How long to recover from tonsillectomy?

[Bagamoyo1]

DS age 15 is on the waiting list to have his tonsils removed. They’re large and slightly uncomfortable, although they don’t get infected. The hospital have said to expect him to be out of action for 2 weeks, which seems a very long time. Does anyone have experience of this, and if so how long did your teen take to recovery.
Thank you

If you have a google you can see the patient advice sheets produced by different hospitals to compare. From one - "You may well find that it takes a couple of weeks to get ‘back to normal’. We encourage you to rest for the first few days and gradually get back to your normal routine. We recommend that you take 10-14 days off work. During this time, you should try to avoid large groups of people, people with coughs and colds and smoky or dusty environments. This is because you are more vulnerable to picking up an infection while your throat is healing."

And another - "Rest at home for a few days. A sore throat is normal after the operation and can last for up to two weeks. It is advisable to have a supply of simple painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen at home. You will normally require two weeks off work following the operation."

Two weeks off seems pretty consistent.

My son had tonsils and adenoids out as a toddler, we were told he had to stay at home and isolate as much as possible for 2 weeks. There is some good information online about when pain peaks - I think its day 5 after surgery. 2 weeks is about right for recovery.

And do follow the advice about eating regular food again asap - you can't live off ice cream and smoothies. The first leaflet even directly said about eating foods like toast and cereal - it helps to scrape the gunk off the back of the throat, and the chewing and swallowing helps to promote proper healing.

I was 19. It took about 2-3 weeks and if I'm honest, was worse than I expected.
I was in hospital for 48 hours, then in utter agony (earache rather than throat, which was just raw) for at least 10 days. Solpadeine was my friend. And the Olympic Games which were on at the time.
Advice is to eat normally, immediately, if slowly and gently. My first food I remember was Weetabix.

I needed every day of the two weeks. I was 22 ish.

A sore throat is an understatement. They've just cut off the tonsils then burned the throat to seal the wound. It's agony for the first few days (after the morphine wears off post surgery).

Also, bleeding from the wounds is common and difficult to stop.

The hospital I was in wouldn't let anyone go home until they'd eaten normally for 3 meals. Gone are the jelly and ice cream days!

It's been a while, but I think the two weeks is due to risk of infection, rather than recovery per se (though I wouldn't put it much under two weeks for full recovery).

I had mine out when I was 17, the operation was the easy part and I was in a lot of pain afterwards, and became a bit dependent on codeine for about 10 days, I got terrible hives all over when I had to come off it!

I was told to take 2 weeks off, I think I was at home and unwell with a painful throat and earache for at least a week. It was worse than tonsillitis but short term pain for long term gain! I think I ate yoghurt and soft-ish toast with dairylea for the first few days.

Hope all goes well for your DS. They don’t take them out for no reason these days and so he should feel a lot better when it’s done.

easily 3 weeks for myself (obvs not a teen/early 30s). I've had numerous ops and tonsils/adenoids removal was the easily the most painful. i felt more capable after a c -section birth to be truthful. its very painful to eat and drink, heavily buttered toast (so soggy) and wonton soup were my staples for food. i didnt do much parenting or house stuff either in that time - I physically couldn't (and i was on endone for the whole 3 weeks).

oh and the pain is bad days 7 - 10, while the scabs form/ dry out. but its totally worth it! i didnt realise how much my breathing was obstructed! its life changing!

By the way, I think the policy now is to discharge them only with an alternating paracetamol/ibuprofen regimen for pain relief, whereas they used to provide oramorph as well. In retrospect, DS (who had tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy aged six) could have done with more pain relief days 3-7. Worth checking with the hospital in advance whether you can liaise with them/GP to have an oramorph prescription available at short notice if needed.

I had mine out at age 43, and you do need 2 weeks to recover and rest. I didn’t find it horribly painful as I was lucky enough to be able to manage the pain with regularly spaced codeine, paracetamol and ibuprofen - it really helps to space all 3 of these to ease the pain for as many days as you need to. I made sure I ate even if it was tiny amounts and used difflam throat spray to soothe it too. Ice lollies also helped.

You can hit a wall at around day 10 - I was extremely exhausted at this point and slept a lot. So I’d advise not rushing to get back up and at it!

All worth it to not have tonsillitis every month though!

I was 15 when I had mine out too.
Felt awful fir a good 10 days.

A sore throat is an understatement. They've just cut off the tonsils then burned the throat to seal the wound. It's agony for the first few days (after the morphine wears off post surgery).

This 100%. My son was a mess, I hate to say it. He was coughing up all sorts of grim stuff and crying his eyes out. Never felt so hope less in my life.

That aside, he's been brilliant since - not once bout of tonsillitis! And his sleep has improved massively.

Just brace yourself for something that isn't that pretty. :(

Definitely 2 weeks, I got an infection so it was longer.
The pain is unreal, especially day 5 and 10, make sure you stagger his painkillers and don't wait until he's sore, just keep giving them at the regular times.
It's worth it in the end though.

It was way worse than I expected, probably my worst recovery from surgery I have had. Definitely 2 weeks at least here!

I had mine removed in my thirties. Very much the worst pain I've ever had (worse than child birth). At the time I worked in a job where I was constantly on my feet so definitely could have taking longer off work - I felt very dizzy when I returned to work on day 14

I had mine removed at 16. I was at a barbecue 3 days later. I don’t remember it being horrendous, in fact it was a walk in the park compared to the 3 years of almost solid tonsillitis I’d had which was what prompted the removal in the first place.