Tonsillectomy as an adult - how bad is recovery?

[HermioneKipper]

I’m going to have my tonsils out shortly after lots of horrible episodes of Tonsillitis as an adult. I was hospitalised last time.

Ive been thinking that if I can cope with Tonsillitis then surely I can cope with having them out?! But even the consultant told me that the recovery is awful.

Is it really horrific? Think I need to be prepared for the level of pain 😭

I’m 39

Nah, it's worth it. One quinsy outweighs every single moment of post op pain, never mind the being able to breathe at night and not permanently brewing another infection.

Honestly don’t worry, I was 40 when I had them out. Days 3 and 4 were a bit painful, but honestly nothing as bad as the pain of tonsillitis or quinsy. and the best thing ever is that it has changed my life !!! no more horrible sore throats with pain like swallowing glass. i also had two weeks off and went to the seaside on the second week with my daughter - it was really nice. Good luck!

You probably need to at least get them to prescribe codeine on its own - then it's tiny tablets and you don't have to try and swallow horse pills.

Solphadeine Max (Soluble for this!) is the best you can get OTC but it's much lower levels of pain relief than you can get with codeine alone or with morphine.

Is your husband going to pick you up? I think I would want someone to be with me and support me while I advocated for appropriate pain relief. It might add to the cost but it will be possible. I would be making it clear before hand that I wanted to be clear on how we were going to make sure my pain was appropriately managed to set expectations and then not be going home without some decent pain relief. But post op I don't think I would be prepared to rely on my ability to advocate for myself.

(Not had my tonsils out, plenty of experience with pain and pain management!)

Painful as hell but life changing. You won't regret it (after you forget about the pain!). Easily one of the best decisions I ever made for my body and health

I had a quinsy a few years ago which was utterly horrific and hospitalised on a drip and steroids the last time so don’t know why I seem to have forgotten threatening to scoop them out myself with a rusty spoon 🤪

Feeling weedy and scared though

Definitely painful but worth it so hang in there OP and get it done. In my case, didn't know I was allergic to codeine and throwing up on my newly operated throat was not fun at all, a very painful experience. However subsequent to that I could manage the pain with just paracetamol and ibuprofen so it was do-able. I don't think it was as painful as childbirth or the recovery from that (for me at least, appreciate everyone will have different expereinces). It was worth all the pain though and has been genuinely life changing. I'd get a good list going of easy to watch TV shows and spend a week doing nothing but lying about recovering and you will be fine!

Oh and also make a list of soft, comforting food and drink. I really couldn't eat for a while and found sipping lemonade helped to keep my energy up, before moving onto jelly, custard, and a sort of soup broth called brodo which has these little pasta stars in it. Definitely get yourself well stocked with recovery food and drink!

Sprite type lemonade rather than anything with real lemons in it, I might add, sorry! No citrus fruits for quite some time is my recommendation!

Both of my kids have had tonsillectomies, open capsule ones as that ensures all tonsil tissue is removed and makes recurrence of infection less likely.

DC2’s recovery was pretty brutal - he had a bleed and went back in for IV abx. I found it very hard to witness as a parent as for the first 7-10 days, as the pain meds wore off, he was actually running in little circles screaming.

He took over a fortnight to recover, he had his out of 01/12 and didn’t return to school until the January.

it can be a pretty brutal recovery, which is partly why the NHS has such a high bar to pass to get a tonsillectomy.

I had the option to have my tonsils removed privately about 5 years ago, but actually I chickened out. Recurrent tonsillitis is caused by a biofilm, and I was lucky that after an extra long course of antibiotics it disappeared.

That said, I have had a couple of resurgences this year which have been fairly brutal so I do question the wisdom of keeping them.

My pain only came on about a week afterwards, and then only at night - hence the difflam spray (I saved a dose of codeine so that if pain woke me I could get back to sleep) - it tailed off after about five days I think. During the day it was sore but ok.

It's ok to be nervous! I'm about to post my own 'nervous about medical stuff' thread.

HORRIFIC imo. The recovery is not linear. one day feels slightly better, the next awful again. I was in agony. Worse than labour and emergency c section in my case. That being said mine did get infected so that probably contributed to it. First day in hospital was fine as i was very drugged up but then i just got paracetamol and ibuprofen.
I almost feel like i have trauma from the recovery, just no no no. That being said, i WOULD have it done again but prepare for 10 days of misery

Its been 20 years since I had mine out at 38 and it was horendous even though they gave me Tramodol

It was so worth it though. I've only needed anti-biotics once since then

I’d recommend getting pain killers that are suppositories.

All of the pain killers I had couldn’t be taken on an empty stomach and trying to eat was fucking horrific. I was in tears trying to eat wheatabix.

Now I’m older and wiser I would probably ignore the not on an empty stomach advice.

Also had a lot of pain in my ears. I don’t remember if it was a secondary infection but but ear’s definitely felt like they hurt a lot.

I had mine out at 28. I'm not going to lie it was very painful but it was the best decision I've made. I was constantly getting infections for years, always on anti biotics.

The recovery time was 2 weeks for me. I took co-codamol for the first week, days 3-7 were the worst. Swallowing was very painful. I mainly ate jelly and rice pudding. The one thing that really helped me was a frozen gel pad wrapped in a tea towel under my chin. It wasn't pleasant but I have zero regrets.

I could only bear to eat one yogurt a day for a week. I wanted to cry, but crying was incredibly painful.

I had them out at 32 - brilliant thing to do as it stopped a lifetime of illness. Took two weeks to recover - dosed up on tramadol week one (opioid pain killer very tightly controlled : private anaesthetist prescribed it for me. Nhs gp snorted at me when I asked and suggested Paracetemol. Paracetemol will not touch the sides).

I could move around and function week two but could not to back to work. Week three was fully recovered.

go for it op. Two weeks post op you’ll be a new woman.

I had mine removed last October at 39, I very much underestimated the recovery and agree with PPs that say it's brutal. I also went private and was given morphine and codeine to take for around 5 days after, obviously not at the same time! I found the trick was not ever letting pain relief wear off. Days 3-5 were the worst and the pain peaked day 5 just as I ran out of morphine! But I steadily improved every day thereafter. Force yourself to eat toast and not just soft foods, it's hard to swallow if there isn't enough friction anyway as you're so swollen. I couldn't lay fully down either for a while so sleeping alone for a few nights helps if you can. I needed the whole two weeks off and was only really able to go out on day 10. I was shocked at how badly it affected me and didn't think I was a wimp before this! Sneezing was painful for weeks afterwards but now I am so glad I had them out! So yes, worth it but prepare for the worst and if you come off more lightly, it's a bonus! Good luck

I had mine out just before I was 18 & I was in bits honestly, I was home after 24 hours & all I did was sleep really but then I got an inner ear infection on top of my recovery & the medication I was given caused nausea so I had to take anti sickness meds then too,just my luck really 🤣 it was pain like no other but definitely worth it, I'd suffered with bouts of it at least twice a year for 5 years so Id never go back

No fucker tells you they can grow back BTW, or that you can still get nasty throat infections.

I had a new bout of tonsillitis (strep throat) about around a year post-surgery and I've never been so furious.... However it was the only bout I've had since then and it's been 20 odd years.....and at least I could take pills for it instead of having to take the kiddie liquid antibiotics. I have huge sympathies for kids who hate the taste of it - why can't it all be like the banana one?!

Instead, I get sinus and ear infections now! Yay!

It is awful, sorry. But I remember reading threads like this one and got so stressed that I gave myself lockjaw. Then the op was cancelled because of covid - when it came round again, I concentrated on not thinking about it until I was being taken down to surgery.
Set alarms for painkillers and keep taking them on the dot and you’ll be fine. As pps have said, straight back to hospital if it bleeds. Don’t expect to achieve anything in your fortnight off. And I’ve not had a quinsy or tonsillitis since - it’s really worth it.

I was able to eat a sandwich within hours, although very slowly and I was on morphine. Plus they wouldn't let me home until I'd eaten!
Soluble cocodamol got me through but about a week in I got an infection. All felt very much like tonsillitis, so if you are a severe sufferer it won't be worse. A course of antibiotics sorted it out and I've not looked back. Really pleased I had it done. There have been a lot of times when I know I would have had tonsillitis again but have just had a bit of earache or a sore throat, whereas before I would have been wiped out for over a week, unable to swallow my own saliva.

Mine grew back 😱

19 year old DD had hers out privately a few months ago. She and I were expecting the worst since she’s a bit older (her consultant was the brutally honest type and told her she would be miserable for the 2 weeks!) but things ended up being relatively bearable. As long as she kept up with her pain meds she was able to manage OK. To put it into perspective on Day 5 which is meant to be one of the worst she was still able to eat a small meal out at Wagamama

She was advised to eat as normally as possible and this definitely aided her recovery. Chewing exercises the throat muscles and therefore helps the pain + any rougher/hard foods ‘clean’ the scabs, helping to prevent infection + bleeds.

Ice pops and icy drinks will be your best friend! We bought an ice pack that you can strap round your head which really helped especially when the dreaded ear pain came along.

It wasn’t the most pleasant 2 weeks but by around day 10 she was feeling pretty normal again and off the strong painkillers. It’s been well worth it to get rid of the constant tonsillitis!

Compared to my tonsillitis with strep, MRSA and a fungus which I was hospitalized for it was a piece of cake except the unflavored liquid pain Rx but you can't have everything