I empathize with all of you here. I'm about to share a rather long story, but I think it's worth reading. I am 40 yrs. old and had my tonsillectomy about 4-5 wks. ago. I cannot tell you how much praying I have done in the past 6 wks. I am a woman of faith but I found myself quite vulnerable during this little adventure. I know that God is faithful and is seeing me through this. So, one complication after another and here I am. It's a sad thing that we all have similar experiences with our Drs. I received no pre-op counselling whatsoever. I found myself feeling like a paranoid stalker everytime I called their office to get info. that they should have spent time to give me BEFORE the surgery. I should have asked more questions pre-op but the excitement at the prospect of no longer dealing with chronic tonsillitis made me "giddy as a school girl", fool. No, I would not have had the surgery had I known in advance the "possible but rare" consequences. Starting with the unimaginably dry mouth at night. My mouth was DRY AS A BONE. Weirdly like paper or leather left in the sun. Anyway, this combined with antibiotics led to thrush (a fungal infection of the mouth, yay) for which the nystatin barely worked. Not to mention I practically had to beg the Dr. for the prescription. If this happens to you, try brushing your tongue and palates with a 1:1 solution of hydrogen peroxide and purchase Herb-Pharm's: Fungus Fighter compound, it tastes horrible but it works better and quicker than nystatin at half the price plus it is natural. I have to mention also that my tongue hurt so bad! It was huge and bruised for over a week. Chewing gum all the time helped with that exponentially. Then things got worse. I, like most of you looked in my throat with a bright light at least once a day to monitor my lovely thrush and the healing progress. It was about the middle of the second week and the mirror revealed a hole beginning to develop in one of my tonsil beds. I have had too much pain and too little sleep and food at this point, so needless to say I cried, and I am not a cryer. Again I have to call that office and ask yet another question. This time they want to have a look.! Please do! I did let them know that I would not be paying for this unexpected visit. Oddly, they agreed. So, by the time I was seen the next day the hole covered my entire tonsil bed with only a little thread of flesh attached at the top and bottom. It was stretched like a bungee from my soft palate to a place behind my tongue that I can't see. Painful? Yes. So when I got there I saw the Dr's PA. He tried to make me feel uninformed and paranoid. He says "This happens all the time". Turns out the tonsil bed was over-cauterized and as the dead cells shed away a hole was revealed. Great. The solution: another procedure 6 wks. post-op to remove the bungee flesh! (which I also will not be charged for, fishy eh?) Guess what? This really isn't as common as he would have me believe. I have internet and am literate my friend! I am holding back my frustration and since I am a Christian, I try not to swear and am trying not to start now. All of that said, the whole taste issue has been yet another complication I have experienced. I hoped it would improve when the thrush cleared up. It has been so difficult, I'm surprised how emotionally attached to my sense of taste I am. I've never been a big foodie, I weighed 125 lbs. pre-op, which is alot for me since I struggle to keep weight on because apparently I have the metabolism of a field mouse. Well...I've lost 10% of my body weight which I didn't need to do. My clothes are hanging on me and so is my skin. If only I could eat. Food is sometimes downright disgusting! I have found that soft foods or cakey, bread-like foods are the worst regardless of sugar or salt content. I really only want crunchy and crisp things. They don't irritate my gag reflex like the mushy, soluble stuff. Now I confess, I have cried, lost hope and gotten angry through all this. It has been a lesson in patience for me. I am healing. Just the past couple of days the hole in my throat is somehow, against all odds, closing up. Where there was a 1 in. diameter hole, the flesh came together (without stitches) and is knitting itself back together! My sense of taste is slowly improving and I fully expect to have it restored to me completely very soon! God is good! This story is mine to tell, praise God! It is a story of fear vs. faith. I have always known that they repel each other like water and oil. I know this but I had some weak moments and found myself in a place of fear where faith cannot work it's beauty. So my best advise is this: Don't sink into fear, rise up in faith through the name of Jesus Christ. He heals!
am 51 yr old woman got tonsilis out in march 2013 like everyone on this page i have suffered the loss of taste which as every one has said its very depressing i just eat for the sake of it i always loved my food,my ent surgen says he cud have synged my taste buds when taken my tonsilis out i hope and pray my taste comes back but it doesnt look gud from all your posts.
am 51 yr old woman got tonsilis out in march 2013 like everyone on this page i have suffered the loss of taste which as every one has said its very depressing i just eat for the sake of it i always loved my food,my ent surgen says he cud have synged my taste buds when taken my tonsilis out i hope and pray my taste comes back but it doesnt look gud from all your posts.
I am a soon to be 53 year old female. I had my tonsilectomy last year 5/25/12. It's been a year now and sweet stuff tastes DULL! I just ate some fresh pineapple and there are no "subtle taste nuances" for the lack of a better word. I can taste salt, sour, bitter, but sweet has definitely been muted. Oh and I had such a horrific experience (having a massive bleed a month after the surgery, had to go back to the O.R.) that when I WAS able to eat again, I put the weight back on and then some (that and menopause/hormones I suppose) ARGH!! On the bright side, COFFEE tastes better--can't detect acrid tones as well AND I HAVEN'T CAUGHT A COLD in over a year! At least I don't think I have. What I got was so mild, it was less than "the sniffles!" Before I had my tonsilectomy, I would have severe colds/flus that would last weeks and months!
me too.
i lost the luxury to be able to taste SAVORY.
and maybe everything has this flatness to it.
like cardboard.
yes it is sad, but our brains are built with plasticity, and, as a blind person can grow alternative pathways for senses, then i suspect that maybe in a few years, we will learn to adjust to a new palate.
i love the way you describe that there are no "subtle taste nuances". Perfect. Yes, this can be hard to describe...the loss of taste, but not the COMPLETE loss of taste. This loss of taste is that savory or the fatness of sweet....
this is something that the literature and research does not even touch on....
i also lost something in the (muscles?) back of my throat which makes my throat "close" while i attempt to say words with vowels....such as soul, when, how, you, back......it is a gutteral sound.
and last, but not least, i have less salivary glands and find my throat and mouth only half as wet as before.
BUT MY TONSIL STONES ARE GONE.
Yes FOR THIS REASON ALONE i would tell all adults to reconsider removing their tonsils.
The LOVE OF TASTE is complicated....WON'T MISS IT TILL IT'S GONE.
I am 15 months post op.
I am 37 year old female.
I miss THE PLEASURE THE PLEASURE OF my sophistications of taste.
Reconsider my earthly friends.
Male. 56 had my tonsils removed almost two years ago.
my sense of taste has been altered somewhat but I have learned to deal with it, what I am still suffering from and having problems dealing with is the constant bad taste in my mouth. Best described as a metallic dirty coin taste it's driving me mad, some days I barely notice it, the next day it will be a constant distraction and nothing can take it away! strong mouthwash for instance just gives a cleaner fresher BAD taste for a short period. Today has been bad!
This is EXACTLY my story, as well! (Sadly). I am 32 and it has been 26 days since my surgery and dreading food daily is exhausting. But I have even made the same jokes about getting healthy...why eat a piece of cake when it tastes like total garbage as soon as it gets past the tip of my tongue? I've even resorted to eating Hot Tamales with my front teeth so I can feel the burn and taste a little bit of cinnamon. I know this was posted a year ago, so hopefully you are back to "normal." I'm happy to lose weight, but I really miss food! :( The weird thing about reading this post is that eggs were (and still are) one of the only foods that taste normal to me too! I wonder if anyone else has experienced that? I would love to hear from someone who is several months out of surgery to see how their taste is progressing. Anyone?
Two weeks for me fell on Christmas Eve!! :( Sooooo sad that the food tasted completely bland. Just happy I got to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner first. I'm 26 days in and I'm calling my ENT tomorrow too. Good luck to you!
Your post makes me really sad. I was hoping this wouldn't be permanent. Have you found you have lost weight because of this? Are there any foods you recommend that taste "normal?" Or is it kind of a day by day thing?
Please keep me in your prayers as well. I didn't have the terrible complications you had to deal with, but I'm still not fully healed 26 days following my surgery and my taste is just like you said. I really love(d) food and I DID NOT HAVE APPROPRIATE PRE-OP COUNSELING EITHER!! No one mentioned the first thing about taste loss. I, like you, had chronic tonsillitis and much scar tissue from years and years of this, paired with frequent strep throat as a child and teen. All I heard about was how less frequently I would get sick--which is huge for me because I had to miss a lot of work and school during the course of my life--and I hate doing that. I also recently learned tonsillectomies can cause allergies to develop or worsen and can be attributed to certain infections going to your lungs! Good gracious--and I thought my gallbladder surgery lingering side effects were bad! Hah! But thank you for your reassurance--you are right--God is good and things do happen for a reason--things could be so much worse, so thank you for the reminder. God Bless :)
I'm also 32. The only thing that tastes normal to me is scrambled eggs and applesauce. Some diet. :-P
I'm with you, pal! I just told my husband, "Pick up whatever you want for dinner--as long as I can chew it up and swallow it--it will be fine. Because it all tastes like garbage anyway." Sigh (around 1 month out of surgery). Just hanging onto the same hopes as all of you guys.