Tonsillectomy Recovery Expectations

In my previous post, I had briefly mentioned that I had gotten a tonsillectomy in early January of this year. It was honestly one of the worst surgeries I have had to date, and I’ve had a few from abdominal surgeries, biopsies, and wisdom teeth removals. If I had to be honest, I’d instead get my wisdom teeth removed twice, all over again. From all the other blog posts and YouTube videos I watched, preparing for my tonsillectomy, everyone talked about it is not what I had experienced.

Everyone’s experience and with surgeries and recovery periods are entirely different. Today, I will be sharing my recovery process.

I got my surgery done on January 6th, 2021. I arrived at the surgery center around 10:30 in the morning, checked in, filled out the proper paperwork, and paid for my co-pay. Shortly after, the nurses brought me to the back to get changed into a hospital gown, and one of those surgical shower caps and all my personal items got places in a bin beneath the bed. I got asked the same 20 questions, nurse after nurse, then by the anesthesiologist. Unfortunately, my Otolaryngologist(ENT) ended up being delayed over an hour, and I didn’t get into surgery till after 1 p.m. The surgery’s actual experience was quick and relatively painless; shortly after my ENT arrived, I went over a little more paperwork and got taken back. I got my anesthesia through my IV and was out, and they had put in a breathing tube just for the procedure.

When I woke up from the procedure, there was a lot of coughing (from the breathing tube), and of course, I was groggy from being put under anesthesia. The nurses were very friendly and took excellent care of me, and I got ice chips and popsicles! The ice chips and popsicles are a huge must. After a short while in post-op, they called my designated driver to pick me up; John and I went home.

I honestly thought I prepared for this procedure, but as I said earlier, I wasn’t. The first 48-72 hours were the easiest, and the next two weeks after was the worst. In the first three days, I highly recommend eating and drinking as much as you can because, after that, it was honest hell. I think the first three days were the easiest because I still had the anesthesia in my system and the pain meds they gave me through the IV.

First things first: make sure you set alarms to take your painkillers on a schedule. I also wrote down on a paper the name of the meds and the times I was supposed to take them, and when I actually took them. I additionally used a pill cutter to cut the pills in half that was prescribed to me so I could make the pills easier to swallow.

Secondly, here’s a list of all the foods I bought but COULD NOT EAT whether it was because it makes more spit in my throat or because I could not swallow it: jello, chicken noodle soup, vanilla ice cream, dairy-free vanilla ice cream, Pedialyte pops, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, mashed potatoes, strawberry popsicles, coconut popsicles, apple sauce, and Jamba Juice. The one thing that was really my best friend was ice chips(crushed ice).

Lastly, here’s a list of must-haves for the recovery process: cool mist humidifier, Pedialyte pops, cold packs (ice packs), pillows, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, crushed ice, and a pill cutter.

I mentioned Pedialyte pops in both what I could not eat and a must-have because it burns like heck to swallow, but it is excellent for hydration. Pedialyte pops have electrolytes that help prevent dehydration.

I can’t stress how important it is to take your meds on time. If you don’t, it gets harder to “catch up”. I needed to go to the emergency room for fluids and painmeds because I could not handle the pain and was getting extremely dehydrated. Since I didn’t keep up with my pain meds, I couldn’t drink anything because I was in so much pain and because I was in so much pain, I couldn’t swallow liquids to swallow the pain meds, and it was just a terrible circle. I kept going in.

If you feel like you need to call your doctor, contact them if you feel like you need to go to emergency, go to the emergency room for fluids, and don’t suffer through it as I did. I did not start to feel normal till almost three weeks post-op. I did not begin to eat normally till nearly a month post-op.

Anyways, I hope this post helps out a bit if anyone reading this is getting a tonsillectomy soon. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on social media!