I’ve never had strep, but my tonsils have gotten so big I’ve ended up in the ER with trouble breathing. In the past three years, and particularly in the past year, I had tonsillitis repeatedly and to the point where I would not only need antibiotics, but steroids. It was not fun to say the least and I wanted them out! Little did I know the recovery would have me wishing I would have tonsillitis ten times over instead of getting them taken out. Now, after just having a cold, I am so thankful, so very thankful, that I did get them removed. Read ahead to hear about my struggles and get an idea of what to expect if you too are getting your tonsils removed.
When I first met with my ENT he was very honest and did not hold back on how much pain I would be in, but he also shared a story of someone dying on the way to the ER because their tonsils obstructed their airway so badly. I believed him, but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for just how bad it actually ended up being. I had my wisdom teeth pulled, I’ve even had ingrown toenails removed where they hit the nerves; while numbing, the tonsillectomy was worse than those combined. “Two weeks of hell,” that’s it they said…needless to say it was a long two weeks.
Day 1 – Day of surgery:
The nurses were all so friendly and the doctors took me through the procedure so I knew exactly what was going to happen and who would be there, including the anesthesiologist and students since I went to a teaching hospital. Going under felt really weird and tingly- I got scared, but then I was out cold. Waking up was smooth and, just like they said, I didn’t even know I was intubated with a breathing tube. I was groggy and boy did I need to cough, I panicked. Was it okay for me to cough or would I disturb the newly formed blood clots? I tried clearing my throat, yet I had a lot to cough up and I could feel it in my chest. I tried finding the call nurse button, but being groggy and not really able to move, I couldn’t. So what did I do? Using my smarts, I knew if I took off my finger heart sensor the monitor would beep and a nurse would have to come and check on me (I do not recommend at all!!!). She gave me the okay that I could cough as much as I pleased, and that’s just what I did. I rolled to my side and let my lungs heave whatever was in there. Rolling to the side was better than doing a half crunch, I learned.
I got up to use the bathroom, slowly, and I felt drunk, to be honest. When I got back to my bed I felt very nauseous and weak, so I had them wheelchair me to the car. That’s when the nausea really hit. I even asked for a barf bag for the car ride home. Lesson here: don’t move too fast, if you need more time, they will understand and let you recover a bit more in the room.
Pain: Not bad, the back of my throat felt weird on my tongue. This was one of the biggest observations that I noted. Breathing through my nose I would snort every once and awhile so I slept sitting up or elevated as much as possible. Everything was so swollen back there, this is normal to cause “snoring”.
Medicine: I was on painkillers that they gave me at the hospital and some anti-nausea medicine because those painkillers can be a bit harsh on the stomach. Make sure to always eat before taking medicine, even if it is 3:00 in the morning. Which brings me to the next point, have a responsible adult monitor you and keep track of medications 24/7, you will NOT want to fall behind on medicine, you will set alarms and wake up all throughout the night.
Food: Appetite was good, I had some whipped yogurt, chicken broth, lots of ice cream, and yogurt drink. For me, drinking Gatorade surprisingly hurt so I sipped water instead to stay hydrated. Keeping the throat moist is important for pain management and healing.
Other: I had a special ice pack wrapped around my neck all the time. My talking was not affected, unlike what I was expecting.
Day 2 – I woke up every couple hours for medicine. I could feel scabs forming already. I noted how quickly my throat got dry, especially with all the mouth breathing while sleeping. Having a humidifier in the room helped A LOT and of course sipping water whenever I woke up in the middle of the night. Talking was a bit more difficult but that could also be because I didn’t use my voice all night.
Food: I had ice cream with my medicine and I let it slide down my throat as much as I could. I tried to avoid swallowing in general, especially when the last dose of pain medication was wearing off. Mac-and-cheese went down easy for lunch, but it would get stuck when I tried it for dinner later that day.
Medicine: I was only taking half of the prescribed narcotic and it turned out to make me a tad itchy so I was switched to a different kind the next day. Unfortunately with the timing of medicines, all the pain medications wore off at the same time and then I was due for the next dose. They lined up a couple of times and just expect for the pain to be bad because essentially you won’t have any pain medication working nearing the time for your next dose.
Other: Kept ice on my neck. I felt a lot more awake today than I did the day before, which makes sense. Today I had also tried pill form of advil instead of liquid to rule out the itch being caused by the dye in the liquid form.
Day 3 – The pain keeps getting worse. I tried using a heat sack to help ease the pain in a different way but nothing was helping besides the pain medications. I wasn’t even thinking of taking the pill form of medicine because it hurt that much to swallow in general. I could barely even swallow water. I slept a lot today and today was the day I switched to the different narcotic. I had to take more of the narcotic this day, keep in mind that I never went over the prescribed amount as that would be dangerous. This was when I started to understand more of what the doctor was talking about when he was telling me how painful recovery would be.
Food: I tried baby food, and it made my throat hurt so bad, never again.
Other: Walking, I still felt unstable on my feet, I definitely was not enjoying the way the pain medication was making me feel besides less pain, obviously. Hurt to talk.
Day 4 – The new narcotic made me very nauseous, and ended up causing me to puke. I felt miserable and it made my head feel all funny too. After it caused me to get sick, I did not take any more of that and went back to the stuff that caused a tiny itch. Unfortunately, it took awhile to get out of my system and my mom had to go pick up some extra anti-nausea medicine for me to take to get through this day. A tiny scab came off and it was gross to see, but yet amusing at how fast the scabs were forming and already falling off. It hurt to yawn, I did all that I had in my power to will away the yawn if I felt one coming.
Day 5 – For one moment, unfortunately only one, I had thought that it was getting better. I ended up laying on my boyfriend while he visited and counting down the hours until my next dose of medicine. Today, I ran out and ended up being 15 minutes late on the medication while my mom went literally running to get some more. I remember holding his hand, laying there with tears in my eyes and accepting the pain.
Day 6 – I woke up, and I spit my saliva out instead of trying to swallow it. I noticed it was pink so I had some slight bleeding which was considered normal. Excruciating pain, and after Day 5’s description, this means it was really bad . I got the narcotic and just sat there staring at the other medications that I knew I somehow had to get down my throat. I didn’t get the willpower to swallow them until a half hour later, past when I was due for them. Pain only subsides with pain meds, ice or heat sack didn’t seem to help anymore. Now this might be way too much information, but you know how narcotics are supposedly constipating, well I had the opposite, with no medication stopping it.
Food: Egg salad. Tried banana baby food, and my gosh worst pain of the day, it felt like the back of my throat was on fire. I chugged water, even though it hurt to swallow, I didn’t even care because I wanted that baby food off the back of my throat as much as I could. I immediately asked for more narcotics after this incident and I physically ran to grab a fresh ice pack. I ended up crying in a ball because of the amount of pain I was in and with how upset my stomach was. I was losing hope at this point as it didn’t seem like there was any sign of improvement. My right tonsil was the worst at this point, it was so swollen it felt like it was still there with the worst case of tonsillitis ever. My legit note from this day reads: “So much ouchie”.
Day 7 – In the morning I had a lot of pain, but I went out to run errands and I even put off narcotics until afterwards. I was really weak physically so I ended up having to take a motorized cart around Costco. I felt more alive this day and my parents even said that I had awakened from the dead.
Food: McDonalds pancakes and lots of syrup. After dinner my throat really hurt from all the swallowing and I had to take more narcotics.
Pain: The ear pain was starting and my right tonsil was still the one giving me more trouble.
Day 8 – Back to taking narcotics more consistently. I attempted to run more errands but ended up having my mom turn right back around and take us home. I slept a lot this day, it was not much better than the past days. However, I did eat salami which was an accomplishment.
Day 9 – I was starting to eat more regular foods. I had cereal that I let soak in milk awhile, ramen noodles, spinach dip and bread, chicken poppers and ice cream. Today’s accomplishment was that I didn’t have to take narcotics. I did have a major pain spike in the middle of the day, otherwise the pain was pretty minimal when I looked back at the prior days pain wise.
Day 10 – Another day without narcotics! The end is nearing, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point! I did still count down until my next dose of medicine, but it was for Advil and it only happened once. I ate buttered noodles, hot dog and a cake shake.
Day 11 – This was the last day I noted. I skipped the morning dose of Tylenol to sleep some more. I also skipped Advil later in the day and I was able to wait if they expired at the same time in order to attempt to spread out the medications. When I looked in my mouth using a mirror I could still see some major scabs in the deepest parts of my wounds.
I recovered in just under two weeks, and looking back most of the days weren’t that terrible, but in the moment it felt like the end of the world. The important thing to remember is that healing takes time but it will heal and the pain will pass. Recovery is going to be unique for everyone but I know that reading other people’s recovery timelines was really helpful for me to get through some of the toughest days. If you are going through recovery or soon will be, just know that it is 100%, or even more than 100 %, worth it.