I'm on Post-Op Day 1, had surgery yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. Tonsillectomy and Turbinate Reduction.

Yesterday was not a whole lot of fun (vomited twice last night getting the anesthesia out of my system) but today is much better. It wasn't terrible, it was just day of surgery stuff. My ears were thinking about hurting last night but not enough for me to do anything about it. If they do I have my rice socks and olive oil ready!

I'm on roxicet every 4 hours and I have to say the pain isn't too bad. In fact, it doesn't hurt at all except when I swallow. All the medications sting on the way down so I dilute with water and just be patient while drinking them. I also have maintained my sense of taste so thankfully the medicine doesn't taste so bad! I just have a hard time swallowing anything with all the swelling.

My main issue is that my uvula swelled up so big it was hard to breathe when the sterioids wore off. I've been sucking on ice and have an ice pack around my neck. Any different advice on getting the swelling down? About when did the swelling go down for you guys? I'd do a search but I'm so drugged up I can barely type, much less wade through search results. :D I still have steroids to take but it's only every 12 hours and dr. won't let me take any more.

I'm glad to say I'm able to sleep all right. Not a deep sleep, but sleep. I designed a "moisture tent" that my husband built me out of pvc pipe and pretty much stay in that. I discovered while having strep that if I could keep the atmosphere around me pretty humid my throat wouldn't dry up so badly, and thought it might come in handy for the tonsillectomy. Boy am I glad I did, and highly recommend building a little tent either before surgery or when recovering. Since it's pvc it's easy and quick to make.

Basically it's just pvc pipe made into a frame and covered in a sheet that fits around me on the bed with the mist humidifier inside. For strep the vaporizer worked better but I think the hot was contributing to the swelling so this time so I switched to the cold mist. The tent comes up high enough for me to sit up and sleep elevated, and I can lift the sheet to sit up and watch tv. I'm not completely enclosed because I wanted some air flow, but it works great!

I want to thank everyone who posts their experiences. It is so much easier to deal with this recovery knowing what to expect and hearing ideas on how to make myself more comfortable.

Cool idea with the moist-tent :D

Dry throat in the morning isn`t fun at all, and it could cause bleeding so that`s great.

Vomiting is something you should avoid if possible. I vomited a couple of times and it brought me back to the E.R. so watch for blood in your vomit!

Hope you heal up well, and keep us posted! :)

Thanks, SG. I haven't vomited since that first night so it was just getting the anesthesia out of my system. I feel much more coherent now, that's for sure! I'm waking myself up every 2 hours to drink at least 4 oz. of water. Hopefully all the water plus broth will keep me nicely hydrated back there. I don't want to bleed!

So now it is my 4th night after surgery going into Post-Op Day 4 when the sun comes up.

I'm starting to get some of that there pain everyone talks about. ;) So much I'm going to ask the dr. how much tylenol I can add to the roxicet at night, just to carry me past that last hour when the rox wears off. Otherwise it hurts too much and my water intake is adversely affected. I'm on 1 tsp. rox every 4 hours and would frankly like to sleep more than two hours at a time, but if I don't wake up to hydrate my throat I pay, big time.

Chewing gum right now helps A LOT. In fact, I stick some gum in 15-30 min. before I have to swallow the rox, dilute the rox with water and it puts the rox down to a slow burn instead of stabbing pain. Lukewarm chicken broth is a surprisingly good chaser, doesn't burn at all. Can't even say that about water right now! :D

Ears are a little sensitive but the rox seems to take care of that. Haven't had to break out the oil or rice socks yet. I also don't want to use the tetracaine pops yet because I don't know how bad it may get. I'm saving those for pain breakthroughs.

4:00 a.m.
Pain at rest: .5
Pain swallowing: 8
Ear pain: 2

So I decided to take a look back there before going back to bed and saw that the right side is all raw and bloody. It doesn't seem to be enough to trickle, just ooze. Is this normal? I'm seeing less white membrane on that side and the black spots are gone over there. Is this scabs coming off?

I'm doing ice chips to stop the bleeding. It doesn't look anywhere enough to call the dr. at 4:30 am but I don't want to go back to sleep without anyone to check on me, either.

Oh well, off to check other threads for this while I'm up!

Hmmm.. If it bleeds constantly I would absolutely contact a doctor, I would call the emergencynumber and ask to speak with someone. Bleeding is something to be taken seriously.. I`ve rushed off to the hospital 3times because of it, and it was the right decision every time.. But then again my bleeding didn`t stop at all and was dripping out of my mouth..

Thankfully it quit after melting ice chips in my mouth for a half hour. I have a call in to the dr to find out what his guidelines are for bleeding and see what else I can do at night to get some sleep since I'm not sure how many days it will be hurting this much.

I can handle it in the daytime but since I had work done on my sinuses I have to breathe through my mouth when I sleep and that dries everything out, making it hurt that much more. I'm mostly concerned about drinking enough, which I can't do if the pain level is as high as it was last night.

Yup, it hurts but I don't regret it for a minute! :D

Awake resting: 1
swallowing: 7
ear pain: 1

Sleeping: 4
swallowing: 9
ears: 3

Post Op Day 5

Last night had some excitement. I was getting some good sleep (finally) but with all the swelling have some occasional apnea and wake up with a jerk to breathe. When I did it this time I felt something in my throat *pop*. Uh-oh. Took about thirty seconds before I started choking on all the blood running down my throat. Double uh-oh. :eek:

I ran for the ice and a cup to spit in and then tried to talk well enough with a throat full of ice to wake up my husband and tell him what was going on. I felt bad for him, he wasn't anywhere near awake enough to comprehend that he needed to call the dr....NOW, not after he went to the bathroom, lol. I was having a really hard time spitting the blood out, most of it was going down my throat and the last thing I wanted to do was throw up and make matters worse. I looked back there and sure enough it was bloody mess on one side. By the time we got in touch with the dr. the bleeding had slowed and he said to gargle with ice water and check for any clots I might choke on. That's when I saw there was a whole side where the membrane had kind of slid partly off and was just hanging there. Lovely. :rolleyes: Between what went down my throat and what I spit into the cup we guestimated 2-3 tablespoons of blood...most of it down the hatch. Yuck.

We're 45 minutes from the ER so asked what to do if it happened again, and basically he said gargle with ice water and if it doesn't stop to go in, that most people stop bleeding by the time they get to the ER and the ER will make you gargle with ice water before doing anything else anyway. He also said most people who bleed will only bleed once. (Probably because they are paranoid about making it happen again. :D) But good to know.

So, for any of you scared about bleeding, my doctor was very matter of fact and low key about it. It happens. It's the uncontrollable bleeding that you have to worry about. It took me a good five minutes for it to slow then another 5-10 for it to stop completely. Yes, it was a long fifteen minutes but it wasn't squirting blood, it was more of a fast trickle. If I had realized it would take that long to clot I would have been a lot less apprehensive about the situation.

He put me back on liquids only for twelve hours and I was told to be quiet, elevate my head and rest...no talking. All well and good, finally had something soft to eat late this afternoon and seem to be mending fine. The most interesting thing about this was since that happened my pain level has been practically non-existent. Between lack of sleep, food and all the blood I swallowed I didn't feel too great today but I sure didn't hurt.

Looking back there I now have a huge scab/clot/whatever that glob of white is almost completely filling the hole where the bleed happened. Hopefully it stays there long enough for whatever bleeder I had last night to heal.

Can anybody at this point actually feel there are no tonsils back there? I'm so swollen it feels like I still have them.

That was some excitement! I am glad that it turned out to be okay. I bled several times after my surgery, and ended up having to go back into surgery, and I know that the bleeding was quite scary. It sounds like you handled it well.

Good luck with the rest of your recovery! :)

Mer~

Mer, what happened with you and soup guy was most definitely on my mind! I am so glad you guys are okay and grateful my experience wasn't half as bad as what you guys had. You know it's funny, I wasn't afraid of bleeding out and dying...I didn't want to have to get cauterized and start from square one! Must have been the pain meds changing my sense of perspective. :dizzy:

Post-OP day 6 morning

Hello again pain! Now I know why I didn't hurt hardly at all yesterday; I didn't sleep! If we could sleep without things flapping, swelling up and drying out I think recovery would be a much easier process. Happy to say I was able to do more than doze last night. I got a couple good hours in and no bleeders. I was relieved. I've been given permission to up the rox if I need it (at night it can wear off after a couple hours) but I don't want to do that and sleep without someone keeping an eye on me to make sure I'm breathing decently. My dose is 1 tsp, and even bumping it up to 1 1/4 makes a big difference in side effects for me. Plus it is that much more to come down off of and I am mindful of slowly weaning off at the end.

Ears are uncomfortable enough for me to heat up the oil, which feels very nice. I'm reminding myself that I'm halfway through, just another week and I will feel so much better!

Congratulations to all you who are now feeling better! Happy Mother's Day!

At rest: 1
Swallowing: 6 when meds wear off, 2 when on
Ears: 4

No complaints. :)

Hehe, me and Mer are special I think. She had some tremendous bleeding and I have been to surgery 3 times after my initial one..

Glad you got through it alright. I damn myself for not discovering this forum earlier, cuz then I would have known to gargle icewater. All the instructions I got was that "some times bleeding occur, if it doesen`t stop, call someone.."

Just be careful, if the clot is "on top" of the wound it can come loose and cause even more bleeding. 2 of the 3times I went to the E.R. the doc said he had to remove the clot because it could fall off and cause it to bleed later on.

I don`t wish my experience upon my worst enemies so take it from me, better to be safe than sorry! Internal bleeding is NOT something to take lightly.

I wish you all the best with your recovery :)

Thanks! :) Things are going well so far!

Today is post-op day 7. I went to town for my dr. appt 1 hour away only to get there and find they had called me to reschedule the appointment, however had called the wrong number. Yeehaw. I told them if they wanted me to drive down those mountain roads again they needed to give me more anti-nausea meds, lol. On the good side my girlfriend and I got to spend a couple of hours together and catch up.

I have finally been being able to sleep and celebrated feeling better with some actual "real food", chicken strips and stuffing. I've weaned off the roxicet to 3/4 tsp. every 6 hours and taken some tylenol to fill in a little of the pain blanks but not much since the roxicet already has acetaminophen in it. Right now the thing most messing me up is the roxicet. Narcotics and I don't get along very well, and now that it seems the bulk of the pain has passed I have the side effects to live with: a half hour after I take it the dizziness and queasiness kicks in for at least two hours, then if I push the time of the next dose more than four hours I will feel sick. So literally half the day I need to lay down or feel ill. After a week I really don't want to spend the day in bed anymore. Now I have more phenergan to help me with withdrawal I can cut down the roxicet even more tomorrow, maybe down to 1/2 tsp every 6-8 hours. I hope to be completely off it by the end of the week.

As far as the pain goes, I'm going to have to say it's more of a surface regular-sore-throat pain, not the deep pain of surgery. I'm using the tetracaine lollipops for any breakthrough pain, but the only time that really happens is upon awakening. I will also use the tetracaine pop to coat my throat before I go to sleep, that seems to help.

Swallowing food isn't a problem as long as it's chewed really well, and since I was getting really tired of broth and applesauce started started to sting, I was really ready for something else.

Back of my throat looks pretty good, I think, so all in all I am happy with my progress while wondering if the worst is over...or not. ;) 'Cause we all know with tonsillectomies that when you think you're getting better, tomorrow is a whole new day. :dizzy:

Pain at rest: 0-.5
Swallowing: 4
Ears: 2

Would I do it again? You betcha.

Hi,

I am 27 and having my tonsils removed on Thursday. I have been fighting for years to get this op and now it's happening I am freaking out a bit. My main concern is the pain medication, I am worried that the medication will not be enough or strong enough and I know the last thing I will want to do is fight with my GP to get stronger painkillers. I am allergic to penicillin and to date I have still to find an antibiotic that clears the infection [this is the main reason they are being removed] I know there can be compications and my surgeon has gone through the loss of taste, possible bleeding out, ear ache. I have been well informed and to be honest I just want them out. Any advice or help would be great and thank you so much for all of your comments I do not feel alone!!

Isn't this a wonderful board!?! Frankly I don't know how I would have coped half so well without everyone sharing their experiences. Let me tell you, you will be on here in the middle of the night, many nights, searching through back posts for either answers or comfort.

Ask your dr. ahead of time what pain meds he prescribes. From what I see, all dr.s have their usual things they prescribe. Don't be afraid to take your research to the dr. and ask for specific meds you want. Also, if you don't get home with the meds you want (or dosage) it doesn't mean it's not negotiable later. They may give you something to start with and only increase/change for people who ask.

My doctor has been doing this a long time and sent me home well prepared in the pain management department, for which I am very grateful. I'm a small person (5'1") and here are the meds and dosages I was given:

Roxicet (liquid percoset) 1 tsp. every 4 hours for pain.
Day 4 or so I was given permission to gradually bump it up to 2 tsps through the worst of it but I react strongly to narcotics and 1 1/2 was the most I would dare and that only if someone was watching me to make sure I kept breathing. After a few days on narcotics your body gets loaded and it can increase the side effects.

For example, day 4/5 was tough for me and that's when I increased the rox a little. However, I'd already been on it for a few days and that little much more started giving me side effects I hadn't had up till then, mostly with breathing when going to sleep--I would breathe very shallowly and feel like I wasn't gettting enough air. When I was awake I was fine. Even when I went back to "normal" dosage after that day I still noticed the issue with my breathing when falling asleep, so knocked down the dose to 3/4 tsp and that helped a lot. Be aware that adjusting narcotic dosage just a little can have a big effect, these are VERY STRONG MEDS.

From what I have seen on this board, percoset/roxicet is the strongest. I don't do well on vicodin so was happy I didn't have to fight that.

Phenergan (gen. promethazine), 25 mg. suppositories for nausea.
Oh, the joys of suppositories, but putting one more thing in your mouth is going to be the last thing you want to do, especially if you are nauseous. I highly recommend if you need to go anywhere while you are on narcotics, preemptively give yourself some of these. They help with motion sickness, too, and if you are already on the edge of dizzy from the pain meds getting in a car will be miserable. Sometimes just walking is no fun. These are also very helpful when weaning off the narcotics since one of the side effects of withdrawal is dizziness and nausea.

Prednisolone (steroid), 1 tsp. every 12 hours for swelling.
Taken first thing in the morning it helps keep inflammation down and thus pain. Also will help you sleep because everything can get so swollen in there it can be very hard to find a way to breathe while you sleep for a while. I acknowledge that people don't want to take steroids for good reason (me either), but in this case you don't have any other safe medical alternatives for controlling swelling and you will need them. Ice around the neck and in the mouth, even constantly, just won't cut it I am very sorry to say. The ice is more for your comfort, to numb more than reduce swelling. Then after day four or so when anything cold in your mouth is painful to both your throat and ears, ice won't do much at all.

Tetracaine lollipops, topical anesthetic.
You don't suck on these, you use them to swab the back of your throat 15-30 seconds. Work very nicely, especially first thing after you wake up and you dread that first swallow but know it has to be done.

This is the list of meds I was sent home with, and one of the best lists I've seen on here. I had everything I needed to be as comfortable as possible. I'm now Post-Op Day 8 and relied mostly on the roxicet and prednisolone for the first week, now I am using the phenergan more and the lollipops as I gradually wean of the narcotic and steroid.

Other insights:

Chewing Juicy Fruit really does help with the pain. Go figure. :cool:

Now for the lecture portion. :nono: ;)

For goodness sake, be sensible, act like you've had surgery and REST for AT LEAST that first week! Set things up ahead of time so that you 1. have help, 2. don't have to do anything but lay in bed and 3. don't have visitors or talk on the phone any more than you absolutely have to! Talking makes everything swell up more = lots more pain and discomfort = slower healing. Texting and email in small quantities is the way to go this week.

I was sent home with instructions for no exertion whatsoever but I had already planned on it. I had noticed a trend in people's stories where people who take it easy for recovery seem to heal faster and have an easier time of it. If you think about it, your body has a finite amount of energy. Wouldn't you rather it be spent on healing? Anything you do that is not towards healing takes away from it, so this is the week of your life to give yourself permission to do nothing but lay in bed and be left alone.

As a mom of five who has been there done that, you really truly need someone else to take care of your kids the entire week, 'round the clock, for kids who too young/not mature enough to take care of themselves completely or to separate mom or dad from drugs. If they are older it can be a good life lesson on the negative side effects. :(

You will want your kids taken care of not just because of your pain and discomfort but because the narcotics you will be on mess with you, can change your personality and above all take away any ability you have to cope with anything beyond what is going on with yourself (and sometimes even that). So make arrangements for the kids, if not for yourself then certainly for them so they don't have to deal with mom/dad on drugs. Otherwise you may say and do things you regret and can never take back, the horror of every parent. There were several times it took all my self-discipline to shut my mouth, go back into the bedroom and shut the door so I wouldn't inflict my over-reactions on others. :( There were a couple times I didn't make it, but I am grateful it was with my husband who was most understanding. Love that man, he's the best!

Sleep. I didn't do much the first five days or so, but since I was resting and had enough nutrients coming in I never hit that "wall" that you get for lack of sleep. I dozed a lot but didn't get deep rest and that seemed to be enough for my body since hard sleep was more stressful on it. I was tired but not tired/cranky. I am now making up for that lack of sleep and slept through my meds dosage in the early morning hours...MISTAKE, yeow! :eek:

Do whatever you possibly can to feed your body!! Living on jello for days gives your body nothing to use to build and heal...or manage pain, for that matter. I'm not going to want to see chicken broth for a very long time after this, but it is a good source of protein and remains the only thing I can swallow that never stings (Pacific Organic Chicken Broth if anyone cares to know, Costo was the cheapest). So, warm broth it is for me. Protein drinks are good while cold feels good, just make sure there is no caffeine (found that out the hard way). Applesauce will start to sting but you can push through it and feels good in your belly, mashed potatoes (made with broth to get some protein in there) were good until the scabs started coming off and then it would stick to them, making swallowing less than fun.

It will be easy to get plenty of carbs/sugar, it's the protein you will have to make an effort to find and take. The more you swallow the more things will loosen up and the easier it will be to eat, so seriously, go chew some gum 1/2 hour before attempting to eat and you may be surprised at what you can get down. Your body will thank you. I got down some very soft chicken tortellini one night and felt miles better the next morning.

Well, it's a beautiful morning with a spring snowstorm that has about 5 inches on the ground so far. It may be the last snowstorm of the season so I'm going for a drive to take in the splendor of pine trees weighed down with snow. Will post more later. :)

Frang, I just noticed you were in the UK. I'm not familiar with how your medical system works with meds, etc. Perhaps you can find a post by someone from the UK to get more info. Jane gets hers out monday, maybe you can ask her to make sure she posts her experience. The tonsillectomy in UK thread is hers.

So, here I am Post-Op Day 8. I have cut the roxicet to 1/2 tsp every 8 hours alternating with tylenol every 8 hours, so I take one or the other every four. This is stretching it as far as pain is concerned (I like being pain-free ;)) but BOY do I feel better without all that narcotic in my system! Ears do hurt too but I can ignore everything since I'm just dealing with pain issues now, I don't hurt AND feel crappy. The prednisolone is down to 1/2 tsp every 12 hours, and I finished the erythromiacin yesterday. I really hate being on meds so am trying to get off of them as quickly as possible as smartly as possible, since withdrawal isn't any fun.

I will admit to not being the best patient today, and if I had been better my throat wouldn't be so sore now. But I snapped, what can I say?:p Went out to the store and ended up stopping by mexican for lunch, yummmmm. Talk about hitting the spot! I couldn't eat very much, but what I did was soooo good.

I had chips and salsa. :eek: Chips and salsa! And some chimichanga!! And it was good, very good. I chewed everything really well and stopped eating when my throat said continuing wasn't the best idea. I probably only ate a quarter of my meal, if that, but I have it waiting for me for later. :bouncing:

Do I feel it right now? You betcha. Oy. :dizzy: Was it wise? Absolutely not and in the stupid category. :D In my defense, I only swallowed when it was mushy. Do I regret it? Only if it turns out it impeded my progress somehow. If my throat being a little more sore is the only negative consequence, it was worth it.

I'm now at the stage where I'm craving things a little rougher. You know how when things heal they can get itchy? My throat doesn't itch but scratching it a little does feel kinda good.

I go for try #2 at a post-op dr. appointment tomorrow morning, so we'll see what the dr. says about my progress.

Pain at rest: 3 (thank you chimichanga)
Swallowing: 5 (thank you chips and salsa)
Ears: 4 (thank you snow)

:D

One more thing I thought of that surprised me. I stocked up on waaay more cold drinks and foods than warm, but cold only feels good the first few days. I wish I would have had more warm options, since that phase lasts longer.

Ah, so here we are at Post-Op Day 9. The vaunted Day 10 is tomorrow! Although frankly yesterday really seemed to be the turning point for me, which not coincidentally was the first day I was mostly off the narcotics. Necessary evil, those things.

Dr. appt. went very well, he said I looked fabulous. He said that it will take another month for all the swelling in my nasal passages from the turbinate reduction to go down, and I imagine the tonsillectomy as well. I think he said another month for it to scar in? Risk of bleeding goes to Day 18.

I asked about the state of my tonsils when he took them out and he said they were just terrible, filled with "garbage" ;), and that I should live a much healthier life from here on out. I thought so because the day after surgery I truly felt better in a way, like by body was relieved to get rid of all that infection.

I thanked him for he list of meds he sent me home with. I feel I was very well prepared to be the most comfortable possible. We talked about the prednisolone and how it makes SUCH a difference in pain/discomfort level and he said that many doctors don't understand that, and he uses it differently in dosing because of his pharmacology background. Friends, if you have a tonsillectomy coming up and need to advocate for meds, this is one I would go to bat for. 1 Tsp every 12 hours. (If you need a medical reference, his name is Dr. Paul Dragul in Denver. If you are in the Denver area and need an ENT I highly recommend him.)

He wants me to take the pred another couple days, and for me this is why I can get off the roxicet onto tylenol pretty easily and...how I can sleep at night without snoring my throat into swallowing agony, frankly. I believe that this medication is one of the reasons I was able to get rest and heal so quickly, and one of the major reasons I only had one day of what I would consider true pain (the fourth night after surgery to the fifth day after, about 24 hours). My definition of true pain: pain that makes a psychological impact, i.e. "Make it stop!" :D

Today for pain meds I did extra strength tylenol every 5 hours and just the rox at bedtime. Ear pain was non-existent with the increase of 40 degrees in temperature from yesterday, just a little pulling feeling. We get more snow tonight so we'll see how they do tomorrow with the cold damp again. Just putting cotton and oil in to keep the cold air out helps a lot. I switched from the cold mist humidifier back to the warm last night because the cold was increasing the discomfort in my ears and I didn't want to plug them because I didn't want to sleep through my med alarm again. Plus it was cold last night, doggone it, last thing I wanted was something by my bed blowing cold air on me! :D

Tomorrow will probably be my last update unless something changes. I'll still hang around the board a while to encourage the next batch of patients. This whole process is so much easier knowing you are not on your own, and I thank you all.

You guys rock! :bouncing:

As for weight loss...not enough to notice a change in my clothes. I ate too well, who'd athunk? :p

Here I am Post-Op Day 11. Day 10 was nothing but a blip, so Day 8 really was my turning point it looks like.

I can eat pretty normally now and am fine with tylenol every six hours. This will probably taper off in a day or two, depending on how much talking I do. ;) I still feel like I have a tire around my neck but am hopeful the swelling will start to quickly resolve itself from here.

The one main withdrawal symptom I'm having from the roxicet is insomnia. I've had about 8 hours of sleep over the past three days. I don't feel exhausted at all but the yawning isn't what I'd like to be doing right now, pretty painful even when stifled.

Back of my throat looks great, almost all the white is gone and things look pretty healthy. I'm looking forward to what it finally feels like, and wonder what life will be like being able to breathe and talk without those humongous things back there anymore. I sing, too, so I wonder how that will change. I've also always had low energy and I wonder how my body is going to be now I am not constantly fighting this chronic strep infection, which I have been doing since I had scarlet fever when I was seven -- 31 years.

So I am hopeful, and optimistic, and most of all grateful for the opportunity to live a better life. In all the years I've been sick it wasn't until a year and a half ago a doctor finally told me that if I got my tonsils out it would take care of many of the issues I had. (It wasn't even my PCP, it was a random urgent care doctor...a gift from God.) I was never told it was an option for me before then. When I saw the ENT he was very compassionate, so sorry that I had suffered for so many years with tonsils that should have been removed decades ago but was denied relief because of the medical swing away from tonsillectomies. He sees cases like me all the time, people in their thirties and forties who have suffered for years because the medical community stopped doing tonsillectomies and now have to go through a much worse procedure and recovery than would have happened if it had been done when they were younger.

I may update this thread in a few months to give a perspective of life after tonsillectomy for those who are thinking of undergoing the procedure and wonder if it is worth it.

For me it already is. :)

I am seriously considering a tonsilectomy at 43.... mad I know, but I am so sick of tonsil stones, digging them out, wondering if they are there, being concerned about bad breath... all of that stuff that everyone that posts here knows about. I have 2 6yr olds and a supportive spouse but really am wondering if I can do it and if you have some reasonable advice for me? I had a tubal (tubes tied) in February and it was miserable for a week with the pain.... can you help with advice?

I was 34 when I had my tonsils removed. It was the best decision I ever made. I had those horrible, smelly tonsil stones as well, but not anymore! Also, I've had no strep throat or throat pain since the surgery - 2 years now. I won't lie, the recovery is very painful. But with the right pain medication, you can get through it. Before agreeing to surgery, I would insist that your ENT prescribe adequate pain medication. I was on liquid hydrocodone. The medication allowed me to drink plenty of liquids with minimal pain. If you become dehydrated, that will increase your pain. I took 2 weeks off from work, but was feeling good enough to get out and about after about a week. But you'll need 2 weeks to fully recover before returning to work. I can't stress enough that pain management is the key for an easy recovery. And I know you may not feel like drinking or eating, but it will make you feel better. Good luck!!