Tonsils out tomorrow!

[Localher0]

DD is having her tonsils out tomorrow- she's 19!! I anticipate it's going to be pretty horrible and painful after. Is there any advice you can give me for aftercare?

I've stocked up on ice lollies, made jelly and bought soluble painkillers!

DD had hers out a few years ago. Eating something rough afterwards is important to help with healing - something like toast or cereal. Plenty of cool drinks/ice etc and just cosy up for a few days. DD wasn't allowed to mix with the general public for two weeks post op to avoid infection. Hope all goes well!

If they don’t give me pain meds then buy co-coda mom (paracetamol and codeine) and ibuprofen with codeine so have on hand.

avoid acidic foods eg orange juice and tomato based sauces.

I found myself quite knocked out by the general anesthetic, much more than I thought, and slept a lot for 2 days.

Make sure she is discharged with some anti-inflammatory meds - DH had his out as an adult and I had to take him back to A&E as he felt his throat was swelling up so much!

He was also prescribed a mouthwash type thing called Difflam after we went back which helped a lot.

Get painkillers. Luckily we had some prescription strength cocodamol as the ibuprofen sent back with me did nothing.

I found that sleeping on my side but also on a lot of pillows with a towel helped for the first week as I seemed to produce a lot of horrible spit but couldn't swallow. I just put the towel in the wash each morning, grim but necessary!

Had mine out as an adult and ignored the advice that you HAVE to eat toast and ended up with a nasty infection

Apparently day 5 is the worst pain wise. Recommended to eat toast, cornflakes, crisps as it helps to roughly remove any scabs forming . Sorry if that was too gross. My son was 21 and pain relief every 4 hours exactly . He was even told to set alarm through night to take them. It took a week for him to feel.OK .

I had mine out as an adult. I would recommend getting a humidifier, helps to stop your throat from drying out. I found it really helped! Also a pillow wedge because I couldn’t sleep lying down. Best of luck to her!

DD had hers out at 18 this year. A few notes on the whole thing. a) get her used to dealing with this herself - considered an adult by the hospital, there are not many times you can be with her, lots of delays etc, can't be with her on a ward etc. expect this and warn DD if she is not a coper b) after the op, they drug them up so the pain isn't so bad and give them drugs to take when they get home, this does seem to massively help mind c) difflam is good and does help although it is a bit gross d) the recovery "really stinks" for at least a week or so. e) take heed of the 14 days "not going out" thing. In reality, my DD was out and about after about 10 days in limited ways, but I would observe this. The pain wasn't as bad as my DD thought it was going to be but she was full of the pain relieving drugs, watching TV in the comfy chair, fire on, with whatever she wanted brought for her. At first just limited food stuff (fave ice lollys, soup etc.) then actually some scratchy stuff seemed to help like another PP said. We are now a year on, and I thank god she had it done. Before that we had every month of her getting tonsillitis and becoming really ill for several days to a week (fever, puking, agonising pain) missing school, missing life. Although it is a bit scary as one off for both of you, it is definitely worth it. Good luck tomorrow xx

Thanks all - lots of really helpful advice and experience on here. I had mine out at 12 and remember it being grim so I have warned her...
Useful info about the toast/rough food - I didn't realise it was a sort of natural abrasive so that makes sense now. I used to think it was just cruel 😬
Off to the pharmacy this opening for difflam and some soluble ibuprofen.
@sjpkgp1 her recovery will be like your DD's. I'll be waiting on her hand and foot I'm sure!
We expect to be discharged later today so 🤞 they give us lots of extra drugs.