I’m 34, so I don’t expect the month of June to be a really fun time, but I’m hoping I’ll have fewer colds, sinus problems & sore throats & bouts of tonsilitis.
In order to prepare for my operation, my doctors’ office had me watch a video and gave me a comic book. The video showed Chad and his Mom as Chad went through the surgery. He was “a very big boy!” and got to eat ice cream. The comic book is even better. It’s entitled, “Your T&A Adventure!” T&A is supposed to mean tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy, but we all know what it really means. I wonder how many parents have looked at that, burst out laughing and then had to come up with something to explain their laughter to their sick kids?
Anyway, how many of you have had this proceedure done as adults? I thought it was fairly common, but with the kid’s movie & comic book, I’m wondering.
How long was your recovery period?
Thanks from Prancer, who hopes she will be a very good girl!
Did you feel better after recovery and did it last?
A friend of mine had hers out at…seventeen? Eighteen? Not childhood, exactly…
Reading over that thread, she seems to have had a similar experience to aurelian, although not as severe: she was out of school for around two/three weeks, subsisted on Jell-o and water during that time, and lost something like twenty pounds.
She never did share the specifics of it, though…I’ll have to give her a ring and report back to you.
IANADr, but I work for an ENT practice, and we do quite a few of these, primarily for allergy & snoring issues - also Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
I still have my tonsils & adenoids, but I was considering getting them out due to snoring. My doctor (whom I work for) suggested it, but also pointed out that I would need probably 10-14 days recovery time and that it is much more difficult for adults. His nurse was standing behind him mouthing to me “don’t do it”.
In your case it’s probably warranted, but do be aware that it does involve more recovery time than it would if you were under, say, 16.
Otherwise, good luck & quick healing.
It took me a while to get used to thinking about “T & A” as tonsils not as the other…I still occasionally giggle.
I had my tonsils out almost exactly a year ago, 32 at the time. I was getting bad tonsilitis 4 or 5 times a year and had since I was a child.
I was off work for two weeks, I didn’t find the first couple of days after the operation to be that bad. I was under anesthetic for about 20 minutes and walking after about 2 hours. The worst time for me was from about day 5 - 10 after the op. Most of the pain I had was’nt from the areas that the tonsils were removed from but from my jaw and radiating into my ears (I had a sore throat, but not much worse than a bad bout of tonsilitis).
Had a little bit of bleeding on the 7th day which lasted about an hour.
A few things that helped me.
Drink lots of fluids, nothing too cold of hot (warm tea kept me going).
Get a humidifier for your bedroom so your not brathing dry air all night.
Lots of rest.
One thing not mentioned was that at the end of the two weeks I was badly constipated, I think from the diet of soft foods and the medication.
Getting my toinsils removed was the best thing I’ve ever done. Havn’t had a cold or serious sinus problem since.
I had a tonsillectomy as well as uvulaplasty and a deviated septum corrected at the same time about a 1 1/2 ago. I didn’t think it was all that bad. I stayed home for two weeks but on;y the first 3 days were very painful. I started eating some regular food on day 4. I lost 10 pounds altogether but it mainly just seemed like the equivalent of sitting around the house with a bad cold.
I honestly had a horrible experience getting mine out at 24, but that was due to several other factors and just some plain bad luck that most people don’t need to worry about so I won’t scare you by going into detail. It is not an easy recovery though, plan on 2 weeks off at least. Now that they are out I can tell a real difference though, so as bad as it was I am really glad they are out now. I don’t get sick nearly as often and when I do it is not as bad. Before I had terrible sore throats and swelling every time I got the tiniest cold and allergies made it worse too, now I can get colds and go through allergy season and still function like a normal person for the most part.
I will warn you - the dream of eating ice cream for a week is a big fat lie! I couldn’t eat any dairy for a month because it coated my throat and made it feel worse. Popsicles and clear liquids are better. And I second the humidifier in your room.
Keep taking strong pain medicine or at least keep it handy after a few days even if your throat is feeling better. The ear pain sets in around day 4-5 and it can be very bad. I used a heating pad, the warmth felt good on my ears.
Overall, I would say don’t panic about it, but do plan on having someone around to take care of you and take enough time off.
I was 15, so closer to adult than kid. It hurt like a muthafuckah. Recovery was about 3 days of bad pain, a couple days of not so bad pain, and I think I was off school about a week and a half.
Ice cream hurts. Everything hurts. Drugs would be the only thing you’d want to eat, but they hurt too much to swallow. Try to get shots for the pain if you can.
On the up side, I can count on one hand the times I’ve been sick in the 34 years since my tonsillectomy. It’s amazing how much healthier you’ll be.
Ooh, yeah, that happened to my boyfriend when he got his tonsils out as a kid. The pills were MUCH larger than they should have been (confirmed by the doc who saw him afterward) and had no nice, friendly coating to make them easier to swallow. Bad things happened.
Swallowing the pills put so much stress on the new wounds that his sutures tore and he started hemorrhaging massively. Reportedly, it was not cool.
