Hello all,

Well, yesteday marked 2 weeks since the surgery, and I cannot lie, it has been a bumpy and painful couple of weeks. The worst was a serious hemorrhage on Day 10 that required electrical recauterization, but there was also plenty of the woes so many others have commented on: swollen uvula, bad taste in mouth, ear pain, etc.

However, for me, yesterday seems to have been the real turning point. It was the first day I was able to eat real solid food, and the first day the pain was at a mild enough point that I could go entirely without pain medication - even Tylenol - the whole day. I can finally see lots of pink in the back of the throat and the foul taste is more or less gone. I am fascinated by the new contours of my throat - there is so much more space back there than before! No more nasty little crevasses for tonsil stones and infection to lurk! I think that, on balance, this was the right thing to do - I hope that my first winter post-tonsillectomy will prove me right.

I am not 100% past my worry about another hemorrhage on the other side, but with each day I feel more confident. It is nice to be back to feeling something approaching normal.

To all of you currently in recovery, I wish you the best. Hang in there and remember, it *does* get better!

Jillolina

I am 30 and going to have a tonsillectomy on the 20th. How did the hemorage happen, and can if be avoided?

Hi,

Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to ensure a hemorrhage does not happen. I was standing in my living room, talking to my child, when I suddenly felt my mouth filling with blood. I had not taken any aspirin or eaten anything very rough (in fact, I hadn't eaten anything in about 12 hours). I have heard that staying well-hydrated reduces the risk of bleeding, although in my case that didn't play a part - I drank a ton of water and iced tea from day 1 on.

The good news is that only a small percentage of people have any bleeding post-tonsillectomy (from 3-6%, I have read) and in the large majority of these cases, it does not require additional intervention (it is light and stops on its own after a few minutes and some ice water). I was just lucky, I guess :) Anyway, as awful as my experience (heavy bleeding, vomiting blood, electrical recauterization) was, it wasn't really dangerous. The risk of, for example, losing enough blood to need a transfusion is very, very small.

Good luck, and don't worry. It hurts and it's not fun, but you are unlikely to have as rough a recovery as I did.

Take care,

Jillolina