For many people.. More than the tonsillectomy, it’s the tonsillectomy recovery process that is more painful.
Yes, as a person who underwent tonsillectomy, you need to fight around a number of direct effects caused by the surgery.
So, I’ll give you the complete tonsillectomy recovery process, from day 1 until your throat is completely healed. So with this Adults tonsillectomy recovery day by day timeline, you can strongly prepare for your hard journey in the coming days.
How Long does the Tonsillectomy effects last after the surgery?
In my previous article child tonsillectomy recovery timeline, I clearly mentioned that adults do take more time to heal when compared to children.
Thus as an adult, you need to fight for at least 2-3 weeks to completely get rid of the problems/effects caused by tonsillectomy surgery. During this 3 weeks, one needs to prepare themselves for a number of problems which include – Fever, Nausea, Extreme bad breath, painful white scabs, and even bleeding at times.
Tonsillectomy Recovery Adults Day by Day Timeline:
Day 1: Generally this the day of the surgery. Thanks to pain meds, many people don’t feel any pain, even though their tonsils were completely removed. Although in some cases of extreme bleeding, your doctor may ask you to stay in the hospital tonight, else you can get back to your home immediately. See Tonsillectomy for Tonsil stones: Is it the best way out for tonsilloliths?
Image:Simon Kellogg via Flickr cc2.0
Day 2: Your real tonsillectomy recovery battle starts on Day 2. You need to understand that although the pain meds effectively reduce the pain of surgery, they do cause a number of side effects. The first and foremost thing you start to feel is the Nausea, Yes, as it is your initial day, you may feel the power of pain meds to be very heavy. As a result, you may suffer extreme nausea and may even feel dizzy all the day. However, some specialized acupressure bands can be very much effective in controlling your nausea.
Day 3: As you get used to pain meds, you may not feel that much nausea as the previous day. On the other hand, many adults tend to discover another new problem during these days i.e the extreme constipation (due to painkillers). Yes, it is very common for any adult person to suffer constipation, if he/she underwent tonsillectomy and is using pain meds continuously. You can try this for quick constipation relief.
Day 4: constipation may increase day after day, making your entire digestive system go crazy. Additionally, you may even start experiencing a low-grade fever, due to the heavy stress on all your systems.
Day 5: In fact, Day 5 can be considered as the starting day for one’s real recovery from the tonsillectomy. This is the time when your doctor generally asks you to reduce the pain meds. As a result, all your nausea starts going away naturally. Contrary a new set of problems start budding from Day 5. See Getting rid of Tonsil stones: Natural vs Surgery
Image:James Heilman via Wikimedia commons cc3.0
Day 6: This is the time when your raw scabs (the actual site of tonsil surgery) start to heal. As they tend to heal they give out many embarrassing symptoms which mainly include bad breath. But Don’t worry, this bad breath is very common among tonsillectomy patients, which soon will go away as the scabs start to fall off. Meanwhile, use any available mouth strips to control your bad breath.
Day 7: Another thing many people complain after a week about tonsillectomy is the taste. Yeah, many people do complain that they were unable to recognize tastes properly and everything they eat seems tasteless. Although I personally don’t know the reason behind this, it is pretty much common and goes away within a few days.
Day 8: Once you reach the 8 days you might have already reduced pain meds to a large extent. As a result, this definitely reduces the number of side effects caused by these meds. On the other hand, you need to remember that although pain meds reduce throat and tonsil pain, they can’t control the ear pains caused by damaged nerves near tonsils. As tonsillectomy generally damages all the connecting nerves of tonsils and ear, you tend to experience severe earaches at regular intervals. See Should I get my Tonsils removed? Is it the best way out?
Day 9 -10: Once you reach around 10 days, you can expect a little bit of healing around the scabs. The scabs which are raw and bloody, right from day 1, will now slowly start to develop a new skin. This is what can be considered a clear sign of healing.
Day 11-12: If you ask a person the most painful days of his/her tonsillectomy recovery, it would be these days. This is mainly because of the sensitive new skin that keeps appearing on the raw scabs. The sensitive new skin looks pinkish red and creates an intense burning sensation and extreme pain especially near your removed tonsils (scabs). Additionally, you might still feel the heavy ear pain which doesn’t easily go away with any meds.
On the better side, you can feel your bad breath, bad taste drastically reducing due to the healing process of your surgical site.
Day 13 -14: This is the day, you can consider being the last day of your tonsillectomy recovery. By this time you can clearly see your surgical site to be almost healed. You may even start feeling normal and some people may even get back to work by this time. The bad side is the intense feeling of itching you tend to get due to your healed wound.
Day 15- 20: Once you reach half a month after tonsillectomy it is almost definite that you will be completely back to normal life. Your scabs are now replaced with a new healthy skin, which throws away all your effects like bad breath, bad taste, pain, nausea etc and everything.
Know more:
Child Tonsillectomy recovery Day by Day: The Recovery Timeline
A Case of tonsil stones without tonsils? Frighteningly is it possible?
Tonsillectomy for Tonsil stones: Is it the best way out for tonsilloliths?
Does Tonsil stones surgery (Laser surgery) truly work?