I had an adult tonsillectomy about a year and a half ago, and the number one thing I heard was that it's one of the most painful things you can endure. I even had a guy tell me that his wife said her childbirth was less painful than her adult tonsillectomy! I spent the weeks before the surgery googling other people's experiences with the surgery, looking for tips and trying to find out exactly what to expect, so here's my experience. This probably won't be helpful for my current followers, but I hope this helps out someone else who's nervous or just has questions about the procedure!
Day 1 (surgery day): Pain is about a 2 out of 10 until bedtime, then escalates to a 7. Can only sleep siting up and have to wake up every 30 minutes to drink.
Day 2: Throwing up blood, relatively little pain until then.
Day 3: Still throwing up, went to ER, switched from pills to liquid meds, pain at a 10.
Day 4: Pain is manageable until eating. Evening, lots of pain, nausea, and swelling.
Day 5: Still having problems swallowing, lots of jaw and tongue pain, got out of the house for an hour and got tired and had to go home. Down 13 lbs, pain is at a 10 by the end of the day.
Day 6: Left the house for an hour, still can't eat anything, including broth.
Day 7: Throat swelling was causing choking but swelling has gone down.
Day 8: Throat pain at 7, ear pain at 9, nausea is bad.
Day 9: Pain is at a 9, still can't talk.
Day 10: Ate a small amount of solid food and talked a little.
Day 11: Woke up crying, no more talking or solid food.
Day 12: No sleep, lots of pain.
Overall, it was the worst experience of my life, and I can't recommend it to anyone, ever. The pain was excruciating and I couldn't eat solid foods for nearly three weeks - and even then, it was just small bits of lunch meat that I would chew until it was mush and then swallow as quickly as possible. I wish I had taken off three weeks of work instead of two, because I couldn't talk normally until week four. I actually had to have my coworkers talk to customers for me because I couldn't be heard or understood.
There are so many things they didn't tell me pre-surgery. One was the ear pain. I did some googling and found out that it's pretty common, but not something the doctor warned me about. It was so bad that I had a heating pad on standby and I would wrap it around my head and just cry and cry. I slept on the couch for over two weeks and I had to have SEVEN pillows behind my back to keep me upright 24/7 - laying down caused me to choke on my own saliva. Speaking of saliva, this is gross, but also something I wish someone would have warned me about. The surgery caused me to have really, really thick saliva, similar to a bulldog's saliva, almost. And I couldn't swallow it, so I was constantly spitting into a Kleenex. Like, every ten minutes. So disgusting, but it kept me from literally choking on my own spit.
Throwing up was the worst. I honestly thought I was going to die. They said it's common after surgery, but I don't see how people survive it. I think I only threw up two or three times, but I was 100% convinced I would not make it. Absolutely terrifying.
I've had a few people say that they've thought about getting their tonsils out, and I tell them it's absolutely not worth it. I had swollen and sore tonsils for 13 years and I would rather have put up with that for the rest of my life than gone through that surgery. Just keeping it real, y'all.
