i had my tonsils and adenoids taken out one week ago yesterday. normally i recover quickly and i have a high tolerance for pain. honestly i feel like i am about to die. the pain is at times almost unbearable. especially in the area around the base of my tongue that you cannot see. anything cold is horrendous.

i still have these thick white almost yellowish things coating where my tonsils used to be. i am assuming they are scabs, shouldn't they have fallen off by now? they look like they are getting thicker. i have heard about thrush...does this sound like it may be thrush?

my uvula is still 4 times the size it normally is, which is massive at its normal size. the doctor gave me some stuff for swelling, but that doesn't seem to help.

i have to admit i have "pushed" it a whole lot, trying to get some work done, etc. a couple days ago i started eating "sharp" hard foods like cookies, etc. to try to scrape some of the white stuff off. obviously, this like to have killed me and i abandoned the idea a day later.

i am freaking out...i have less than a week before i go back to work (which i can get an extension if need be), but i am in agony. i have had surgeries before and this is soooooo much worse...easily the worst pain i have ever had. it hurts to talk, eat and drink. i am on my 3rd prescription from the doctor and that is about to run out. i feel horrible asking for a new one. i can't stand laying here on my back not doing anything.

is any of this normal? should i start planning to extend my leave from work now, or should i wait? should i still be in this much pain on day 8? shouldn't the scabs have come off by now? does it get better? or am i just trying to rush things? considering my tonsils and adenoids where huge to begin with, would it make sense that it will take longer for me to recover? i am so lost and am beginning to panic.

i am 27, male and overweight if that helps any.

please help me!!!

Hang in there and take it easy for another week. Did your doctor prescribe liquid pain relievers such as Roxicet or Lortab Elixir? If not, get them filled and stick with soft foods. I had my tonsillectomy and septum surgery last year and was able to go back to work in 10 days. I used the Roxicet for the first few days but stopped because it was so narcotic that I had bad dreams. The Lortab Elixir was much better and was able to function as a human being.

the doctor has given me hydrocodone/apap. i am just concerned because the scabs do not look like they will be falling off any time soon. thanks for the advice...i will ask for the liquid stuff....does the liquid stuff make you tired?

shouldn't my scabs be coming off? i am on day 9 and my throat looks like one huge white scab on both sides....is this normal?

The liquid stuff Lortab Elixir or the generic Hydrocodone APAP will absorb much faster than the caplets. I could function with this stuff. The Roxicet or Liquid Percocet or Generic Oxycodone would make my head spin.

As for the scabs, I do not know what is normal. Did you read the sticky of LisaMP's Adult guide to surviving a Tonsillectomy?

aww honey,

totally normal all of it im afraid. I was just the same (20 days PO)
In the UK they are pretty aympathetic to Tonsillectomy pain and if it gets unbearable you can nip to your local ER for a shot of pethadine (very strong pain killer) I did this once and it helps you cope.
If youre like me its the nights that are worse and you should keep eating normal food as this will indeed scrape the scabs off which is what you want according to my specialist. Saying that if you just cant then it wont kill you to starve for 2 days or so but push fluids even if you sip every 5 minutes thats better than nothing.
The oain med I got was called volterol 50mg dispersable can you get that there? I swear it worked a treat better than morphine even it was a god send.
But this will be over in a few days and its weird just when you start to crack up BANG youre getting better and NO MORE QUINSY OR TONSILLITIS.
I will be thinking about you as my heart really feels for you I think Im still in a little shock from it as I too thought it was the worse pain ever (worse than childbirth)

Get better soon hun xxxxx

shouldn't my scabs be coming off? i am on day 9 and my throat looks like one huge white scab on both sides....is this normal?

scabs can take months to fall off but pain will go soon xx dont worry about scabs hun i still have some 20 days on xx

today i woke up with my ear hurting and feeling full...feels like an ear infection...any one else get an ear infection when your tonsils/adenoids were removed?

my tonsils and adenoids have always been huge and i have had ear trouble with my left ear my entire life...it would always get plugged up every time i got a cold....the theory was that the tonsils and/or adenoids were blocking my eustachian tube thus causing fluid to build up. so i wake up this morning paranoid because my ear is full, my scabs are still here and i feel like crap. to make matters worse, i am an audio engineer by trade, so if this doesn't cure the ear problem, i won't know what to do.

thank you for the support...i really can end up having anxiety over this.

I think Im still in a little shock from it as I too thought it was the worse pain ever (worse than childbirth)

that's what i have heard some people say...i can't imagine it being worse than child birth. wow, that kinda puts it into perspective...i'm gonna show my wife this, maybe she will have even more sympathy for me...she has been so supportive...i would be lost without her.

I just wanted to add that everything you are feeling and going through is to be expected. Some people just have it worse than others. Mine was pretty bad and I really thought I was going to die from the pain. But once it's over, then it's over and you'll feel a lot better.

About the ear pain, the way my ENT described it was because of the throat suffering a trauma of having the tonsils removed and there is so much inflammation in that area, it spreads to the eustacian tube which then causes the ear to really, really hurt badly. Your ears are probably not infected, but your eustacian tubes are most likely very inflamed. What helped me a little with the ear pain is moist heat, like a hot compress that I would put over both ears to allow the steam to get inside. It helped a little.

So I had ice around my throat and heat in my ears and I looked ridiculous but I didn't care because the pain was so bad that I just wanted it to stop!! And it did. I was out of work for 15 days but I wish I would have taken an extra week. I really needed it because I was so tired when i went back that I ended up sleeping a lot more than usual.

update: i went to the ent today and they said i looked about 70% healed up already...which was encouraging. he gave me some antibiotics for a sinus/ear infection, something to help with the swelling and inflammation and of course some pain meds. my throat is hurting but it feels a little different. it's not like a "i just got my tonsils violently ripped out of my face" pain, but a "healing" pain if that makes any sense...well it does to me. i am still somewhat miserable, but i am feeling better...i think if anything i feel better emotionally. i was freaking out when i read people's scabs were falling off at day 5 and they were feeling better...while my scabs are still there and i am getting ear infections. thank you for all the support (especially to mooncandy) the "aww honey" in her post kind of reminded me of my mom.

:)

Hello there. I'm post op.... for about.. um let me see. 3 months and 13 days. I feel sympathy for you because I also had my tonsils & adenoid taken out at the same time. I still feel that people who had their scabs off @ 5 days are LUCKY. It took me about a month to a month and a half to say bye bye forever. I hope you get to a 100% better soon.