yesterday. Luckily (or unluckily) for me I have been under GA 3 previous times the most recent being an appendectomy, 4 months ago, so that never bothered me in recovery. I was up, talking, and even walking around the surg center within 30 minutes. The reason I had the tonsillectomy and uvula removal was due to a dentist's mistake. The oral hygenist got too far back with the suction, caught my uvula, panicked and yanked it. You wouldn't believe the pain. It was so long I could stick it out of my mouth like a snake tongue at one point... no lie. Recently i had bitten a chunk out of it in my sleep so off to the ENT I went. He noticed my "golf ball" sized tonsils and opted to remove those as well.

Even through all those terribly painful experiences today and yesterday were painful still. As soon as I get home I start chowing down the cool pops, iced water, and ice chips the doctor suggested iced tea as well so I've been drinking that. I also read that putting ice around the throat helps although I've noticed no difference. I haven't talked very much since arriving home and swallowing is very difficult. The pain medication given isn't working (and tastes like death) so I'm giving the ENT a call for something stronger. Late lastnight I was extremely hungry so I had some oodles & noodles without any problems but I only ate a little. Make sure to let it cool down A LOT. Right now I'm trying to choke down some scrambled eggs for some source of energy. Relatively difficult but with water/iced tea it is do-able.

The main problem has been phlegm/mucus. Especially lastnight I felt like I was going to gag on all the phlegm and throw up. While in the shower I let the warm water run into my mouth and gargled lightly and that seemed to help loosen it somewhat lukewarm tea helped too. Sitting up while sleeping is a MUST if you have phlegm problems. I woke up feeling like my throat was on FIRE but from everything I've read that's expected for almost everyone. I'll perhaps keep updated as the days go by.

Greatest helps:
Someone dedicated to wait on you- I have a girlfriend and sister taking the load off greatly
LOTS OF ICE- ice chips ice water iced tea
Stay away from ice cream- ice cream sherbert and even cool pops have seemed to increase phlegm. eat at your own risk
EAT- you need to maintain energy for recovery
Keep your mind occupied- this has helped to take my mind off the pain... Video games, reading, movies, anything.
Lukewarm herbal tea- very soothing

If you have problems with nausea ask your doctor about phenergan (promithazine). It's worked very well with dilaudid (the most nauseating powerful painkiller i've encountered) when I had my appendectomy.

Hi i am a 33 year old (UK) female just coming to the end of my recovery from a tonsillectomy (day 10). This forum has been my lifeline so I thought i'd post some of my experiences. Now firstly I have always considered myself to have a very high pain threshold (I suffer from endometriosis and have had numerous operations as well as 2 children delivered with no intervention and no pain relief) I therefore thought I knew what to expect and would breeze through it...how wrong 8-| I wake up from the operation and didn't feel too bad, I drank as soon as I was awake which stung like hell but then I found that it only stung if I left it too long between drinks so I drank constantly and it was ok. The only problem I had was sickness from the anaesthetic, when I did throw up it wasn't as bad as I feared and soon felt better. In the Uk you stay in hospital overnight and so I had an endless stream of meals and had to eat straight away (and real food no pureees etc o.O ) Because I had to eat straight away it removed any fear and the first two days I had broccoli, cereal, toast, baked potatoe and cheese and tinned peaches were very soothing. I was led into a false sense of security the first two days and thought YES I can handle it!!...
Day 3 Ohh my god :'( I woke up to intense pain and constant feelings of nausea and endless vomiting. The only advice I can give is expect day 3 to be awful, prepare in advance so you have help and continue to drink, drink, drink and eat as much as you can force down despite the pain (this stops the weakness, helps you heal and gives your pain killers a chance to work). I found I had to write down when I took my meds because its hard to keep track. I was taking paracetamol, ibruprofen 400mg and codeine 60mg.
Day 4 the sickness has gone if I continue to eat. I'm still doing the drink drink drink method and it works. I did however find that ice cold things hurt more and room temperature was the best, I also diluted drinks such as gatorade down further as they would sting if I didn't. The ear pain started today, very very painful, heat helped loads as did very warm drinks (some people find this makes it worse so I think its each to their own). The pain killers barely touch the pain and so I added in tramadol (which I used in hospital) still it barely took the edge off!!. I still continued to eat as much as possible sticking to noodles, tinned fruit, soya yogurts and I found bread and butter for some rough food went down ok (it helps keep the scabs thin and feels better after you have eaten it, I had no bleeding either)
Day 5 By far the worst, the pain in my ears was almost unbearable and my throat felt like ulcers and was very raw, everything was agony even slighty moving my tongue to whisper. It turns out that today was the day a lot of the top scabs came off and I had a day of constant gagging on scabs and pain.
Day 6 less pain in the throat but more in the ears, I continue to drink and eat, I am now managing crumpets with melted cheese and skips crisps.
Day 8 the rest of the scabs came off ( I'm sure the reason I healed so quickly was because I had nutrients from food and I ate hard foods to thin the scabs, I never had any bleeding).
It is now day 10 and if I have some pain killers and a throat lozenger first I can eat full real meals ( had meat and potatoe pie today). The painkillers I take are paracetamol and ibruprofen only. I am still using a humidifier at night and this really helps, sleeping on several pillows to raise you up aids swelling and pain, and setting an alarm in the middle of the night to drink and take pain killers is a must. I am up and about and other than still feeling tired and battered I survived. The first 6 days I thought I was going to die :'( but it does improve dramatically. I still have ear pain, some throat pain relieved by meds and it hurts to yawn!
The best advice I can give (this was given to me by my consultant) was drink and eat (solid food), take very regular painkillers, use a humidifier and rest.
Good luck to all the sufferers going through the first few days.. it will be worth it and you will survive :-P

I wanted to add my two cents worth. I am 56 years old and had my tonsils out on Friday, this is Monday. So far, no big issues. I went to hospital around 12:30 and had surgery at 2pm. Woke up and they gave me water, but it made me sick to stomach, so they gave me spriate, which helped greatly. Went home, day one and two no issues. Some pain, but not like I had ready about. Last night I had the most paint, I ran out of ice and water without just didn't do the job. Didn't sleep at all rest of night. After my sister ran out and got more ice, I drank more water and ice and pain started to leave again. I tired to go outside but got dizzy. I ate jello, pudding and high protein drink to help with the dizziness. I hope that works. I understand that I may have some bad days coming, but so far not too bad. I've lost 6 lbs past 3 days. I would like to see that keep going down. I find that I am very tired, with no energy but if the pain stays down, then I'm ok with that. I think if you are sick all the time then go ahead and have the surgery. I feel different already. Like the posion is going out of me!!

12 Days later and I can't believe what I just survived - the greatest test of endurance of my life! When I went into this I thought "it's just my throat, the rest of my body isn't hurt, so how bad can it be?". The answer? Worst. Fortnight. Ever.

The throat is the key to everything! I couldn't eat, I had trouble drinking, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't swallow. And swallowing is something you want to do all the time, literally all day and all night. Also, you need to swallow to take the medication - to help reduce the pain of swallowing. The irony was not lost on me each time I endured one of my approx 21 tablets for the day.

The pain of the swelling seemingly under my chin and back of my throat when I lay down forced me to sleep in the upright position. I feel as well rested as if I tried to sleep on an economy flight 10 nights in a row. And by sleep I mean 10 minutes of losing consciousness to abruptly waking to one of three conditions: total ear-splitting dry throat agony, choking on my spit (head tilted backwards), or drool all over my chest (head tilted forwards).

The dryness in the back of my throat at night was just awful. I sat practically on top of my humidifier trying to stop the feeling of the scabs hardening to rock. Sipping on water provides little relief. The dryness can bring on bouts of super saliva production, and the glands that do this sit right in front of your ear (google: parotid). I'm convinced this was the head splitting pain I felt in my ear canals whenever my mouth dried up, either that or there's a nerve connection hot-wired from the tonsil area to the inner ear. Extra spit = extra need to swallow. Each swallow was torture, and at times i just could no longer muster the courage and would collect it in my mouth and spit it out instead.

From reading on this forum, it seems it's pretty individual when it comes to food. I bought most of the stuff recommended here and couldn't eat most of it. I found anything milky turned my throat into flem, anything acidic lived up to it's name, and anything with even the slightest rough texture was a mouthful of glass shards. Jelly and water for me, sometimes bread soaked in water to try and keep something in my stomach for the day. I lost 12lb. I could feel the malnourishment, and the constant slight nausea from having nothing but dissolved medication chemicals, sugar and water just made me feel awful.

So many fun side effects too: My tongue felt twice the size and I kept biting the sides. I subconsiously clenched my jaw from the constant dull pain and now my teeth hurt and my jaw muscles are sore. I got a cold sore on my lip on day 9 just to kick me while I'm down. My breath was horrible and I scraped fur off my tongue and the roof of my mouth every night. I couldn't talk for a few days - it was like the back corners of my tongue had been sliced open and I was reopening the wound every time I moved it.

The advice given to me by my surgeon was any blood, go straight to hospital. I inspected my throat one night and saw blood, panicked and drove to emergency, only to be given a cup of ice water to gargle. This stopped the bleeding pretty quickly, and the whole evening turned out to be a total waste of time. I was given the impression even slight blood formation must be some special tonsil related emergency but common sense should have prevailed and I could have tried at home by myself first, and I could have avoided getting a precautionary cannula and saved 4 hours and a heap of medical costs.

Pain was easy on Day 1 (surgery day), but worsened until day 3. The pain stayed that way, but compounded as I continued to eat and sleep poorly, until day 9. I spent long periods of time at 9 out of 10 pain scale, waiting for the next pain medication interval, especially if I had fallen asleep and woken to a dry mouth/ear ache. On day 10 the pain receding is a total relief, but it feels as frustrating as when you try to lose weight and step on the scales after the first week - there's improvement but you realise you aren't going to reach your goal for a long time yet. Day 12 and I'm still on the mend, getting better but far from back to normal. (i just half suppressed a yawn which nearly ripped my head in two)

So my top tips?
Mark a water bottle every 125ml and try to hit the line each hour. This'll give you 2 litres in 16 hours (as if you'll get 8 hours sleep - ha!) To fall behind in your water intake is a recipe for certain agony, I promise you. I needed these marked lines because if it were left up to me I would have been happy never swallowing another thing and just drooled to death.
Put a timetable of what medications to take on the fridge, and stick to it. If you start falling behind / making it up you'll just get into pain that'll take what feels like an eternity to calm back down. Even set an alarm at night (you tend to lose track). Plan to eat 1 hour after pain med top ups so you feel good and shove more food down your neck.
Buy a humidifier.
Not sure if this is medically sound practise, but after Day 5 I started gargling salt water to keep the area sterile, especially after meals. I wished I started doing it earlier, really. Try gargling while sticking your tongue out and to one side, to get all those little bits that act like razor blades that get stuck down under the back corner of your tongue.

And that's enough from me. I have yet to see if all of this total and utter misery was worth it, but whatever you do, don't make the decision to undertake this surgery lightly.

I have spent the last 5 days reading these so I thought I'd share my horror story too.

I'm 18 years old and am on day 5 (if surgery is day 1) and holy. sh*t. Not what I expected. I knew it was going to hurt but I didn't think I'd be curled in a ball crying like a little girl. Day one was okay. I came out of surgery in pain, but I ate a Popsicle and was on my way home. I was very chatty and wouldn't shut up. The pain was bad but not horrific. I've been taking 15 mg of hydrocodonr do I was pretty out of it. day 2 was about the same. Then day 3...  I woke up in pretty bad pain, and all day I barely ate or talked. It felt like there was shreds of glass all over my throat. I could barely get my pain meds down and they only seemed to make it bearable for about 30 min. That night was the worst. My jaw was killing me, my tounge, my ears, and my throat. I couldn't get anything down but forced myself to drink water when I could. I was weaping on the floor in pain. Honestly there's been points where I've wanted to die. Yesterday was AWFUL, no food, just liquids and pain meds. Thank god I haven't thrown up. then today was a LITTLE better. I was able to eat some soggy crackers in chicken broth even though it hurt so bad. tonight I'm sleeping with a humidifier so I hope that helps. I just want to get better. Everyone seems frustrated that I can't talk and I'm frustrated. This is the worst thing I've ever been through and I'd honestly rather be sick forever than have delt with this.