Tonsillectomy as an adult - criteria and good idea or not?

[Ilikeviognier]

Anyone know much about the above?

seriously considering pushing for a tonsillectomy- but how bad would it be as an adult? How much time off work etc?

also I’m not sure about criteria - I’ve not been affected by tonsillitis- however I have had quinsy twice in the past two months requiring IV antibiotics and drainage and frankly I can’t go through it a third time as it was basically agony.

however from what I can see on the nhs website it talks about having to have tonsillitis x times to qualify - which I haven’t.

anyone had experience of this?

Could you potentially afford to go private? After a really bad bout I looked at this as GP was useless. You can get your tonsils lasered off which is a much less invasive procedure compared to surgery.

I have PMI through work so potentially - yes.

I got mines removed as a young adult. Following being hospitalised to have IV antibiotics. It sounds strange but I think it bumps you up the list. I had previous problems with my tonsils and Gp was very much they don’t like to remove them anymore. Post hospital and they referred on to a consultant straight away.

How was it having them done as an adult? Yes I’ve been through the lovely IV experience twice now so I’d like to think that might help but I’m not sure!

Had mine out at 38, can't lie the pain was horrific, but as I was having bouts constantly, it was worthwhile bur took me about 2 weeks to not be in constant agony

I had mine out at 32 after many repeated bouts of tonsillitis needing time off work and antibiotics and also intramuscular antibiotics needed on a holiday. I'm so glad I did.
V painful recovery though. I don't know if lasering is different in recovery.
Good luck

My 19 yr old is having them out privately on 1/9 - but due to huge tonsils causing sleep apnoea. We've been warned the recovery is tough

Oh dear. Thanks for the warnings on the recovery. Need to think. I have two primary aged kids and a busy job so can’t really afford to be laid up for two weeks recovering.

I had them out in my early 20s. I had recurring tonsillitis for about a year, everytime I finished the antibiotics it would come back after a few days. At the time I was told the threshold was 10 times in a year (no idea if that's changed, & a hospital admission may bump you up).

I had 2 weeks off work, & they advised me to not leave the house for that period as can catch infection (I did though). I found recovery fine though, as long as I kept on top of the painkillers it was manageable, & a lot better than the awful tonsillitis I had had

I had mine out at 37, the pain is awful, took me 2 weeks to be pain free - I couldn't do anything for those 2 weeks

My GP referred me after I had tonsillitis 5 times in one year.

Recovery took less than 2 weeks. With 3 days that were quite painful.

I've never regretted the operation and tonsillitis free life is brilliant.

I had mine out at 35, it was painful and took two weeks to stop feeling rubbish and/or in pain.

DS16 just had his done with same recovery time and process.

Both done privately : ask for a referral from your GP. Private ENT should inspect your tonsils as well as listening to your history. Both times surgery was done within a month of seeing ENT privately.

10 times in one year?!! That’s horrendous as a qualifier.

I’ve not had tonsillitis at all - but have had 2 quinsies in 2 months and been hospitalised each time. I really can’t go on like this!

Had mine out at 34, got an infection half-way through the 2 week recovery so had another 3 days in hospital on IV antibiotics and painkillers. Still glad I did it!
The dr said 2-3 times a year wasn’t frequent enough for removal, but after years of crying on him pestering finally agreed to refer me to the hospital to see a consultant, with the warning that they would just say I was wasting their time. Consultant took one look and proclaimed that I should have had them out years ago! Never hurts to ask…

My partner (early 50s) had his tonsils out a few weeks ago. He isn’t prone to tonsillitis but had severe quinsy (after Covid) a couple of months before. He had the quinsy drained in hospital followed up with an ENT check. ENT consultant didn’t like the look of his tonsils (mentioned cancer as a distinct possibility) and referred him for a tonsillectomy on the 2 week pathway. He’s still waiting for biopsy results. He found recovery from the tonsillectomy really hard, very very painful, to the point he could barely eat, drink or sleep even on maximum doses of painkillers - paracetamol, ibuprofen, codine, morphine…. He turned a corner after 2 weeks.

I had mine out early 50’s, due to cancer .

I did not find it especially painful, but I was warned to take the cocodamol which I was prescribed religiously, including waking up during the night to dose myself up. I think that lasted about 3 nights then I was able to sleep through.

I had my tonsils out as an adult and had an awful time afterwards (mainly because I developed an infection in the wound in hospital which they didn't notice, they sent me home with codeine when I'm very allergic to, then got completely fobbed off when I said I couldn't swallow, to the point of having to be blue lighted in organ failure).

However I am glad I had them done as my tonsils were destroying my quality of life.

So I'd say, have them done, but go private if you can, insist on being checked over before they release you (I was just kind of left to wake up and wander out by myself right after I woke up from a GA), make sure there's a good pain management plan in place and that you know what that plan is, and make sure there's a good place in place for follow up care and that they won't just send you home to get one with it alone.

Oh, I also wound up going to my GP for the infection in the wound and she gave me my medication in liquid form, as there's no way I could have swallowed pills. Hospital wouldn't or couldn't do that. So ask ahead of time what provisions are in place if the surgical site gets infected, or in the event the surgical site is so badly inflamed or painful that you can't swallow pills.

I think this is an attitude problem with the NHS. I experienced a very "well you must toughen up and MAKE yourself swallow pills, crybaby!" attitude and literally got told I was a "naughty, lazy girl" (at nearly 30!) for not taking the pills when the surgical site was too inflamed and infected to swallow pills - of course they never bothered to look in my throat so had no idea it was infected and when I went to my GP the next day she was shocked the hospital hadn't noticed the infection and that they'd never bothered to look in my throat.

It does seem to be this NHS attitude that pain is a moral issue and women just need to toughen up and get on with things.

Thanks all. Although I’m not going to lie this is all sounding very scary and not that palatable! 😳. But I guess it depends on whether I prefer to have quinsy every few months for the rest of my life or not!

19 year old DD had hers out a few months ago. We went privately through insurance but the same criteria still applies - 7 cases of tonsillitis in a year or 5 per year for 2 consecutive years. She had persistent tonsillitis (despite more rounds of antibiotics than I can count) from Christmas right up until she got them out in April, so it was definitely worth it to have them removed.

Recovery wasn’t the most pleasant 2 weeks but it was still quite manageable. She had read so many stories of people being in horrific pain online that she wanted to cancel but in reality as long as you take your painkillers regularly, have lots of ice packs + ice lollies on hand and eat and drink as much as possible it’s not awful. She was lucky she had a very proactive consultant when it came to pain relief so she was as comfortable as possible, I’ve heard of people on the NHS just being told to take OTC paracetamol and ibuprofen which is nowhere near enough!

OH had his out in his 30s - this was 30 years ago. He was getting recurrent tonsillitis and quinsy, to the point where his drs couldn't get on top of the infections. Recovery was rough and he ended up having 6 months off work due to repeated infections. He's been absolutely fine since then.

Very rare to get on the nhs is my understanding. I went private. The pain wasn’t as bad as I expected though, so glad I did it

Had mine out aged 27 on NHS, as treatment for snoring but I had also had recurrent tonsillitis over the previous couple of years. The pain was manageable (but they did give me tramadol and diazepam to take home). Signed off work for two weeks. Got a slight infection which delayed healing, but just needed antibiotic tablets for that.

I had mine out aged 28 ( 20 years ago) following , like yourself, 2 close bouts of quinsy requiring hospitalisation. It was painful but recovery was fairly quick and it's the best thing I ever did, have had no throat / tonsil issues since. I'd spent my teens and early twenties plagued by tonsillitis.

The quinsy experience was far worse than the tonsillectomy recovery ime so it's a no brainer in my opinion.