OT: Adult tonsillectomy

[vqdriver]

Sucks on so many levels. Can't swallow without excruciating pain that shoots thru my teeth and jaw. Lost about ten pounds so far.
Day 10 and pain is getting worse and more acute.
Can't wait to get over this.

Good side is that I get a lot of internet time to geek out over my geekhouse build. Yay!

[soulspinner]

Jees why does it take so long to recover from it? Hope you are shouting for good beer and ice cream soon!

[gavingould]

day 10? crap, man - that ain't no fun. hope at least the pain goes soon.

[vqdriver]

Thanks guys. The length of recovery is a function of where it is. Can't do much about it I guess. Surviving on tofu and codeine. Good times.

[Louis]

Sucks on so many levels. Can't swallow without excruciating pain that shoots thru my teeth and jaw. Lost about ten pounds so far.

Would some sort of liquid diet help?

[vqdriver]

Yeah. Kinda works but in some ways worse cuz liquids go all over. Like up my nose, down my windpipe, etc. which makes me cough which make me bleed. ugh.

[cinema]

Wait until it's all over. you'll swear you'd spend 100x as much time being in pain for the amount of relief you feel. I would. Goddam tonsils.

[teleguy57]

Had mine out at age 23. Not fun, but nothing like you are experiencing. Sorry, if this is too obvious a question, but have you checked back with your medical team to make sure this is within the norm and that they don't see something else causing your issues?

[bargainguy]

Technically more difficult to do an adult tonsillectomy than a child...tonsils are much bigger and better attached in an adult, so getting them out once they get to that size is a more extensive procedure.

Having said that, you shouldn't be having excruciating pain 10 days postop....sounds like either inadequate pain mgmt or excessive tissue friability. Hope you heal well soon and enjoy your Geekhouse!

[tiretrax]

I hope your feeling better soon and out on the Geekhouse!

[bikingshearer]

Ooooo, I feel your pain. May this pass quickly.

I had mine out when I was 18 or 19. Absolutely sucked. My 7 year old roomie had his tonsilectomy right after mine and was brought back to our room while I was enjoying my first-ever post-anesthesia experience. While Mommy was there, the kid was crying and wimpering. I could understand and live with that since I figured his throat felt like mine, meaning like the losing end of Word War III. But then Mommy went home or to work, and the kid started screaming. Not crying loudly, but SCREAMING. I could not believe he could make that noise after his surgery, but he did, non-stop for way too long. I kept hoping one of nurses was psycho enough to kill him. Second choice would have been a psycho nurse killing me. If I hadn't felt so horrible (I could swear that it hurt to blink), I would have done one or the other myself.

But I wasn't in the kind of pain you describe for that long. I was flat on my backside for two or three weeks and felt completely rung out, like after a really bad flu, but not in a lot of pain. I agree that is worth asking the medicos if this is normal and could you maybe have something the better controls the pain.

I know I never had any more throat problems outside of a very occasional seasonal mild sore throat in the 40 or so years since, and I hope that is how it works out for you.

[MattTuck]

I had mine out when I was about 21 or 22. I remember the pain being bad, but the worst part was getting extremely constipated from the painkillers they gave me and the weird diet I was eating.

Having a series of excruciatingly painful bowel movements around day 9 or 10 is the traumatic part of the experience that has stuck with me.

[Louis]

Note to self: some time before bed tonight thank my still-in-place tonsils for not giving me any trouble.

[vqdriver]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I know others have done this and it's always nice to hear stories of people getting thru it. Regarding the pain at this stage, I've since been reading more online and found a couple blogs by people who've experienced the same. I guess it's about this time that the scabs start sloughing off in there which is why things seem to get worse instead of better. So I'm taking it as a good sign. My better half is also a doc so she dug around in there and she says it looks all good without noticeable swelling or sign of infection.

I gotta say, the actual pain isn't that horrible. But the fact that it's anywhere in my head makes it nearly unbearable, like when a toothache sidelines a linebacker, but it's the entire mouth. At least that's what I tell my wife.

[MattTuck]

One other thing that you just made me remember is that my scabs came off in the middle of the night, and I started bleeding into my mouth (this isn't uncommon I guess) and I swallowed a LOT of blood. I woke up feeling sick at like 3 AM, and immediately began violently vomiting blood...

that was another high point of the experience.

[jmoore]

I had mine out maybe 4 years ago. The second week after surgery was BY FAR the worst. That is when the wounds that are scabbed over start to slough off. I could not eat or drink and I was taking 2x Vicodin every three hours. It barely too the edge off the pain. My script was for 1x Vicodin every 4 hours.


I lost 24lb total - about 2lbs/day the second week. I was freaking miserable. I started feeling marginally better the end of the second week. It took another week or two for me to get back on solid food. And a while before I had any power on the bike.

[vqdriver]

I never appreciated it before but I kinda miss my uvula.