Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there.

Posted by: msaeger

Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 20/08/2006 23:00

I'm getting mine removed in a couple weeks. They tell me to expect to feel pretty bad for a week. That sounds pretty long to me but I have never had any surgery so what do I know.

If anyone has had this done as an adult it would be interesting to hear your experience.
Posted by: furtive

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 09:47

A asked a friend to write about his recent experience for you:

Quote:
The operation is fairly typical. No food/drink before hand, take some painkillers before you go down to be operated on. A couple of injections and you wake up feeling really groggy from which you slowly recover. I woke up at around 1pm.

At 2 pm I was drinking. It felt like I had tonsilitis.
At 3 pm I got out of bed to go to the loo. Mainly because I get bored easily and wanted to get out of bed. A nurse checked I was ok to do so and not wobbly.
I then spent most of the afternoon in and out of bed. Probably best to stay in bed, but meh, I get bored.
At 5pm it was time for tea. I was under the knife when the order forms came round, so I got nothing I liked. I had to eat fairly normal food. In the old days it was ice cream, then more recently it was toast (to remove the scab), but now it seems to be normal food. I sent my girlfriend for a wopper and fries, which I ate about 3/4 of before it got too painful.
Overnight I had really bad sleep apnea as my wounds were very flappy (I had tonsils removed due to sleep apnea). I had nurses checking regularly for blood oxygen (i had an alarm for that), pulse etc. In the end I was put on 02 and was much better.
Ate breakfast and got discharged with 2 types of painkillers, which I took whether I needed them or not, as one of them is very slow acting - voltradol IIRC.
Was warned about day 5. The pain got steadily worse until day 5 which was an evil combination of wisdom tooth pain, sore throat and ear ache. I didn't each much.
Then day 6 was better, and so was each day after that.
Day 14 I was just about ready to go back to work, which is much what they predict.
I'm now a different person. I don't know why you are having yours out, but my sleep apnea was cured entirely and I feel amazing.

In summary. Yes it will hurt. No it won't hurt like hell. Day 5 won't be much fun, but overall it's really really worth it.

Posted by: andym

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 10:03

What's so special about the 5th day?
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 10:55

Thanks for the info. It's surprising that he could eat soild food so quickly I was expecting to have to wait a while for that. Glad to hear it cured the sleep apnea I just want mine out because they are huge and get food stuck in them and interfear with talking.
Posted by: furtive

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 11:33

Quote:
What's so special about the 5th day?


I asked:

Quote:
No idea. No one said why it would hurt more on that day, but it did. The most likely explaination is that it is when some of the more stubborn scabs come off leaving fresh and raw tonsil beds. I guess that the scabs have no feeling compared to the bruised throat.


PM me if you want this guys email/MSN contact details. He's happy to discuss it further with you if you want.
Posted by: RobotCaleb

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 13:47

I've never had it done, but the Wikipedia article has this to say about recovery :
Quote:
Tonsillectomy in adults is perhaps more painful than in children, though everyone's experience is different. Post-operative recovery may take 10-20 days, during which narcotic analgesics are typically prescribed. A diet of soft food (e.g. pudding, eggs, soft noodles, soup, etc.) is recommended to minimize pain and the risk of bleeding; the duration of diet restriction varies from patient to patient and may last from several days to two weeks or more. Proper hydration is also very important during this time, since dehydration can increase throat pain, leading to a vicious cycle of poor fluid intake. At some point, most commonly 7-11 days after the surgery (but occasionally as long as two weeks after), bleeding may occur when scabs begin sloughing off from the surgical sites. The overall risk of bleeding is approximately 1-2% higher in adults. Approximately 10% of adult patients develop significant bleeding at this time. The bleeding may quickly stop naturally, or via mild intervention (e.g. gargling cold water). Otherwise, a surgeon must repair the bleeding immediately by cauterization, which presents all the risks associated with emergency surgery (most having to do with the administration of anesthesia on a patient whose stomach is not empty). There are several different procedures available to remove tonsils, each with different advantages and disadvantages. In children and teenagers it may be the case that there is a noticeable change in voice after the operation.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 13:57

Also, that article mentions several less invasive procedures for reducing the size of overlarge tonsils. You might want to take a look into them.
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 21/08/2006 21:29

The son of someone where I work had this done recently and had to go back three times for bleeding but it sounded like minor bleeding. His doctor said to come back if there is any bleeding at all so I think they may have been going overboard. My doctor said about the same thing as the wikipedia article about bleeding.

I am hoping for a minor voice change the way it is now people can never hear or I sound like I am yelling. I have been living with these things for about 10 years so I just want them out.

The appointment is on the 29th so if I never post again after that it went bad
Posted by: mlord

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 22/08/2006 00:12

Good luck!

I had the fortune of having mine removed "just in case" at age 4 or 5 (?). Recovery took one day.

Cheers
Posted by: lectric

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 00:23

Hehe, my sister had, at age 16, a palatal expander installed one week, and had her tonsils and adnoids out the following week. Talk about agony. Her face already hurt before surgery. She had to learn hoe to swallow differently, since she had a plate in the way in the roof of her mouth. Not touching the roof, mind you, but near it.

All that pales in comparison for what was in store later. They broke her bottom jaw and removed .25 inches of bone from each side, and sawed her upper jaw off and pulled it forward .25 inches. Follow all this up with wiring her jaw shut for 6 weeks after. -=shudder=-

All of this was to correct a fairly extreme underbite. Thank goodness she's all fine now.
Posted by: AndrewT

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 01:02

I watched a similar procedure on "The Operation" on Discovery Channel. While it appeared to be very barbaric and brutal to the patient, the end results were amazing, not to mention life changing. I think the girl in the program had a similar amount of correction to your sister and the end result was almost beyond belief once the post-operative swellings had gone down.

Purely OOC, did your sister retain her natural teeth in her upper jaw? From watching the TV program it wasn't clear but I imagined that that was the surgeon's objective.
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 01:07

That was a great show they should have it on again. The most gruesome things I have seen have been skull reconstruction. I just saw one where two kids had mis-shapen skulls so they pretty much broke apart their skull and repositioned the bones to get a more normal shape.

Either that or I remember an episode of the operation where they did a reversal of the vasectomy. That looked like way too much trouble just adopt.
Posted by: AndrewT

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 01:33

The most poignant one I saw was the case of a late 20's woman in the final stages of cystic fibrosis. She had an older brother and a younger sister as potential living lung donors and the surgeons were advising her and the family that her chances of surviving a transplant were minimal. She insited that for her part, even against the odds, she wanted to proceed.

The most striking part was where we saw the surgeon say to the brother,who was nominated to donate his entire lower left lung, that at any point in the consultation procedure he would just turn "them" (the TV cameras) off and provide a valid medical reason why he could not donate to save him from the procedure if required. The operation went ahead and the girl never regained conciousness.
Posted by: lectric

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 02:00

Yes she kept all her teeth, Yep, she's completely fine now. The reason it was done was not cosmetic, just so you know, she was having trouble eating beforehand. Her teeth just didn't match up. Not even close.

I should mention that at the time she had her surgery, I was working at the hospital where it was done. I was working in patient transport so when her ticket came across to move her to a room, I grabbed it. When I walked into post-op, I walked down the row of 6 beds, looking for my sister. At the end of the row I turned around and walked back. After walking the row a third time picked up charts and started reading the names. Her face had changed THAT MUCH. Not to mention the usual swelling and pallor one would expect. It took a while, but now I can't remember what she looked like before the surgery, unless I look at pictures.
Posted by: adavidw

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 05:00

About two years ago I had a partial tonsillectomy, plus uvulectomy and removal of part of the soft palate. This was all done at the same time as a nasal septoplasty. All of this was done in an effort to get me to breathe better/cure sleep apnea/etc.

The recovery was indeed painful, but I had liquid hydrocodone every 4 hours, so that helped. I honestly didn't notice any pain in my nose, because all of the pain and discomfort I felt was in my throat, which felt like someone had forced a 1 foot diameter reamer through. Everything hurt. Breathing, talking, eating, drinking, everything.

For the first couple of days, I only had juice, pudding, jello, and sherbet, and even then only had a couple of spoonfuls at a time. I had the surgery on Thurday morning, and by Saturday afternoon had lost 11 pounds. After those first three or so days, however, everything got progressively better. I went back to work on Monday, but didn't feel that great, so took Tuesday off. However, I was back at work full-time on Wednesday.

So, yeah, it hurts like hell, but I would do the whole thing again in a heartbeat. For the previous 10 years of my life, I couldn't recall ever breathing through my nose, and I sounded like I was choking to death when I slept. Now, I breathe through my nose almost exclusively (like normal people do, from what I hear). My wife's no longer concerned for my safety at night. My blood pressure's down. I've lost weight. And, in my case, since part of the soft palate was removed, I can sing a lot better than I could before, when my abnormally huge soft palate got in the way.

In my case, the surgery was outpatient, but I felt like I needed a lot of tending to, and think it would make more sense to have a day in the hospital afterwards.
Posted by: frog51

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 23/08/2006 08:32

I had mine done when I was 25 or 26, as I had had almost continuous tonsillitis for over a year. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing. No, really!

I remember passing out in a haze of morphine flirting with a gorgeous nurse, and when I woke up I had the amusement of watching two medical staff arguing over whether I should have ice-cream or toast.

I heartily recommend toast, as it takes a while to get used to the new size of your throat and toast is easy to swallow.
Pain-wise, a took ibuprofen that evening, and was back to normal (ie boozing and eating chip suppers) the next day.

Hopefully my next op will be as much fun, but I doubt it (planning the snip to ensure no further froglets!)
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 29/08/2006 20:42

Well i'm still alive. I got home at about 11:00am and it has been pain and trouble free so far. They do have me taking some kind of liquid pain killer so that probably is helping.

The doctor I used says I have to eat only soft food for 14 days.

I'll be waiting for day five


PS happy b-day Bitt
Posted by: petteri

Re: Any adult tonsillectomy patients out there. - 29/08/2006 21:53

Glad to hear everything went well! I wish you a speedy pain free recovery!