Tonsillectomy recovery story (Good!!!)

Do you think the reason you had a bleed was because of eating hard and crunchy food??

I've had ups and downs. Day 6 post op and a major head cold set in. The first couple days on pain meds weren't that bad. I do encourage plain mashed potatoes with a bit of salt to help keep the meds down. Also, frozen Edy's yogurt is really good it replaces good bacteria as all of us are probably on post op antibiotics. I did vomit but I don't think there was enough food in my stomach and took strong pain killers. Today I forced myself to eat more, each day scrambled eggs chewed into small bits, and plain toast by day four. It's a gradual healing, but I am healing. Would rather have this rough week than a rough life due to diseased tonsils. I also accepted help with my kids which is hard for me to do as a Mom, but being a good Mom is taking people up on their offers to come over and provide a meal to the kids while I recuperate. These are the times Mom's should not feel badly about accepting help.

Hi i had a tonsilectomy today (14th feb 2013) and afterwards i felt great i managed to eat sausage and chips and few sandwiches and bag of crisp and some soup i went to hospital for 7:30 am i was in theatre by 10:15 am and in recovery by 11:15am, i have no pain whats so ever. i had more pain with tonsilitus. bearing in mind im only 16 :)

Thank you so much for your post Ray, it has made me feel a whole lot better about my pending operation in 4 weeks time. Ever since I was told I needed to have my tonsils removed (I've been experiencing severe tonsillitis 4-6 times a year) I have been terrorising myself reading horror stories on the internet and waking in the night in a cold sweat worrying myself sick about the operation and more importantly, the recovery and the pain. I am a 47 year old female from the UK and I also will be having my operation in a private hospital like you. I hope it wasn't just a case of you being extremely lucky and more like the fact that people feel compelled to write about a nasty experience rather than a positive one? As always it is the fear of the unknown that causes the most anxiety, I just hope and pray I am as lucky as you in my recovery and thanks again for sharing your positive account. Sue

Not sure what the differences are in the surgeries in the U.S. and UK but in the U.S. they cauterize everywhere they cut, and some places they accidently burn. I had mine out march 22 2013. I'm 18. They. burned my tongue in the process making it even harder to swallow and talk. The first day wasnt bad pain wise. When i woke up the next morning I was in a lot of pain. It was tough to make it through the day for the first five days. Headaches, earaches, irritable from sensitivity to loud sounds, just over all feel-like-crappiness. All i could bear to eat was soup, yogurt, and jello in small bites. it hurt to bend my neck very far in any direction but down. the night of day five i noticed some bleeding, a scab fell off and i spit up blood but this is aparently normal. But im on day 7 now, day six was very good. i woke up with little pain and a mouth full of blood from scabs falling off during the night. i feel completely back to normal except my speech is messed up, its muffled and distorted but understandable. i get a pinching feeling once in a while but it doesnt hurt and i can swallow almost perfectly fine with little pain. im sticking with softer foods for now, not in any hurry to rip all the scabs off at once, but the doctors say im doing very well this early on. Over all not too bad in my opinion. It would be best to drink a lot of water or anything hydrating. I didnt drink much the first two days. one and a half bottles of water at the most, i got very dehydrated and almost went to the hospital because of it. Day four is when i started being able to drink more. More advice would be to request stronger pain meds than tylenol with codeine. It worked a little for me but i needed something stronger. I cant wait to eat a burger and fries again. Hope this helps to anyone about to have this procedure done. Make it through the first three to four days and you should be fine.

Hey. I had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy on 3/25/13. It is now 3/30/13. And I’m 21 years old.  Therefore, I guess its day 5/6. I have a high tolerance for pain. Today I’m suffering from some ear pain, but nothing crazy. I like to be in quiet places, it seems to help. I have a lot of questions about the scabs. When are they going to fall off or whatever they do? I have been eating pretty soft foods. Today I ate mac and cheese and potatoes. I started a vitamin/mineral milk shake the other day to get my energy back up. Anyone one know around what day does scabs start coming off?

2 weeks later and all I have is a sore throat. Not everybody has a horrible experience, so let's keep posting good ones :) Eat and drink a lot the first 3 days before the pain kicks in....my advice

Im 23, I had my tonsils removed on Friday (its now Monday). I wish I never did the operation, I had one inflamed tonsil which never really bothered me except for occasional (couple of times a year) sore throats and tonsil stones. The operation itself happened quickly, when I woke up I was ok, no dizziness or nausea and not that much pain. I was treated under the NHS and then given tramadol.

I was sent home that day and was able to eat ok. The next day I started throwing up, no idea why. I sat in A&E for 6 hours for the doctor to tell me that Tramadol was bad for me and made me sick. So I dropped the Tramadol and stuck to normal pain killers (paracetamol and ibuprofen). Day 3 and im in severe pain. I can barely eat, my jaw hurts and my head and ears are killing me.

Im really hungry too as I cant eat. I think I will change my meds to co-codamol tonight.

Hope everyone else had a better experience than I!

I too have been having a pretty easy recover so far. Do not listen to these horror stories that are all over the internet. You will be fine. Make sure that after your operation drink as much water as possible (even though its painful the more you drink, the better it feels). Also, eat lots of icy foods like ice pops and slushies. You may want to hold out on the ice cream for a few days because it makes your spit thick and harder to swallow. Ive been chewing gum and sucking on lollipops to help keep my throat moist at all times which has really helped. Also get a humidifier for when you sleep. Its helped keep my throat moist while im sleeping and ive actually been able to sleep very well! I'm not going to lie, it does hurt but the pain meds help a lot, you'll be fine. Keep a positive attitude and you'll be back on your feet in no time. Good luck to anyone having this procedure done and is reading this.

Thank you so much for your positive post.  I have been advised to have my tonsils removed but after reading posts online I was absolutely terrified to the point of thinking that living with chronic tonsillitis and strep isn't all that bad. thank you!

Hey I had my tonsillectomy yesterday- I'm 27 and a mommy of two little girls. There seems to be a big discrepency between what doctors say for the most part between the UK and US. I did a lot of reading and UK drs advise slightly scratchy food and a return to the normal diet ASAP. Many drs in the US say NO WAY and to only eat soft, mushy things. I live in the US and my doctor prescribes to the UK approach. I was offered soda and crackers when I woke up from short term anesthesia (I declined both because carbonation sounded awful and I have food allergies) but did pick up some soda water and chips that I could eat on the way home. It is actually easier to eat soda water and slightly crunchy foods than mashed food for me. The softer the food is, the more it gets caught in the pockets where my tonsils used to be. However, I seem to be having a better time recovering than many of my peers. I drink a ton of water and gatorade and have a warm mist vaporizer by my bed. I have had chronic tonsilitis every 6 weeks or so for the past nearly 10 years. Already my throat feels more open (even with the swelling and coughing up bits of tissue) and I feel better. Yes my throat hurts but it's not any worse than the tonsilitis I've been experiencing. One very positive thing I noticed immediately after surgery was that I could hear better. I've had a post nasal drip for years and it sort of would get stuck by the swollen tonsils, dry out and block my ear passages. Within an hour of coming home, I spat out some old gunkie mucus blocks and now I have less pain/pressure in my ears than I've had ever. My advice, drink a ton- especially green or white tea with cinnamon and honey. Every time you swallow, it will sting a little less- whether you are drinking water, chewing ice or drinking juice. The tea, cinnamon and honey will soothe and are naturally anti-inflammatory. I usually do 1-2 Tbs honey with 1 tsp cinnamon for an 8 oz mug of tea. If you can, alternate between the Rx and ibuprofen (ask your dr first since motrin has been known to thin the blood a bit). Try drinking lightly carbonated drinks (I like club soda because it cleans out my mouth/throat without leaving sugary gunk behind) and try a few well chewed crackers or chips (sun chips have worked the best for me- less bready and can be well chewed without being too sharp- unlike potato chips). Jello is soothing but pudding (particularly rice or tapioca) seems to get stuck and build up on my throat. Gargling a little sea salt in water a couple times a day also helps. No one wants to get an infected site because of food buildup.Overall, and yes I know I'm only on day 2, I am so happy I did this. I nearly backed out and was having major panic attacks for the few days before my surgery. There are way too many horror stories and gross pictures online. I read people say that this surgery hurt more than labor. For me, that wasn't true at all. Labor was way worse, recovering from a c-section was way worse, having kidney stones was way worse and having back surgery was 1000x worse than this for me. I have had a lot of health complications and surgeries over the years. This one hurts but it's not end-of-the-world-just-shoot-me-right-now kind of pain. For me, so far, it just feels like I have a bad case of tonsilitis or strep with a few ulcers on my throat. As long as you keep swallowing (even in nothing is in your mouth) active swallowing every 30 min or so seems to keep things from getting to painful.

Hi my name is Melissa and I am 19 years old.

I am just starting my fourth day of recovery from a tonsillectomy. In the weeks leading up to my surgery I had gotten really scared by some of the adult tonsillectomy stories that I was reading on the internet. After reading dozens of horrifying experiences, I had almost convinced myself that I would rather just keep my tonsils and continue getting painful infections on a monthly basis. But, I went ahead with the surgery and I am SO GLAD that I did.

It has not been a walk in the park by any means...but it is certainly not as bad as any of those horror stories. So, I just wanted to share my not-so-bad-story with any of you who are debating whether or not to go ahead with getting rid of your tonsils! I am only on the fourth day, so maybe I havent seen the worst of it yet...but this is my experience so far...

Day of surgery:
The worst part of the day of surgery was honestly them trying to start my IV. My throat pain was never really bad today at all. I was taking Hydrocodone/acetametaphin liquid medicine every 4 hours, and childrens' grape flavored ibuprofen inbetween doses of hydrocodone. I was surprisingly very hungry on the first day and I felt hungry no matter how much I ate because I was basically only allowed to eat flavored ice. My doctor gave me the following food options for the day of surgery: Slushies/snocones, jello, sherbet, and sorbet. My favorite thing to eat was definitely slushies made in my parents' margarita machine that consisted of shaved ice and blue frost gatorade. They kind of numbed my throat and tasted good so I pretty much just always had one of those in my hand. Second best thing was the strawberry sherbet. I slept a lot on the day of surgery. I didnt set alarms because my wonderful dad was taking excellent care of me and delivering all of my meds. He made a medication schedule and made sure I had enough food in my stomach before taking the hydrocodone. I never set alarms, but I would wake up naturally every 20 minutes or so and want to drink ice water. Always had ice water on my bedside table.

Day 2:
The day after surgery was also pretty fine for me. I really think staying on top of my meds and managing my pain is what made day 1 and 2 very easy. On the second day I was allowed to eat things with milk in them and some thicker foods so pudding, ice cream, sweet potato, and macaroni and cheese were added to my diet. I felt pretty good on the second day. I even had two friends come over and we all ate ice cream and mac n cheese and watched a movie. Talking was not painful, but I sounded really weird- kind of like I had cotton balls stuck in my throat.

The only bad part of the second day occured after a dose of hydrocodone. I had taken a dose of the liquid codone/acetametaphine liquid pain killer with nothing but a little bit of cherry slushie in my stomach. The pain that followed had me writhing on the floor of my bedroom clutching my stomach. DO NOT TAKE PAIN KILLERS ON AN EMPTY STOMACH. That episode had nothing to do with throat pain. That was my fault and I learned my lesson real quick. I felt better almost immediately after being spoon fed a few bites of sweet potato.

Day three:
Day three was the first day I felt really bad throat pain. My parents had seen how relatively pain-free I had been and decided that I should wean off of the hydrocodone and only take tylenol extra strenght and kids ibuprofen. The last dose of hydrocodone I had was at 3am the morning of day 3. At 8 am I woke up and the pain in my throat, neck, and ears was so bad that I started to cry. My dad said it was just because it was time for more pain meds and he gave me tylenol extra strength. I took the meds and put an ice pack around my neck (which I had been doing the previous days as well- it really helps!) and fell back asleep. We continued with the weaker pain killers until about 4pm and I was crying again because of the pain. Everything hurt- my throat, tongue, neck, shoulders, jaw. It is amazing what narcotics can cover up. I had no idea that any of that pain was there until the hydrocodone was completely out of my system. So, at 4pm we started me on hydrocodone again and I have been rating my pain at a 4 out of 10 ever since.

Day 4: It is only a couple of hours into day 4 but I do have a few observations. The thick whiteish green coating on tonsil holes is apparently scab material. I have not had the bad breath that other people have mentioned, but my weird gross looking scabs are most definitely present. They are just barely beginning to fall off, too, which is annoying at most. I will feel one dangling in my throat and then swallow a few times, or eat some crushed ice and it will detach and I will swallow it. It is pretty gross, but it does not cause me pain.

My advice:
1. Don't try to wean off of pain meds too soon
2. Invest in a humidifier and leave it on all the time
3. always be eating shaved ice and drinking ice water
4. DO NOT take strong pain killers without a substantial amount of food in your stomach

So far the worst part of this whole thing was stomach pain from the hydrocodone. The throat pain is uncomfortable but I have definitely experienced bouts of tonsillitis that were more painful than this is.

This is Melissa again...

I knew it was too good to be true. I wrote my positive story when I was only beginning day 4 and I am now on day 7. The past 3 days have been some of the worst days of my life. Eating anything at all is excruciatingly painful, however, if i dont eat, then i have terrible nausea from the pain killers. I am sorry for giving y'all false hope. This is truly awful and I would not wish this upon anyone.

DAY ONE RECOVERY! Today I awoke in the hospital at around half 6, in agony! I'd put8/10! I was given my breakfast which was toast and cereal , I bought home the toast and lied that I had eat it because eating it seemed merely impossible! Got home to my house around 12 , slept on and off, woke up coughing and felt like I couldn't breathe! As of now , I have the driest throat and it's so swollen, can barely talk and it seems impossible to eat anything hard, I've ate custard and a few spoons of soup! Water is defo my savour here! Even though that hurts too, it will keep you hydrated and will moisten your throat! Any other advise greatly appreciated! I'm 20 btw and female.

My daughter(20) is scheduled for tomorrow and we are considering canceling the surgery.i am having panic attacks worrying about the pain she will be in afterwards,