Tonsillectomy recovery

Just posting here as I was looking through these boards a few weeks ago in advance of my DS's surgery (adenoid and tonsil removal). He is 3. He had the coblation surgery, which can minimise risk of bleeding and speed up recovery.

His admission was at 745AM, so he fasted from the night before, water until 730AM. He was taken up to theatre around 930, so we played and coloured and sang until then.

I sat him on my knee while he was put to sleep (mask) and sang in his ear. He stayed completely calm. I was able to be with him in the recovery ward when he woke up. A few minutes later he became quite upset and the nurse recommended trying to get him back to sleep, which he did quickly. He then slept another 90 minutes, and woke up ready for his tuna sandwich which he favoured over ice cream! He ate a muffin, some watermelon, apple, crisps and yoghurt pouches as well.

We were discharged and home in time for a big bowl of pesto pasta and a water fight with big brother.

We kept on top of pain killers, alternating Nurofen and Calpol. We also kept on top of offering drinks and food so that his throat didn't dry out and the scabs came off more easily. He loved pesto pasta, Frubes, and crisps. Wasn't that interested in ice lollies or ice cream, but did offer regularly. He ate most of us his usual meals as well, maybe being a little more picky than normal for the first few days.

He woke once per night for the first few, and seemed to be in the most pain then, but cuddles and meds sorted him out. From night 5 he slept through again.

On day 4 (counting surgery as day 0), he had a hard few minutes, running around holding his mouth and asking for medicine when he wasn't due any. I gave him some pizza a few minutes later, which he GULPED down, and when I looked into his throat later, I noticed a lot of scabbing had come off. This happened a few times over the next few days - short bursts of pain followed by really clear progress in terms of his healing.

By day 8, we were reducing meds and by day 12 he wasn't taking anything. It's now day 15 and you'd never know anything had happened, bar the fact that:

his sleep apnea (which was severe) is now completely done - he slept silently and deeply from the first night post-op!

he is currently having a growth spurt and eating us out of house and home!

Totally worth it, and the recovery was easier than I had anticipated. Hope whoever is reading this experiences the same.

I had mine out at that age, it was awful. Wounds got infected so it took about six weeks. Done privately though, so went in the day of my last exam and they were done the next day.

When I had mine taken out (20yrs old) I was told it was routine op, 2 week recovery. So decided to have them out a month before some university exams for similar reasons. What actually happened was i caught an infection, the swelling caused all the cauterization to come undone. So hemorrhaged bucket and buckets. Truly terrifying. Had to have it all recautetised. Was horribly ill for over a month and missed all my exams. In hospital the consultant told me that around a third come undone due to infection, a third! I was so angry.

not going to lie, the recovery period for me was horrific. Had mine out at 18, I could only sleep for 2/3 hours time as the pain killers wore off and the pain woke me and my throat would be dry, felt like I was swallowing knives.
I was prescribed some kind of mouthwash that I remember helped.

Despite the awful recovery, I had no complications and it was worth it but it took me 2/3 weeks to get back to normal.

I'm in the same position OP. DS is 21 and has been getting tonsillitis pretty much monthly for the last 18 months. He's so run down and it's affecting him mentally as well. Like you, we're paying for him to have it done privately as waiting lists are so long. We have an appointment with a consultant next week so hope he'll be able to have the op asap. I'll update and let you know how it goes.

I had my tonsils out at 28, due to quinsy that I had had twice, I was on the emergency list, as I had already been admitted due to the second quinsy. Consultant was concerned that I could experience severe blood loss, I took Arnica homeopathic remedy, emergency dosage 3 days before surgery, blood loss was minimal. I did have infection after surgery that slowed my recovery. But well worth having the surgery.

Good luck I hope your DS recovers quickly.

The main issue with recovery is the amount of scar tissue etc they have to hack away at, usually the older you are the more tonsillitis you’ve had so it builds up a lot. I think if he doesn’t get recurrent tonsillitis you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.

Also agree with what @Zombiemum1946 says. Try and set a schedule for him to take painkillers and stick to it as much as you can so he’s keeping on top of it and taking them before the pain kicks in again. I was given oramporh which really helped

I had mine taken out when I was 19. I had it done on the NHS but in a private hospital, I stayed overnight. I took 2 weeks off as advised, but ended up taking another week off as well. I was absolutely wiped out, the pain was excruciating and it was really hard to get any sleep. But having said that, I absolutely would make the same decision again as it was so worth it. It is a lot of pain, but it’s so much better than constantly getting ill

Recovery is normally 2 weeks. General rule of thumb is the older you are the more it hurts. Encouraging him to eat helps to prevent infection, soft food is fine it's the swallowing action that's helpful in preventing infection and post op bleeds. Regular pain meds around 20 mins before eating makes it more comfortable. Don't wait till the pain hits before taking the meds.
The consultant should go over the risks etc with you both.

I had mine out at 17, I second what others have said in terms of the pain, it was horrendous. The first few days/week was the worst. I lost a stone in 3 days. I did my driving test 10 days after though. I wasn't 100% for several weeks but back at school within 2 weeks. It will be horrible, but worth it.

I think the recovery time also depends on the reason for the operation. My son was constantly unwell with tonsillitis and they were always sore and inflamed. He took a while to recover. My DD had the same issues as your son, she had no tonsillitis, and recovered incredibly quickly.

To an extent I think recovery is a mix of luck and how bad the journey to the surgery has been. As I said I found recovery fairly easy but the tonsillitis was so bad I'd had 2 lots of 4 day hospital stays trying to reduce my tonsils from blocking 90% of my airway. Breathing and swallowing was awful. Comparatively the tonsillectomy where I went into hospital just before midday, out by 10pm that evening and could breathe and swallow freely again was clearly much better! The (very manageable) pain was well worth it after that months of difficulty I'd had.

In that case he might be better opting for the ‘guillotine method’ and just have them lopped off. Recovery for that is way easier. I think if you are going down this route you should ditch the mocks (unless his recovery is miraculous) and see what school can do about alternate prep.

I used to nurse kids straight after their tonsillectomy. In my opinion, pain-management is the biggest predictor of how fast a child recovers. Eg: a young child refuses pain meds because it hurts to swallow, which delays them swallowing, which increases their fear of pain and so on in a circle.

Pain relief would be better IV, in my opinion, but the kids really need it regularly to recover quickly.

I have to say, I still feel a little traumatised by the excrutiating pain children suffer post-tonsillectomy. Anecdotally, at least, pain is poorly managed, poor little mites.

I had my tonsils out in Jan 2020 at age 39 due to an abscess and I needed 3 weeks to be fully better. The first 2 weeks felt like I wasn't improving at all and then I suddenly felt a lot better. If I had a pound for every person who joked about how I'd get to eat lots of icecream I'd be rich, but it's best to eat properly as they advise. It hurts but you'll recover better and quicker. Eating icecream the whole time means you just build up scar tissue I hear.

Anyway, I'm fully better now and it was a really good decision. I'm a singer and no long term issues.

The whole thing was painful but the abscess was bloody painful so maybe I found the tonsillectomy more tolerable having had that prior. I set a timer to make sure I took painkillers regularly and that got me through.

I had my tonsils out at almost 30 and had read about how horrendous it was but mine was very much the opposite. Mine had been chronically infected and I'd been admitted to hospital twice for IV antibiotics. I'd already lost weight as they were so big I choked when trying to eat.

An hour after the op I was eating a sandwich, while the nurse looked on in shock at how quick it was going down. I was just so happy to have so much room there. Home same night, next day I ate pizza and crisps. All I had was paracetamol and ibruprofen after leaving hospital. I would say the referred ear pain from my throat was the worst but very manageable. Couldn't talk without pain for 2 weeks but if I didn't talk, tbh I felt pretty normal in a couple days. I had no complications or bleeding.

Do encourage him to eat harder food as it takes off the scabs in smaller bits. When people only eat ice lollies it can come off in much bigger bits that pull off more that isn't ready yet and that tends to be when people have bigger bleeds (not always, thats just what I was warned).

i will say although recovery is tough as an adult the freedom of being tonsil free is totally worth it!!

I had mine out when I was slightly older than your DS OP. The first week I was pretty much in bed and on regular pain killers. By day 10 I was up and about again but still a bit tender. Back to normal after 2 weeks. I remember the absolute joy of eating nachos after years and years of tonsillitis and pain swallowing, Such a relief to get rid of them!

My (very fit and healthy 22 year old)nephew had his out recently and he was very poorly. As pp have said he had lots of painkillers in the days immediately after the operation then ended up being re admitted with an infection. He was off work for 3 weeks and lost a lot of weight but recovered well and was back to normal quickly after the initial 2-3 weeks. Worth it though as he'd been hospitalised several times with Quincy and was getting infections so regularly.

Two of my kids had their tonsils removed - DS through NHS and DD2 privately just before the pandemic. Both had adenoids out at the same time. Recovery for DD2 was incredibly fast - she was eating crisps within a couple of hours of the operation and after a week you wouldn't have known she had the operation. She was playing saxophone at usual standard within a month.

They normally do the private tonsillectomies on a Saturday at our hospital so if it was me I would get it done on the Saturday after they break up for half term in Feb and give him half term to recover.

I had mine out at 21 and the pain was awful, I wouldn't have been in a state to do much for the first 10 days. But then my stitches split at day 10 and was back in hospital.

Complications like that aren't super rare either so I'd be prepared for him to be unable to do any work for the full 2 weeks

My fifteen year old daughter had hers out last summer. (July 21). She got them out on a Monday and by Friday she was fine again, a little pain more discomfort than pain. She had to stay away from people for ten days to avoid infection. After the first week she was fine eating everything. It was best decision we made because she was constantly missing school.