Adult tonsillectomy trip report

[sbell111]

Two hours from now, I'll be getting my tonsils out, as well as getting my deviated septum fixed, my uvula nipped and tucked, and my turbinates ablated. Given that I'm 45 years old and searches on the Internet turn up mostly horror stories and whininess, I figured that I would report my own experiences. Hopefully, I'll have an easy time of it and my apnea will be corrected and snoring resolved.

Let's see what happens.

 

[Christine]

May the force be with you!!!!

Seriously, that sounds like a LOT of stuff being done. Hope you have minimal pain afterwards.

 

[jennyjinx3]

Good Luck, and hope you have a quick recovery!

 

[sbell111]

A little background:

We have two kids under three and my wife doesn't need to be taking care of another, so I am going to try to make my recovery have as little family impact as possible. Also, I have some pretty major year-end reports due next Friday. Both of these things mean that I will not be spending the next ten days lounging at home.

It should also be noted that, we are going out of town on the 22nd. By then, I'll need to be 100% ( and hopefully be snore-free).

 

[lovemygoofy]

Two hours from now, I'll be getting my tonsils out, as well as getting my deviated septum fixed, my uvula nipped and tucked, and my turbinates ablated. Given that I'm 45 years old and searches on the Internet turn up mostly horror stories and whininess, I figured that I would report my own experiences. Hopefully, I'll have an easy time of it and my apnea will be corrected and snoring resolved.

Let's see what happens.

Good luck and hope you recovery quickly and feel much better. I had my tonsils out at 25 and also had a deviated septum worked on.

I don't know if the doctor told you how much your ears would hurt but that was my biggest suprise. I hurt and hurt from ears to my throat. I ate alot of melted popsicles and ensure milkshakes. For my deviated septum, I used saline gel to help keep some moisture on the stitches.

Speaking of stictches, if you have a choice about stitches or caulderazation after your tonsils, pick the caulderizing. I had a really bad problem with the stictches and had a second surgery because of it.

Stay on top of the pain meds before you hurt is the best tip. When I was finally able to eat, I was suprised what an impact the tonsils had because it had made swallowing difficult. My allergies/sinus problems were so much better after having my tonsils out also.

Hope you feel better.

 

[emer95]

Oh, God bless you!! I pray that everything goes well and you have a smooth recovery.

I had my tonsils out when I was 18. The one thing that really surprised me was that I was unable to tolerate pain medicine (orally, ahem). My stomach was extremely upset because of all of the...stuff that I was swallowing. My mother bought me Tylenol suppositories because I needed to get pain meds in me without swallowing them.

So gross, and way TMI about me, but something to keep in mind. Swallowing ain't going too be fun for a little bit, and it's kind of nice that there are other options, LOL!

 

[ols386]

Best wishes to you.

Hope you have a quick recovery time.

 

[dwfanatic]

Wishing you a speedy recovery Try to get some rest!

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Good luck! Please keep us posted. I am 42 and desperately need to have my tonsils taken out but I am scared to death so I keep putting off the ENT visit and just continue to suffer with sore throats, strep and tonsils so large I snore like crazy now. I have given birth three times without fear but this one has me quaking in my boots - lol Hope all goes well for you!

 

[sbell111]

Surgery is done and I'm hanging out in a room as they're keeping me overnight for observation.

The pain is similar to a super bad case of strep. I'm trying to sip water to stay hydrated, but it really hurts to drink. My liquid lunch has arrived, but I've elected to let it sit until some pain meds show up.

 

[Snoozan]

Hope your recovery goes smoothly and quickly - don't forget to take time to rest.

 

[scbelleatheart]

Surgery is done and I'm hanging out in a room as they're keeping me overnight for observation.

The pain is similar to a super bad case of strep. I'm trying to sip water to stay hydrated, but it really hurts to drink. My liquid lunch has arrived, but I've elected to let it sit until some pain meds show up.

Bless your heart! Hope you recover soon. I was a chicken and cancelled the surgery. I decided I would rather deal with strep every year. Maybe you gave me courage to do it at age 50. I can go thru 3 c-sections but my tonsils out scares the crap out of me. to you!

 

[OhMari]

You are lucky to stay in the hospital. My 2 girls 21 & 28 had theirs taken out with the last year. My youngest had a harder time, but it took longer for my oldest to recover. You will need your wife to keep track when you drank a liquid last. Get ice bags for your neck, throat area. I used our Snoopy snow cone machine and it was easier to swallow the snow, than chipped ice. Stay on top of your pain meds. My oldest dd had hers out May 15 and she has some days were her throat swells and aches. Her Dr. Said it can be 6 months before she is truly healed.

 

[smschex]

Make sure they send you home with pain meds in LIQUID form. DH went through exactly what you are several years ago and discovered very quickly he could not take the pain pills he was sent home with. Drink as much as you can because the drier your throat is the more it will hurt to drink--a vicious cycle you want to avoid. Most of all, don't push yourself too hard to get back to full activity. DH was very surprised how long it took him to feel "normal" again.

Good luck!

 

[jennyjinx3]

Oh you poor thing...hope you are not in too much pain. My mom had hers out around age 65 and it was pure he-double hockey sticks for her.

 

[disney4us2002]

I wish you all the best and I will hope to read that you are feeling up to your trip on the 22nd. Interestingly, a coworker of mine had the deviated septum surgery on 5/3 and she is STILL out of sick leave. Yeah, I think she's nursing it.... Everything I read online said it takes a good two weeks to be feeling much, much better. We were all a bit surprised when she asked for 4 weeks off but now it has been 9 weeks and I just heard a rumor that she won't be back to work until 7/16 - CRAZY!!!

 

[sbell111]

Have I mentioned how much I hate being in the hospital? This is how last night went:

I ask for my pain meds and they show up 45 minutes later. I tried to outsmart the process and ask for them sooner and was told that it was too early. So basically 'every four hours' was really every five.

They came to check on me every couple hours, but didn't have their schedule synced to the meds, so there was pretty much a constant stream of people in and out of the room, leaving little time for sleep. (I'll Ryan to cut down on my whining.)

The throat pain is not dissimilar from a very bad case of strep throat. My nose is pretty much totally blocked. It is painful to the touch, so I'm not touching it. Problem solved. This morning the doc will remove the splints that he placed in my nose. I expect that that will be ouchy and bloody.

Some food worked. Beef broth at lunch was nice. In recovery, they gave me two lemon Popsicles. I would have expected lemon to be a bad choice, but they were good and didn't cause pain. I've only sipped water because it has been painful to drink from the big mug of it they gave me. It occurs to me this morning that this is likely because it is a straw cup. I think that sucking on the straw may be causing pain.

I don't expect to be icing my neck or anything like that and I won't be asking my wife to track my liquid intake. Again, we have two small children. My wife doesn't need to be taking care of me and I need to be helping around the house, not being a patient in my own home. The truth is, I continue to think that I will not take much time off work for this. Taking stock of my current condition, I might have give to work this morning if I wasn't stuck in a hospital bed. After all, I just have a bad sore throat and my nose is painful to the touch. Neither of those two issues would force one to not sit at a desk. I will likely cancel Tuesday's staff meeting as i doubt that I will want to stand up and speak in front of thirty people.

It should be noted that I am not fooling myself. I understand that some people experience increased pain after a few days. For this reason, I am keeping my schedule really flexible.

 

[sbell111]

The doctor was just in to remove the splints from my nose. It hurt less than I expected it to. It did bleed some.

The meds that I asked for an hour ago just arrived.

I expect that they'll send me home in a few minutes.

 

[sbell111]

Still waiting. Who knows when they'll let me go. I told my wife to just hang out at home and I'll call her when they are actually releasing me. We only live about ten minutes away so by the time they get me released, she'll be here. A bonus is the kids don't have to hang out at the hospital.

 

[sbell111]

I forgot to give the actual update that I meant to post.

Now that the splints are out of my nose, it no longer hurts to the touch. There's still nasty drainage, but that's no big deal.