Tonsillectomy Tips
Here's 10 tips for you that will help you heal smarter & not make your pain worse than it needs to be. Follow them until at least day 14. That's the day you graduate from "1/2 Month HellDay"...own the experience like a badge of honor afterwards.
Listen up! Your Tonsillectomy recovery will be by far the worst pain you've ever endured. So Before you have your tonsillectomy you need to request to stay overnight in the hospital. Top 3 Reasons?....Morphine, IV fluids and round the clock monitoring!!! Fo-real, the longer you can delay the type of pain that will make you want to cry, vomit & wish life away....
10 Pain-Reducing Tips
1. NO Sugar!!! Yeah I know...everyone said you'd get to eat ice cream & Popscicles. Nope. Not happening. The people that told you that were 1 of 2 kinds of people. 1. People that have never had their tonsils out AS AN ADULT or 2. They are Doctors & Nurses that are freakin lying to you....yeah I know The Popscicles & pudding are fine in the hospital. But wait till your anesthesia wears off. Sugar causes open cuts especially ones in your mouth, throat and back of tongue to burn like molten lava heated from the ever-living fires of hell. Avoid it as much as possible.
2. Drink Smart: You will avoid swallowing because it hurts so bad. That's ok. It really does hurt. I know. I really do understand and I don't want you to hurt more than you should...So please Drink Smart and get the most nutrition out of every gulp. Make the pain worth it! I personally wouldn't eat any solids for the 1st 4 days. Only liquids to help heal your swollen Uvula,Throat & Larynx. Helps eliminate potential constipation too. Here are the 3 things I drank for the first 10days. Coconut Water (drink all day for potassium & sodium), Chicken Broth (sips off and on throughout the day...so many healing benefits. Seriously) Bolthouse Blue or Green Juice (drink 1-2xs a day, FIBER (poops friend), also natural sugar, vitamins, nutrients etc)
3. Rotate your meds: Do not take the same drug for 24hrs everyday!!!! Rotate the type of pain meds you are taking at least every 6 hours. I took Percoset & Demerol every 3hrs at night-time then switched to IBPROFEN in the morning & Tylenol in the afternoon. This helps with how your body processes the drugs and makes it easier on your system. (I also took Benadryl every 6 hours for inter cranial head pressure "yep feels like your head is wanting to explode", also headaches or migraines from drugs is helped by Benadryl and med rotation)
4. Eat Raw Coconut Oil: why? Oh to ease the pain of swallowing, heal faster, not get nauseated, fight bacteria, keep fat, carbs & calories in you....is that enough reasons???? There's many more benefits but Just keep a spoon next to you with a jar of coconut oil. Anytime you feel you have to swallow, lean over and take a small spoonful off coconut oil and simply close your mouth and let the coconut oil melt & coat your once-tonsil-area and back of tongue. I used this every night (especially at night) & day. ..
5. Make a pillow mountain: Literally surround yourself 360 degrees with pillows to Keep you Sleeping & Sitting Straight Up. As much as possible keep your head centered strait, slightly back enough to fall asleep and/or rest but not so much that your baseball sized uvula won't close your windpipe. sit w/your back against your headboard or couch & stack 3-4 pillows behind you, also 2 pillows on both sides of your legs to comfortably rest your arms on and stack enough pillows in your lap to bear hug & also a pillow or 2 on-top to reach just under your chin (you can place an ice-pack ontop of the pillows in your lap and rest your throat area or jaws on-top of it w/o using your hands...ice pack for neck/back is also recommended)
6. Cool Mist Humidifier: A must have! Run all day & Night long to keep the air moist which helps ease pain and really helps moisten your mouth, throat and vocal chords. Get one that runs for at least 18-24hrs.
7. Take L-Lysine & Glucosamine : it's a vitamin supplement you can get anywhere. This aids in soft tissue repair & joint lubrication (like jaws)...not the shark. Take 1,000mg a day...also be smart and get the liquid kind!!!
8. Prep For Night-Time: Believe me you don't want to be getting up, walking & fumbling through the impossible to open medicine bottles while also going through the most excruciating pain of your life. Plan for nighttime & Be ready for it! Don't be lazy about nighttime...don't just go to sleep!!! Layout each dose of medication in little dispensers. Plug your phone into a charger near your hands. Set a medication timer for pain meds. Have ice packs ready. Have ice chips ready. Have a spit cup near you. Have Freezing cold drinks and room temp drinks near you. Pee before getting pain-numb and cozy. Nothing more infuriating!!!
9. Take stool Softeners: Take one in the morning and one 3-4hrs before you sleep at night. Don't suffer w/constipation and also recovering from the worst surgery ever. Take'em!
10. Take Care Of Yourself: Believe me you will feel like a prisoner of war that's been isolated, starved, pharmaceutically tortured, mercilessly sleep deprived and trust me you will start to look like that character by day 4. Here's 6+1 things I routinely did at least once daily to help emotionally cope with the stress of the recovery and the brutal high & lows of the pain.
1. Watch a movie that you've never seen each day. (Preferably at night as you're going to sleep to get your mind off of having to endure the night)
2. Every Morning & Night take a long, very, very long hot bath or shower with Epsom salt or eucalyptus oil and surf the c**p out of Facebook and use your phone till the battery dies. Obviously a bath is preferable because your whole body will hurt and the magnesium in Epsom salt will really help. So...you're not a bath person eh? Be smart for your recovery & become one!
3. Stretch your hamstrings & calves to help with sciatic pain from sitting all of the time and restless legs.
4. Comb or brush your hair every morning. Help your self image and emotions out a bit each day by a quick hair help in the am.
5. Brush your teeth, gums & tongue. Not only did this actually help each time with reducing inflammation but Seriously this will help with overall mouth hygiene, prevent infection and will make you feel human. Also be sure to Inspect your mouth for oral thrush (white covered tongue and gums. Get liquid fungicide from Dr. if you see it)
6. After day 2 or 3. Plan to get out of your house at least once for a short time. Getting outside of your house helps in so many ways; even if just to remind you that life is worth living and society is still going on beyond your pain-dungeon. Please please please....DO NOT FORGET TO Take your pain pills with you!!!!! Everywhere you go.
7. After day 10: go get a fresh-haircut & shave (face for guys), legs etc for ladies and please put on human clothes. Don't wear the death-rags you've been wearing for 9 days.
Friend my heart sincerely goes out to you and I hope these tips may help you find some comfort as you recover from this surgery. When the pain got the worst I honestly started to talk to Jesus. You know that saying "there are no athiest in fox holes ?"...well the same is true when you're hurting so bad you feel like dying. I'd pray and I really did feel peace...oh and I listened to the Bible to fall asleep at night. Not really sure if Jesus would prescribe that...but just sayin it works.
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Day 1)
After arriving at the hospital very early, I was quickly operated on and brought back around. It isn't the nicest feeling being awoken! I expected a lot more pain in my throat when I woke up, but I would have rated it about a 2/10. A couple of hours after being woke, they came round with tuna sandwiches. I managed the sandwiches but not the crisps! The pain started to get worse through the afternoon. I was discharged at around 7pm. I went home and drunk a fair amount with the pain around a 4/10.
Day 2) I had a surprisingly good sleep, only waking once! When I woke up my mouth and throat were sore, around a 6/10. I thought it would be worse than this! I stayed in bed most of the day, drinking and eating ice lollys! The pain eased throughout the day.
Day 3) Again a nice sleep, waking just once. The pain in the morning was probably at the worst it has been, 7/10. But after taking pain meds, it was bearable, having tuna sandwiches for lunch and mash for dinner. Again the pain easing off throughout the day.
Day 4) Waking once in the night in a fair bit of pain, but taking some paracetamol and I was back to sleep! Again sore in the morning. However, the pain eased quite quickly and the afternoon I was feeling a lot better. Even had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner! Pain now at a 2/10 in the afternoon/evening.
Day 5 (today) - Woke up in the night again for pain meds, and woke up with a sore throat. However, same story about it getting better! My scabs are starting to come off and look very red/sore at the back of my throat. Makes swallowing harder, but not bad at all.
After having regular tonsillitis for the past 3/4 years and abscesses, a tonsillectomy was a no brainer. It has been worse than normal tonsillitis, as you would expect, but no where near as painful as an abscess! I would say the worst pain is when you try to open your mouth too far, my tongue feels bruised too. Also, I had thrush on my tongue after taking antibiotics, but after stopping after day 4, it seems to be reducing already.
So far, my experience has been pretty good, if that makes sense! After reading some stories I was worried about the pain, however it more a nuisance than pain. Not being able to eat is a killer, especially over easter!!!
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Hi I don't know if anybody is on this site still but I wanted to ask. On about day 10 everytime I sallow water or anything I keep gagging and coughing and I don't know why this is and it's making it harder to take my medicine. I'm 14 and I've had a really hard time with my tonsilectomy. So does anyone have a response?
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I'm 19 years old and ending my 12th day of recovery. Day 1 was fuzzy and manageable but everything from day 2-8 were the WORST days of my entire life. I honestly went through a brief period of depression. The pain was excruciating, I could barely talk because it hurt to move my tongue, my mouth was constantly filled with nasty ass tasting saliva that hurt to swallow, my breath smelt like straight ass flesh and blood (there was no actual bleeding, however), and my ears and a jaw had searing pains. I was essentially a vegetable; I couldn't do anything! I never stopped taking meds, although I'm not sure they did much besides knock me out, which sounds good, but sleep is the frickin devil. I would wake up from my sleep in so much pain, it brought me to tears. I'd open my eyes and feel a puddle of drool surrounding my whole head, my throat would literally feel so dry and rough like a rock. The reason sleep is so bad is because the key to recovery is water; you HAVE to stay hyrdrated. But guess the duck what?? It's impossible to drink water when you're ducking knocked out! I really had to force myself to stay awake and set alarms every hour so to wake a b***h up if the pain didn't wake me up first. As for the ringing and INTENSE pain in my ears, I really just wrapped a towel around my neck and head, not sure why, but it was comforting to have something to "protect" my ears in a way. By day like 6 or so I just said f**k it and had the doctors up my medicine intensity to Percoset (?not sure how it's spelled). That kinda helped but I was still at like 6 or 7/10 on pain. Eating was almost impossible, but if I didn't eat I would get naseous and start puking. Puking while recovering from a tonsillectomy is essentially packing your bags for hell. It is so painful. Had me on the floor of the bathroom crying to GOD bruh on some real sh*t I was like dang, what did I do to deserve this?? My diet was probiotic yogurt and occasionally I could stomach an applesauce. I've lost 8 lbs so far. Unlike most people, ice-cold water hurt my throat, I preferred room temperature. Honestly, water was all I could drink, my throat was the least irritated if I consumed flavorless things. HOWFUCKINGEVER, it's day 12 and homegirl is back! Day 11 I actually left my house and didn't need medication. I ate some thin crust cheese pizza with mild irritation and spent the day out and about! Today I went to movies and was munching on popcorn like it was nobody's business! Literally no pain. I will say that my throat does have some irritation still when I wake up in the morning but once I rehydrate and start my day, it goes away. The key to this surgery is hydration. Even though I don't feel pain anymore I'm still drinking water constantly because I don't want to have to have to go back into surgery because of a complication. Best things to remember are: eat a couple spoonfuls of yogurt or something before taking pills to prevent nasea, stay hydrated to keep the scabs moist (this will lower the pain when they start to fall off), and don't strain your voice too much during the first few days.
I believe I will be fully recovered by day 14 and won't take extra time. I have a follow up appointment coming up and I am excited to show my doctor my progress. It's been a long road!
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Firstly thank you for this thread - before coming across this pre-op I was terrified of what food and sleep were going to do to me post-op by all the horror stories else where online.
I'm also from the UK, 23 years old and had my tonsils taken out early morning last Weds (2nd Aug 2017 - saying early morning because I'm trying to justify counting Weds as recovery day 1!). That means I'm only on Day 6 post-op but here is my story so far....
- Operation itself was fine, the surgeon said that I had a quincy filled with old pus and a lot of old scar tissue on my left side that complicated things which didn't surprise me as before the operation I had a chronic low level pain when swallowing on that side.
- Immediately post-op I was a bit of a state. I've previously had my wisdom teeth out under general and coming round was very similar to that - mouth is on FIRE from being so dry, desperate for water, and v emotional.
- Once I calmed down, I dozed in and out of sleep on the rehydration drip which was great, and then had some apple juice, jelly and ice cream, and some prawn mayo sandwich. This was no trouble at all - honestly, I was so shocked how easy it was to eat, and the side which had caused me pain before I felt completely nothing.
Day 1 - 4 everything was relatively fine. Don't look at your throat!!! I made this mistake and instantly felt sick after. It's a green/ish blue scab and honestly looks like mould. Save yourself the stomach turn and don't look. I had a persistent metallic taste in my mouth that others have mentioned but found this was decreased if I gargled water after food and then sucked a sugar free polo (sugar free to be better for teeth). That's another thing - I was eating pretty normally: toast, macaroni, scrambled egg, crumpets. Always washed down with a jelly of some form. I'd then gargle water for about 15 mins (still am). Honestly the stuff that came out was unbelievable and I couldn't imagine walking around with that much just sitting in my throat rotting ?! Hacking it up was also weirdly satisfying, but again, disgusting. I think the image of bits of cm diameter scrambled egg will haunt me for a while (think i'll avoid for a couple of months !!!)
Day 5 the pain came, but definitely manageable pain. No worse that a bad tonsillitis. Weirdly, because i think there's more room than with swollen tonsils, swallowing wasn't as much as an issue, it's just the ear/jaw/teeth/neck pain that follows.
Day 6 now and the pain is still there - strongest when I eat anything with flavor. I know I need to eat, so I will try some soup and toast later (hoping the soup will stop the toast going in the holes) and see.
I'm only on paracetamol and ibuprofen (allergic to codeine) and they've both managed the pain fine.
My tip would be set alarms on your phone every dosage (even during the night). I've never woken up in excessive pain and I think this is down to waking up at night to take more paracetamol.
So far (I hope there isn't worse to come) I'm just incredibly bored, dreaming of all the food I can (and 100% will) eat when this is over and looking forward to not constantly feeling like I have food stuck in my throat.
I don't want to jinx it but my aim is to recover by day 10 (read this was average) and then get a pizza express asap. Scared for bleeding but also can't wait to be rid of these scabs!!!
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So as I mentioned, one of the worst bits for me has been food getting stuck in my tonsil holes and then hacking this up later and being left with mental scars (dramatic but true!).
What I found out this afternoon is that with soft (but firm) foods like toast with a soft spread (I had taramasalata) and pasta (tagliatelle in carbonara sauce) then it's easy to swallow without chewing it into little bits. So i would have a small mouthful of the food, bite done on it once and then swallow it. It didn't hurt and I really felt like i was clearing my throat rather than adding rubbish into holes. The proof for me was when I did chew a bit of pasta up, at the end during my gargling, a 2cm piece of pasta came back up that had been stuck in a hole.
Maybe not helpful to everyone, but i wish I'd realised this around day 3 rather than 6 so I could have eaten more appropriately !
I've also come to realise that the pain is best described as having knives stabbed through your ears.
Will probably come back to this page with any more tips I pick up, mainly because my friends are all bored of me moaning now!
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And just a thank you for whoever started this post. All the horror stories on the other sites had almost psyched me out of doing this surgery.
So... 38 year old male in SoCal... here's my story...
I grew up as a kid in the 80s with multiple yearly bouts of strep. Of course the pendulum had swung from take those tonsils out to antibiotics work every time so for years I was on a first name basis with all the good ones. It’s funny when a teenager can discuss antibiotics with the doc as a peer rather then a patient. I suspect many of you were the same.
Then in my 20s came tonsil stones. Those wonderful smelly disgusting pains in the neck. Literally.
The only real health issue I have is psoriasis and had it so bad that it was causing multiple ear inflections. So I found a top flight ENT here in SoCal who worked with me and during the course of the first exam said “we can fix the ears but the real question is will you let me take out your tonsils”. He said I had the tonsils of an 8 year old trapped in a 30 year olds body. Lol. I ruined the poor guys day every time I said no.
So fast forward a decade and I’ve been dutifully picking stones out of my tonsils on a regular basis and then I get sick. I mean 3 weeks of awful. And my tonsils swell up the size of golf balls. I kid you not. I sat there for 3 days during the worst of it thinking ok… you can do this… count to 3… swallow. It was excruciating.
And at that moment I resolved to never go through that again. The tonsils need to go.
So I called my ENT. End of year is coming, time for us to both have a Christmas present.
They didn’t call back. Weeks. Left messages. Talked to nurses. No movement. What the heck?
So… time to find a new ENT. As you know by now it’s not just an ENT you need, it’s an ENT who is also a neck surgeon. They’re harder to find. And of course I wanted one with stellar reviews associated with a good hospital. I found 2. One took my insurance. So I made an appt. They saw me 3 days later.
I fill out the paperwork and under the “why are you here” column I put “take my tonsils out.
Doc walks in. Very nice, gentle man. Soft spoken. Takes a look at my tonsils, my paperwork and says “you’re not going to like me… I won’t take them out. But I’ll be happy to treat you and if they continue to bother you then we will take them out.” I won’t lie. I almost decked him.
We go 9 rounds. All very civil mind you. And he finally says “you can’t just walk into a surgeon’s office and ask for surgery”. I said sure you can… it’s called a boob job.
I think that broke the ice a bit but I am convinced he either thought I was crazy, reckless or suffering from Munchausen’s. So he says if your other ENT wanted them out so bad go back to him.
So I’m lit. I pull put my phone as I walk back to the car and unload on the other ENT. Which proves what I always say… there is at least one fact in play you don’t know about. In this case my old ENT has suddenly and without warning announced his retirement. Still don’t know why. But he offered to write a letter to the new ENT recommending a tonsillectomy.
So I walk back into the ENTs office and say will a letter from my old ENT push you over the edge? He waffles. So I play my Trump card… look, I’m not a normal patient I’m a paramedic. I know what i am asking for and know this will be tough.
Fast forward 2 weeks and he finally agrees to do surgery. I mention this all because I have found that there seems to be a shift toward surgery as a last option rearing it’s head again. If you have been fighting your tonsils for years don’t take no for an answer.
So the day before surgery and I have all my meds filled, my bed all made up. The wife and parents have all taken the day off to help me and our 5 little kiddos. Hugs, Kisses and Prayers. Out the door I go.
I had my surgery done at an out patient surgery center. I had mixed feelings about this. Chances are they will be more competent because this is all they do all day long but on the flip side if something goes wrong I’m not in a hospital.
As a medic I have seen the good and the bad. First appearance this place was on the good side but the boxes and exposed cords in the lobby were off putting. But everyone was incredibly friendly. The attitude was more like taking a trip then a surgery… ok let’s get this show in the road. Everyone was smiling and joking. Very light atmosphere. I needed that.
At every turn it was how can we make this easier for you. Heated blankets. Constant by name personal service. I was impressed. Once we got back into the center itself it was spotless and top flight. There was only one fly in the ointment which I will get to later. But we finally head back into the operating room. A quick poke.. wait can I change my mind? And the next thing I wake up in pain.
So when I met with the anesthesiologist before the surgery… right before. I said let’s talk post op pain control. I am 6'3" 250lb. Don’t give me the same 200 mcgs of Fentyal that you give a 140 lb women and walk away. I need you to be aggressive. She promised. I said more over I have a 90 min drive back home so you need to come up with something that bridges that gap. Again she promised.
Well I woke up 8/10 pain and the freaking anesthesiologist wouldn’t budge off the 200mcgs. No dilauded. No MS04. Nada. Even my post op nurse (who was a God send) went after her multiple times. And seriously, if it weren’t for that nurse and her kindness I would have clawed my throat out. She was right there next to me non stop for 90 mins. Finally she got so fed up she went and found some oral analgesic I could choke down (after about 30 mins of fighting with anesthesiologist).
She made me toast, slushy water. Warm blankets. What did I need? Even if it was just to hold my hand. Fresh ice compresses for my neck. Every time she left to go get something she had a another nurse come stand near me. I mean she was an angel. I watched the other nurses off chatting in a corner, they were not doing this for their patients.
So discharge time… about 3 hours after I check in. My surgeon comes to see me. All went well. Take your meds. You’re going to hurt tomorrow. Hang in there.
I’ll be honest. By the time I made it home I felt decent. 10mg of oral Percocet had kicked in (God bless the nurse). I took a shower. Ate an egg sandwich and was talking. No joke.
Took a nap. Went back to my oral dose of 5mg Percocet (by they way… demand Percocet… do not settle for the codeine or worse the Norco b.s.) and the pain came back pretty steady.
Ok… since I have a medical background I am going to tell you what I did. This is NOT medical advice and I am telling you not to do this. But my Percocet dosage was 5/325 q 4 hours. I looked up the max dose and bumped myself to 1 q 2. That brought my pain down to 6/10. And I went to bed.
For the love of all that’s holy… set an alarm and take your meds. Get a frozen bottle of water and it will be slushy in 4 hours.
The night was painful but uneventful. The next morning had a couple of bowls of soup. I found the bread caused some minor bleeding.
Brushed my teeth and settled in with a good book.
By 9 am I knew I needed more pain control and was maxing the Percocet so I called my doc. Again, conservative but a nice guy. He recommended Toradol and we compromised on the Percocet 1 q 3.
Toradol worked wonders. Pain down to 4/10 and by dinner I was eating 4 chicken kabobs and 2 cheeseburgers. No joke. I may have over done it though as I had some bleeding.
Night time was fits and starts. I will tell you 2 benefits off the bat… my mind is so much clearer then it has been in years and for the first time I can breathe through my nose all night long. In fact I don’t think I have blown my nose once in 3 days!!!
I woke up to spitting up a bunch of green flem from my throat and decided to take the antibiotic the doc gave me.
I’ve noticed since starting the Toradol that my scabs in the throat have been more fragile and subject to slight bleeding but the pain control is worth it. Probably the most annoying thing at this point is that double clamp they used has deformed my tounge to the point that it looks like the upper part of a squid. No joke. Feels funny too.
Let me offer some additional comments… in addition to the drugs, I got some Chinese healing herbs which I take morning and night. 6mgs of Vit C daily. 8 doses of probiotic and iced st. johns wort tea with honey. As well as spoonfuls of coconut oil that I’ve let melt in my mouth and coat my tonsils. Oh and xylitol gum and liberal sprays of colloidal silver onto the scabs multiple times per day.
Also coconut water and aloe juice.
NO SUGAR. At all. Or dairy.
Does my throat hurts? Yeah. Not bad as long as I keep on my regimens.
Do I feel better? Heck yes.
Would I do this again knowing what I know now? 100% yes.
My wife has been a God send. My parents have been incredible. (As a 38 year old it’s hard to be babied again but I’m grateful)
All told it has not been without it’s challenges but it has not been the horror story that so many have posted on the internet. It still day 3 but wanted to share this encouragement.
I get bursts of energy followed by droopy eyelids. I can talk but pay for it. I spend 90% of my day in bed and have a decent amount of gas. Coughing burping and sneezing are evil right now but it’s all manageable and not near as bad as I feared.
So if you’re like me and reading this at 1 am don’t let the bad stories scare you off. I was eating cheeseburgers 30 hours after my surgery. You can't beat that.
2 other thoughts… 1) you do not have to sit there an suffer. Demand pain control. 2) I have praying throughout this and God has been so kind in giving me peace and answering my prayers in the long nights. If you try to lone wolf your life, God help you, it won’t work. We were designed for Him, not us.
It's not a walk in the park but like so many other things it doesn't have to be a disaster. If you need them out get them out. Just be smart about it.
Merry Christmas from a bed somewhere in SoCal.
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