Adult tonsillectomy- my experience so far with PIP

[midnightmare81]

I thought I remembered a few people mentioning in my questions post that they or someone they knew would be going through this soon so I figured I would post how my recovery has been up until now. I will say it seems that so far I have had a far easier recovery then many others I have read about online. I am even eating some more "normal" foods in addition to the Popsicles, Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes, but not eating much overall. More on food later though.

I am 25 yrs old and had very large, cryptic, stone producing, deep rooted tonsils. I was prescribed Hycet for pain. No antibiotics unless I develop infection.

Day 1- Thursday
Surgery on Thursday around 10:30am. Woke up groggy but the pain wasn't terrible, about a 4 or so out of 10. They gave me some morphine when I woke up to ease some of the pain but I couldn't get as much as they usually give due to low BP. Had to get down water before I could be released. I left the center about 1:15pm and was given instructions to head straight to the pharmacy to fill my pain meds and take them asap. Finally picked up my meds until around 3:30pm. My pain was still minimal at that time but I took the full 30ml I was advised to for the first few doses. Lounged around feeling much better then expected. Pain was about 2 of of 10 when swallowing, otherwise no pain. I napped a bit and was fairly tired but was able to call family and friends and let them know how I was doing. Talking was uncomfortable but not painful. I slept in my own bed that night with my alarm set for every hour to sip water to keep my throat moist and every 4 for pain meds. Slept fairly well between alarms.

Day 2- Friday
I woke up sore and swollen from talking the day before but otherwise feeling ok so I decided to scale back on the pain meds to 15ml from the 30ml I had taken throughout the night. That worked out well enough initially, again minimal pain unless I tried to talk until about 3 hours after that dose. The pain started coming back, nothing serious but enough that I decided to take 25ml for my next dose to get ahead again. That was a bad decision. The higher dose made me very loopy. I was dizzy, couldn't think or see straight, and in general did not feel well. I was also extremely exhausted and could not keep my eyes open. Decided to scale back to 20ml, which I have since stayed at and is a happy medium between pain control and not feeling too drugged up. Pain never went above a 4 when swallowing. I did start to itch a good bit so at doctors advise took some benedryl. I slept in bed again that night. Alarms set for every 4 hours for meds and 2 hours for water since hourly seemed to be a bit much.

Day 3- Saturday
Slept through my alarms for water and meds in the early am. BIG mistake. Woke up in a fair amount of pain from missing the dose and dryness as well as swelling. Pain level around 7. I got in the shower and made the mistake of trying to blow my nose. I will not be doing that again. 20ml pain meds and ice on my neck as soon as I woke up and was good to go again. We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut because I wanted breadsticks. They were nice and soft and went down well but didn't want to try pizza yet. Slept a lot during the day and again that night in bed.

Day 4- Sunday
Morning was rough again. A lot of swelling and pain, but meds and ice took care of it. Actually got a little cleaning done and felt fairly good, though again, I did nap a good bit. I even sat there going "I feel guilty having 2 weeks off work", that's how well I was feeling, though I knew I couldn't work since talking is still tough and that's my main job. I ate some of the pizza I didn't try on Saturday and it was nice and soft. I did order it with less sauce then normal since acidic things can burn. My meds were running low so I pushed a little between doses so I would be able to make it until morning when I could get to a pharmacy and didn't have much of an issue going an extra 45 mins or so between doses.

Day 5- Monday (today)
Last night was my worst night so far. I make the mistake of turning the bedroom fan up higher not realizing that it would push all the air from my humidifier away from me. I woke up multiple times in pain due to my throat being dry even between med doses. Woke up for the day in a good bit of pain (7 or so) and a good bit of swelling. Took my last dose of meds when I got up and showered and proceeded to ice until I felt good enough to go to the pharmacy again. I feel pretty good right now.

My tips so far-
-Humidifier is really important. I didn't realize how much so until last night. It's more important then waking up to drink IMO since I have been sleeping through the water alarms for the last few nights and been fine thanks to my humidifier.
-Make sure someone else has an alarm set for your meds. The pain meds make you so sleepy you may sleep through it and not wake up until your already in a lot of pain.
-Start a stool softener on the first day. I have taken narcotics before and never had this issue. I started them a couple days ago and went today (only a little but it was something) for the first time since last Wednesday.
-Keep something shelf stable next to your bed like a pudding cup or Apple sauce. The pain meds will bother your stomach and it is nice to have something next to the bed already instead of getting up in the middle of the night to grab something when your already very sleepy.
-Eat what and when you can. I truly believe that part of why I'm feeling ok and that my stomach isn't a disaster is that I have been eating even when I didn't want to to keep energy levels up and something in my system

Sorry if that's a little all over, meds make it a bit hard to focus. Feel free to ask questions.

Bounus pre-surgery goofiness!



Update- today is day 8, one week after my procedure. I have weened myself down to 15ml every 4-6 hours of the prescription pain meds since I last updated with success. Since I'm running low on the prescription meds I contacted the doctors office who advised I may start taking ibuprofen instead of the prescription for my main pain med, taking the prescription only when needed for "breakthrough"pain. I'm not 100% recovered yet and am still rather limited on the foods I can eat but overall this has been a much better experience then I expected. I know most of what is posted online are horror stories. While I realize everyone handles things differently. I wanted to share my story so people could see that its not always that bad, there is hope!

[UnderProtest]

Glad to hear it is going pretty well. Just a word of caution, while my throat pain went away after about a week, I had awful inner ear pain for the next week. Keep those pain meds handy!

[Saint Monica]

feel better soon!

[elleblue]

Ha, cute pic (I'm assuming that is your H/significant other and not the doctor who performed the operation).

Glad your recovery hasn't been as difficult as you originally expected.

[midnightmare81]

May 11, 2015 15:28:15 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Ha, cute pic (I'm assuming that is your H/significant other and not the doctor who performed the operation).

Glad your recovery hasn't been as difficult as you originally expected.

That would be H! Lol.

[elleblue]

May 11, 2015 15:35:31 GMT -5 midnightmare81 said:

May 11, 2015 15:28:15 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Ha, cute pic (I'm assuming that is your H/significant other and not the doctor who performed the operation).

Glad your recovery hasn't been as difficult as you originally expected.

That would be H! Lol.

It did amuse me to consider that it might be your doctor joining in on the selfies with you though. 

[midnightmare81]

May 11, 2015 15:37:43 GMT -5 elleblue said:

May 11, 2015 15:35:31 GMT -5 midnightmare81 said:

That would be H! Lol.

It did amuse me to consider that it might be your doctor joining in on the selfies with you though. 

Unfortunately my doctor is a bit of a jerk, so I doubt he would be down for a selfie. Which kinda sucks cause he is pretty cute!

[midnightmare81]

May 11, 2015 15:43:19 GMT -5 jamie.1022 said:

I swear there was a different picture here a minute ago. Glad you're recovery is going well.

Sorry. There was. I meant to post the goofy one that is here now but in my drugged up stupor posted the wrong one. Oops!

[elleblue]

May 11, 2015 15:39:20 GMT -5 midnightmare81 said:

May 11, 2015 15:37:43 GMT -5 elleblue said:

It did amuse me to consider that it might be your doctor joining in on the selfies with you though. 

Unfortunately my doctor is a bit of a jerk, so I doubt he would be down for a selfie. Which kinda sucks cause he is pretty cute!

Well that's a bummer. Boo to your jerky doctor. 

You and your H are adorable together though, so that's what matters. 

[alicenelson]

Two words: ICE CREAM

[psychmom]

Did you get to see them after you woke up?!

[2boys2danes]

This is definitely on my horizon probably in the next year or so… I'm almost 50 and very nervous about it but I know it needs to be done. Thanks for the info and hope you are feeling better soon!

[my3bears]

Thanks for sharing! I'm in my 30s and have put off this surgery for so long. Reading all the positive stories on GBCN have convinced me to get it done. I have it schedule for this summer! Hope mine goes as well as yours!

[Deleted]

Your experience sounds much better than mine did (at age 15). Wishing you a speedy recovery!  

[midnightmare81]

Thanks everyone! I really hope this is the worst of it, though I'm not 100% confident this won't get worse before it gets better since the scabs still have to come off, which is supposed to be the most painful part.

There is also the down side that sometimes I forget I just had surgery and go to do something like eat a popsicle and open my mouth too fast. I just did that about a 1/2 hour ago and it felt like someone just cut my throat open again without anesthesia this time. Thankfully it didn't bleed but it's easy to forget I need to be easy and careful with what I do. Ugh.

[bugandbibs]

Wishing you a speedy recovery! Thanks for the update.

DD1 had her tonsils out when she was 3. She was totally fine after 2 days and her tonsils were so enlarged they had grown together.

[midnightmare81]

Update in OP