I am on Day 6 post op after having my tonsils taken out on Thursday and oh my god, am I in pain. 

I'm 28 and had to have the surgery as I've suffered with extreme bouts of tonsillitis since I was a child. As an adult it really affected my work and I was having to take time off regularly. My immune system was also shot to pieces and I would pick up colds and sore throats very quickly especially as I work in a big open planned 'air conditioned' office. 

After my operation, the anaesthetist even said it was a good job I had them out as they were huge and infected. HOWEVER .. this hasn't stopped the extreme pain I am in :( :( :( the only thing that's genuinely helped me so far is reading through everyone else's experiences to know I'm not alone.

My experience so far

Day of the op 

Admitted to hospital. Nervous about the general anaesthetic but was put to sleep with no problem. Woke up around an hour later and the first thing I did according to the nurse (and despite being high on morphine) was to sit bolt up right and shout, 'This really hurts help me!'.

Despite initial pain I managed to eat a little bit of ham salad and was able to drink and swallow. When I got home I slept right through the night until the next morning (which feels like a dream now!).

Day 1 post-op

I woke up feeling ok, I was a tiny bit in pain but managed to eat some scrambled eggs and one piece of toast for breakfast (although very slowly). I had a lazy day and took my meds when I was supposed to. I was at around a pain level of 2/3 all day. I also had dinner that night - a chicken pie with mashed potato topping. At this stage I was still eating! 

Day 2 post-op 

This was a shock. I woke up and was in so much pain. I was waking up throughout the night but it was only when I sat down to breakfast did I realise how much agony I was in. I tried a tiny mouthful and nearly burst into tears. 

The rest of the day I was plying myself with Co-Codomonl and the other drug they gave me but it only provided a slight bit of light relief. 

I forced myself to have some dinner (melted camembert with toasted bread, probably not a great idea knowing what I know now). That night I didn't sleep until 1am the next day and had a night of interrupted sleep broken every now and then for my pain relief alarms. 

Day 3 

By now I started to realised what all the fuss was about the recovery for this operation. This time I couldn't face breakfast and was in a restless mood. I forced myself out of the house with my partner and we went on a drive but after an hour we stopped to potentially go for a walk, I had a mini meltdown when the wall of pain suddenly hit again. 

Not being able to speak is extremely hard for communicating to people in your life how bad you are feeling. I tried to eat mint chocolate ice-cream and it is hard to describe but my mouth felt like there were razor blades all over my throat. The tiny chocolate chips were too much to swallow so I ended up leaving it. 

By the time we got home I was riding a slight wave of painkillers but that quickly evaporated before more pain. I've had to sleep in a separate room to my partner because of the pain and the amount of times I get up during the night. 

Day 4

After another night of restless sleep, I plied myself with drugs - this time switching to taking a smaller dose hourly as opposed to larger quantities four times a day. 

To be honest the meds were doing much at this stage. I ate a sweet to get the taste of c**p out of my mouth and ended up vomiting ten minutes later. Throwing up after a tonsillectomy is as excruciating as you would expect. It's a damaged area of trauma stretching so your throat can throw something up - not nice at all! 

I managed a crumpet with marmite for breakfast, however but in the afternoon I expected started bleeding from the mouth. My surgeon warned me before the op there is a one in ten chance of post-op bleeding and he advised if it didn't stop after a minute to go straight to A&E (ER). 

After ten minutes or so, we jumped in the car and headed to hospital. I'd stopped by that point but then my mouth started to constantly drool. I was told to gargle peroxide mixed with water (which tastes absolutely horrendous - enough to make you wretch). The hospital wanted to keep me in overnight because of the bleeding so said good-bye to my boyfriend and was put up in a private room on a women's ward (which is pretty amazing given it was an NHS hospital). 

My meds were taken off me though and I was told not to take anything else as the hospital would now be looking after my pain relief. Fine by me as I hoped it would be better! They hooked me up to an IV drip and took me onto the ward. 

They gave me some tramadol which I'd heard a lot about but honestly didn't seem to do much for me. Then they gave me from Orphamol which again didn't stop the pain.

I was feeling a bit feverish and just generally not that fab (especially with the constant spitting .. classy!) but I managed to drop off to sleep for half an hour after 11pm after listening to the radio. 

I suddenly woke up a short time later with the bubbling feeling in the back of my throat and the taste of metal. I put my hand to my mouth and even in the darkness I could make out blood on my fingers which was coming from my mouth.

This time I was bleeding much more heavily than earlier in the day and it is fair to say I freaked out. Amid my worries that 'this is it' I managed to text my mum and boyfriend and called the matron. She said the ENT specialist was at another hospital. 

The blood was fresh and bright red and sprouting out of my mouth. Among it, were small blood clots. 

It stopped around 20 minutes later. A doctor arrived about 30 later and looked in my mouth and said the bleeding had stopped. They decided to transfer me to another hospital. 

Day 5 

I got a tiny bit of sleep on the A&E ward at the new hospital and was given some more painkillers. Nothing so far has given me total relief of the pain, by the way. 

I was moved to a ward and was seen by the consultant and other specialists just after. They advised they would be keeping me in for observation and if I bled again I would potentially need to have surgery. 

The meds given were paracemtol through an IV, antibiotics for the bleeding (in case of infection), ibuprofen and tramadol. Tramodol chills me out and dulls the pain (though it's still there). The best thing so far has been Difflam oral rinse - a loud green liquid you swirl for 2-3minutes which numbs your mouth, teeth and throat. 

Yesterday I was experiencing a lot of jaw, tongue, teeth and ear pain as well as the fact I couldn't swallow or talk. I think it's harder too when staff are trying to talk to you but it's an effort to say anything. I have been relying a lot of my phone or just smiling. 

My family came to visit me in the afternoon which cheered me up. I had two spoonfuls of cheesy cauliflower for dinner but couldn't eat any more. I tried to have banana and custard for dessert ... DO NOT TRY THIS! I cannot explain how much agony I was in moments after. My entire mouth stung and really touched my nerves. Weird. 

I had a brief hour of feeling okay when I settled down to watch something on my laptop and just after the paracemtol IV (which was more effective than the tablet form). 

However lo and behold, it wasn't to last and I then started to feel very drowsy, messy and all over the place. I was going through boxes of tissues constantly spitting out saliva. It got to the point where I couldn't even speak without needing to clear my mouth. I also could not drink any water at the stage because swallowing was so painful. I somehow got two hours of sleep.

Day 6 - today 

I woke up on the ward this morning feeling exhausted and groggy. It doesn't help that everything feels really warm in hospital which can make you feel even worse. I still couldn't drink any water and was spitting constantly which subsided slightly later in the morning when I gargled some more oral rinse. 

Now I'm waiting to hopefully be discharged. Although I haven't bled since, the dehydration is a bit of a problem. The consultant said my right tonsil bed is where the bleeding started but it's hard to say how or why other than I'm unlucky. 

What has helped me so far 

* Difflam Oral Rinse was a game changer. Make sure you don't swallow a bit or you will wretch. It numbs the mouth and throat and dulls the pain which is sweet relief for two hours or so 

* Having a great support network. Make sure you have someone who can act as your carer. My boyfriend has been AMAZING. It is not greatly communicated to you but you literally cannot do anything on certain meds - especially not drive. You also need someone to check whether or not you've bled in the first 24 hours. It helps to have a person close enough who is up for looking down the back of your throat with the torch on their phone to check for progress (despite your disgusting breath). If you are about to have the operation, it pays dividends to have someone to help you recover .. let your friends/ family know how serious the recovery is 

* Drinking water. This is obvious. It does NOT help pain wise, it actually feels worse drinking however for your body it's doing the right thing. Some people on here recommend setting an alarm to monitor your drinking. To be honest I am done with alarms with the medication and am feeling in far too much pain to force myself to do anything else. Everyone is different - for me I am drinking when I can. 

* Reading up on what to expect and what is to come (for better or worse) 

What has NOT helped 

* Ice-cream. As a child I was envious of my schoolfriend who was given two weeks off to recover from a tonsillectomy and told me how she spent the whole time eating jelly and ice-cream. Now there is lots of evidence to suggest it doesn't help but actually delays the recovery period because of the dairy content. I have eaten ice-cream so far (it's just nice to have something cold and sweet) but it hasn't helped. And I blame the mint choc chip for my meltdown on Day 4. 

* Banana and custard. It was very painful and not at all helpful.

* Oramorph. I thought this would help - it didn't! 

* Having my work emails synced to my phone. It's hard enough to recover without having to face pressures from work. I am planning on switching it off and I would totally recommend that too!

Hoping I get discharged today and it gets easier from here in ...