Hello all,
My name is Thomas and I am 27 years old. I'm hoping that this gives people insight and education. While I'm still going through the process, I hope it helps other people.
I am on day 7 (if you count surgery day). Day 1, I ate a lot of Popsicles / slushy style drinks and a ton of water. I slept 3 hours at a time and got up to drink water and start medicine again on the dot of 4 hours. Day 2 the throat pain started getting worse. I only had chicken broth to eat, but had over 10 bottles of water and some Popsicles. Again I slept 3 hours at a time and set alarms to wake up and take meds / drink water. Day 3, I was actually feeling better in the throat, I was relieved and was drinking lots of water and eating broth, macaroni and cheese off of a pizza. This is when I noticed a lot of drainage stuck in my throat. Like every time I took a breath I would feel it moving in my throat. So I coughed it up a few times no problem. The last time I did I started bleeding. It was a decent amount, and I recommend if it happens to you, bleed in an empty water bottle so you can see how much is there. I drank cold water which can stop the bleeding. It eventually stopped while at the ER, but I'm glad I went to get a second opinion. I bled around 1/4 a bottle of water. They sent me home with some antibiotics and steroids. I didn't sleep much that night, but probably more out of anxiety. I still set the alarms and was waking up an hour or so before them. Day 4 my throat started feeling better! I was getting excited. I started eating more! Again only soft foods like broth, chicken noodle soup, peas, green beans, etc. I am still drinking water like it's going out of style. I noticed halfway through the day the pain was getting worse. My ears and my jaw were in incredible pain. Like someone was pushing on both sides of my head. So this was interesting because the pain meds only touched them for a very short period of time. I used a moist towel that I microwaved to as hot as I could stand it. I put it on both ears and it provided some relief, but very minor relief. It was harder to sleep this day. Only 1 hour at a time. Then wake up with pain. Drink water and go back to sleep. At recommended pain medication time I would take some more. Day 5, Pain in ears more painful. Jaw hurts still. Neck a little stiff. Still drinking water and POWERade all the time. Again pain meds not really lasting full amount of time or even close to it. Slept similar to other day. Day 6, I woke up with a dry throat. I drank some water and started bleeding. It wasn't a lot (maybe a teaspoon all morning... just a little in each spit that I put in the bottle), but it was enough that I stayed up from 4:45am when it started. Basically I watched it and kept drinking water. I went to the ENT when they opened and he said that he didn't see and fresh spots (it stopped bleeding an hour before they opened), but it's probably where scabs are falling off. He also said it's better to wait and see, than to go and burn the spot again, as it will set back healing. After the appointment I had some more energy. I ate an egg, the middle of a biscuit since it was soft, some plain gravy. Later I went and ate some bread and meat from an arbys sandwich (very small pieces at a time), green beans and mashed potatoes. The pain was the same as day 5, but my throat didn't hurt as much. Day 7, this morning has been interesting. Pain meds don't seem to be working at all, especially if I try and stay hydrated. I had a dry mouth and started drinking water and it felt like I was swallowing razor blades! Well I didn't sleep, but maybe a total of 2-3 hours and every time I was awake it still felt like this while drinking. I've read it's new skin and scabs falling off which is fine, but let me warn you it's a ton of pain. I'm going to fight through it, but it hurts with every sip of lukewarm water. Hopefully the rest of the day goes well.
I know I have plenty of more days of recovery left, but I was on websites checking symptoms every day because I felt like something was happening to me that didn't happen to others (I was wrong). My main advice is stay hydrated. Drink so much water! Eat what you can, but don't over do it! Listen to your body, if it says lay down and don't do anything then do that. You don't want to rush it and be worse off because of it. This process has been terrible so far, but I keep looking forward to light at the end of the tunnel. On a positive note it appears my symptoms are a few days ahead of others. This has me praying I'm a few days ahead of recovery... maybe it's wishful thinking!
I read these during my recovery because it's nice to know there's others going through the same thing. I had my tonsils removed 12 days ago, and I still don't feel anywhere near 100%. Im a 21 yr old f. As expected, the first few days weren't terrible. I was able to keep up on drinking a gallon a day and eating as much as possible. I was taking hydrocodone every 4 hours. However, hydrocodone makes me very ill and despite being given anti nausea medication as well, by day 6 I had to drastically cut my dosage to MAYBE twice a day. I was miserable. 2 of the worst things for me: ear pain and the scabs. The scabs were literally so disgusting to me (the taste and smell) that I couldn't eat for 3 days and couldn't drink water (only apple juice) because water just ended up tasting like the scabs and I'd gag. By day 8 both sides had very large scabs that fell off in one big chunk. I'd never been so grossed out, it made me vomit because I couldn't fathom swallowing them. After that, I felt muchhhh better, but began feeling like I was swallowing razor blade a. 12 days later, that hasn't changed. I wake up everyday with needle-like pain in my ears and temple headaches, and on either side of my throat there's a spot that feels terrible to swallow. I have to go back to class and work tomorrow, and I'm nervous. I'm taking ibuprofen every few hours to deal with the earpain, as narcotics tend to not touch nerve pain. I can't yawn either without it hurting badly. I hope to heal soon, it's been about 4 days with zero progress and it's hard to not get discouraged. This was the worst thing I've ever gone through in my life, I'm looking forward to the rewards of not being sick so often and hope it was worth it! To all who are still recovering, take care of yourself and try to stay positive!
The recovery does suck but think after the recovery no more throat problems and it sucked before for me because like every other week if have a throat infection and it really sucked today is the 2 week mark if you count the surgery day