Tonsils removed as an adult

[longtompot]

If you have had this, how did you find it and what did you do that really helped with recovery?

My dd (24) is about to have this on the two week pathway (white patch on throat, dr doesn't think it's C, but removing for dds peace of mind). I have seen several 24 hour in a&e where patients have lots of bleeding and clots afterwards and it looks horrific!

I had mine out at 34. It was pretty horrible, and I got an infection a week after that put me back in hospital for a few days, but after getting tonsillitis several times a year for about 18 years straight I’d still do it again if I could go back in time and choose!
Gargling with salt water or soluble aspirin helps. You also do have to try and eat normally, including stuff like toast, as it helps promote healing.

As above.
Bloody awful.
Not to scare your daughter but the pain afterwards was worse than anything I've ever experienced. Nobody told me about the earache. Lasted 2-3 weeks until I felt human again. Was on soluble Solpadeine every 4 hours including through the night.

I'm the opposite to the above previous posters and had mine out in my early 30s and was fine. no pain or complications at all afterwards just a slight sore throat for a couple of days. other than slight low blood pressure my recovery was fine. glad I had it done.

I had mine out as an adult and the recovery took ages. I got an infection which made it worse but even before that the pain in my throat and ears was awful. I remember dreading eating but had to as it helps the healing process apparently. Just keep on top of the painkillers, but even with that, it’s painful.

Thank you all, and sorry you were in so much pain from it. We are thinking it will be very painful for her so will be prepared. I have soluble Solpadene so will make sure she has that.

Can I ask how you knew you had an infection, or is it obvious?

My ds had a jaw op that went wrong a few years ago and the pain he was in was just horrendous. I was up with him several times through the night at the start giving him liquid medication.

It definitely wasn’t the most painful thing I’ve had, but it’s better to expect it to be bad and be pleasantly surprised than the other way round!
i went back to the hospital because it started bleeding a week after the op and wouldn’t stop. Three days on IV antibiotics sorted it right out, and I was still back at work two weeks after the original op as planned.

It's pretty sore for about 5 days and then really painful in day 6 and 7. Then it gets better. I was completely fine by day 14.

30/500 cocodamol on prescription was really necessary for me.

Totally worth it and no regrets

DD had hers out last year aged 19 - it certainly wasn’t a pleasant recovery, the first week was pretty rough but things were definitely more manageable then we were expecting. Fully recovered by day 10. She nearly cancelled after reading all of the horror stories online!

Good pain relief is an absolute essential, make sure that the hospital are on to it and don’t leave until you’re satisfied - I shudder when I hear of adults being discharged with only paracetamol! Totally barbaric. We went privately and luckily had a very good, proactive ‘old-fashioned’ consultant who took the pain seriously. Openly told her that she was going to hate him for the first 2 weeks post-op 🤣He prescribed her 30/500 co-codamol and diclofenac which worked really well. Less pain = less chance of infection so it’s super important that things are at a controlled level

Again the more normally she eats the less chance of infection, my DD was advised to eat junk food like pizza, chips, burgers, crisps etc in order to prevent a film of bacteria from building up on the tonsil beds. Of course she can have jelly, ice lollies etc which are all really helpful but just not all the time. Fizzy drinks are also good to help keep the scabs clean. No dairy as it thickens the mucous

DD had a small bleed caused by a clot coming away too early on the night after her surgery. It wasn’t anything major or dramatic but we did ring the ward for advice (who rang her poor consultant at 2am🙈), he advised us to go to A&E + get checked out just in case. They tend to air on the side of caution re: tonsillectomy bleeds so admitted and observed her for 24 hours but she was completely fine and the bleeding quickly stopped by itself.

Only other thing I can think of is this ice pack which was a god send - ear pain is very common post-op and this really helped to soothe it.

Sorry it’s long but hope this helps!!!

@MaloneMeadow thank you. My dd already takes Naproxen for arthritis, obv currently not taking it as advised and suffering, so that should do the job of the diclofefac.
Thats interesting re the foods as we thought soft stuff only. And no icecream then if no dairy? We do have dairy free and sorbet so will try those instead. She'll be pleased re the fizzy drinks as she does love a glass of Dr Pepper a day, plus she bought some Japanese ones from Lidl today.

Had mine out in my early 20s after numerous infection - doctors said the tonsils were so badly damaged at that stage to be non-functional. Had to have a course of antibiotics first, plus daily gargling with iodide solution to get rid of lingering infections.
The op left me quite wobbly for a surprisingly long period but I don't recall horrific pain. They kept me in hospital several days which was policy then in case of complications. After discharge was told to hold off on washing my hair in the shower for several more days.

I had mine out at about 19 or 20. The pain was unreal. I woke up crying from the anaesthetic. But as PP have said, would do it again to not ever have to endure tonsillitis repeatedly.
This was quite a while back (I'm 46 now) and I definitely only had paracetamol for the pain. Agree with making sure your DD has something stronger.
Don't remember any significant bleeding
Hope it all goes well for your DD.

I was 23 when I had mine out. The surgeon sat on my bed the next day & made me eat some crisps ! I was on solpadeine & don't remember being in too much pain.

I do remember having a very sore jaw & struggled to open it very wide to eat

I was 21. I never had another throat infection after. They gave me plenty of pain killers afterwards but swallowing food did hurt. I lost some weight, which was a bonus. I soon recovered and didn’t look back.

The American advice is soft foods only to prevent a bleed but here in the UK they encourage eating as normally as possible. Here the first thing they are given post-op is toast which in the US would be unheard of. Exercising the jaw muscles by chewing helps with pain (DD’s consultant even recommended bringing chewing gum into hospital with us) + rougher foods prevent bacteria build up in the tonsil beds so less chance of an infection (which is also a common cause of bleeding)

She can certainly have a bit of ice cream if she wants, even though it’s not really recommended DD was given some in hospital but her experience was that the extra mucous build up wasn’t worth it and just caused more discomfort. Ice lollies are far more soothing so definitely stock up on them - I ended up buying Mr Freeze pops in bulk from Amazon! Sorbet will likely be too acidic and could sting her throat

I also had them out at 25. Best thing I ever did but horrendous at the time.
I didn’t find the pain too bad but didn’t really follow the advice of “eat rough foods” like toast etc. I also ended up with a serious infection and had bleeding. 5 days IV antibiotics and about 6 weeks off work.
can only recommend to stick to the medication advice re pain relief and the “rough foods” even if it’s not the most pleasant!

wish her all the best.

Dp had his out at about 30. Never seen him like that before. In agony for at least a week. Couldn’t eat.

Still can’t believe they tried to get him to eat cornflakes in hospital.

I washed him in the bath he was so poorly.

Had mine out at 23. Was very painful but a zillion times better than the recurrent tonsillitis I had before.

I was 37 when I had mine removed after repeated quinsies which had threatened to block my airway and had left my tonsils covered with scar tissue.

It was a very painful procedure and for about a month afterwards I felt as though I actually had severe tonsillitis. My sense of taste also disappeared for those few weeks except for sweet things. After about a month though, it all turned a corner and became much better.

I recovered very quickly after that. It was twenty years ago now and I have had absolutely no further trouble with my throat since then. I would say it was the best decision I could have made despite the rough recovery period.

I hope it all goes well for your DD.

@longtompot I had mine out in my mid 30s and was taking the kids to a pantomime 48 hours later. Not necessarily the best recovery plan but I really wasn’t in much pain - was certainly easier than recurring quinsies. Good painkillers plus eating as normal after 24 hours. Good luck to your DD.

Sister had hers out in early twenties. She was fine and after all the Quinsies she'd had previously, it was a relief.

I had mine out in my mid twenties due to recurrent tonsillitis. The pain was horrendous and I had to go back into hospital due to non-stop vomiting and bringing up blood. It was probably a month before I recovered.

I’d do it all again. It was worth it.

DD as a young adult experienced similar. Her health has improved so much since.

I had mine out in my 50s, it wasn't great, but it bearable. I ate scrambled egg on toast the morning after, but after that I was mainly eating yoghurt and berries and avocados! I was okay-ish by day seven, and back to normal about day 10. In a small minority of cases, it can affect one of your cranial nerves and give you shooting pains at the back of your jaw, and through your tongue, and normal painkillers won't help much with this, but mainly the issue is just a the scabs at the back of your throat particularly when eating. I agree with the advice to keep up with painkillers, even if you feel it's not too bad. My DD is having hers out soon too.

She had the op Monday and has been in quite a bit of pain this week. Not sleeping, so I'm not sleeping.
She says her mouth tastes horrible which was to be expected but not nice. Also, keeps coughing which she's a bit worried about.
She has been managing to eat things like quiche, ice lollies, trifle, gyoza in stock and bananas in yoghurt. Not really tried anything particularly rough yet.
It has hurt her jaw a lot as she has JIA in her TMJ, which we think they were mindful of during surgery, but she can't open her mouth more than a two finger width.
Her tongue is still quite swollen and very sore along the outside edges.
I am hoping she will be starting to feel better soon and will be glad when the scabs start coming off, hopefully with no bleeding complications.