I had a tonsillectomy Monday, April 2nd at 7:30am. I also had a septorhinoplasty with turbinoplasty at the same time. By the time I woke up, I was feeling okay. Sore throat, but not anything worse than the strep throat I've had umpteen times so far. When I left the recovery room, I stayed in PACU for a few hours. They had actually planned on keeping me overnight, but I did very well, so I was sent home around 4pm. I had a bowl of applesauce, several cups of water, and some jello with no difficulty. I also was able to take pills. I slept on and off, and the worse part was getting used to breathing through my mouth. I have splints up my nose, one across the bridge, and a gauze dressing beneath my nose to catch the drainage. So far, so good.

I didn't need any more pain medicine until around 10pm last night. I was in pain, but I have a very high pain tolerance, and hate narcotics. You could say I'm a bit stubborn. I never took anything for my C-section recovery either, not once. So I am probably an exception.

My worst complaints: I can't really taste anything right now. It makes eating less enjoyable. As a side effect from anesthesia, I am having trouble urinating, and that hasn't worn off yet. If it's not better by morning, I will call the doctor. Also a side effect from anesthesia, dry mouth. I have to constantly sip on something (which is good for me anyway) in order to keep my mouth moist. Even when sleeping, I have to wake up every so often to drink something or else my tongue gets dry and cracked. The fact that I have to breathe though my mouth is making the problem 10 times worse!

That's about it. The pain is mild to moderate. Nothing I can't handle. My nose is uncomfortable, and I try not to look at it too much because I get scared that it will look like that forever. Right now it looks very piggy, upturned and swollen. The swelling is kind of uneven too. I hope to God my tip lowers when the swelling goes down. Both eyes are swollen, more so on the right, and that eye is now turning black & blue.

No nausea (which is amazing, I thought for sure I'd be vomiting)... no headaches. I feel uncomfortable, but pretty good considering I was expecting much worse after reading these horror stories! I'm glad my experience has SO FAR been tolerable. I'll keep you posted. :)

Post-op day 3 was not so hot. For some reason, I started vomiting at 6am, didn't stop till the afternoon. I couldn't keep anything down, so I went without pain medicine for 16 hours. Went to the ER for dehydration. My uvula was so swollen that it blocked my airway when lying down, so I'm on prednisone for a while. The pain in my throat is severe, but my nose feels fine. It's still swollen, but starting to take on a more normal shape. I've been sneezing, getting irritated by the splints. Still having some difficulty urinating (from the anesthetic) but it's getting better. Feels like a UTI, but they tested me today and said I'm fine. My tongue hurts from where they clamped it down during surgery, plus since it's swollen, so I keep biting it. It's still very difficult to swallow, but I've been trying to eat a soft diet as much as possible. My ears are slightly stuffy and painful, I have a mild headache. Just generally do not feel well. But I'm hanging in there. Hope everyone else is feeling well.

Unfortunately my recovery continued to go downhill. I'm almost on Day 9 now, feeling halfway decent. But the last week has been pure misery. I couldn't eat or drink anything for 2 days, kept gagging on (what I can only guess is) the scabs coming off... had a lot of pain, nausea, and difficulty swallowing on days 5-7. Went to the emergency room for the 3rd time last night, and finally feel rehydrated. I was able to eat and drink more easily today. Watermelon is a godsend. Lots of water content, and easy to swallow. I highly recommend you stock up on watermelon. I tried to eat "normal food" today, but ended up in a lot of pain, and had to leave the restaurant early. Don't rush your healing time. This has been a difficult recovery but I feel 50% better since getting the stents out of my nose from the septoplasty. So hang in there... it does eventually get easier.

Yes - complicated operations like this sometimes take a few weeks to recover from.

Had Endoscopic Sinus Surgery 2 weeks ago and its been hell since then but I've been told that its still early days.

In the past I've had a septum realignment + combined rhinoplasty (not sure if that's the same as septorhinoplasty) which I seemed to recover from almost immediately - but the initial positive effects wore off after a week or so.

I also had a separate tonsilectomy which was murder for the first week or so.

Doing much better since I last posted. Days 10-12 were much easier. I actually went out last night and had a good time. I still require Tylenol every 4-6 hours for the throat pain, but it's significantly better. I can taste almost everything now. Some things are a little difficult to taste because the sides of my tongue are still slightly numb where they clamped it down during surgery. I have difficulty swallowing every now and then, but for the most part, I think I am healing quite well.

As for my nose, it looks great, but still swollen. My friends don't even really notice that I had anything done. My doctor says it will take a couple more weeks for all the swelling to go down, and it may continue to reshape for several months afterwards. Even if my nose stayed the way it looks today, I would be pretty satisfied, so all in all, I think we have a success story. Hellish recovery... would never want to do that again, and can't say it's quite over... but there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not just an oncoming train!