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So I'm 29 and getting my tonsils removed....

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Pyrokai

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What can I expect at this age getting them removed? Anyone else get them removed so late as well? Looking for stories from others who did The same thing.

I'm kinda terrified. I know the older you are, the worse the recovery is..... But I'm mostly worried about what my throat is going to feel like after the recovery as well....

I'm getting them removed because I have recurring sore throats, strep, and tonsillitis. In the end, I think this is the right decision but I'm just pretty worried at the moment. Getting them removed April 19th
 
All I can tell is that my nine-year-old daughter just got hers removed. She was in a lot of pain for about 3 days but now she's doing really well a week later. The doctor told us she can't eat any kind of not soft food for 21 days. But she's already wanting to eat regular food a week out. She's talking normal and everything. No idea how an adult will handle it though, sorry.
 
I've had tonsil stones develop over the last 6 months and I've been thinking about doing this. I'm 30, 31 in 4 months. Thanks for making this thread lol
 
I got mine removed when I was 26. The recovery can be more painful for some. It took me about 2 weeks to recover, it was pretty painful. After a few days the scars in your throat get covered in this white stuff. Your breath smells and you should eat cold stuff all the time cause it helps. I ate a lot of ice cream but it tasted kinda awful because during the healing process everything just tastes bad.
Near the end, the white stuff covering the scars started to come off, I kept spitting it out each morning and started taste stuff again.
All in all the healing process can take 1 - 3 weeks.
 
Aren't you worried about your beautiful singing voice though
 
Surely the recovery can't be worse than another bout of tonsillitis?
 
Transhuman said:
Aren't you worried about your beautiful singing voice though
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, and should I expect my voice to change at all and my sense of taste to change or is that a myth?

Keep the anecdotes coming! Haha. I will read every word posted in this thread lol.
 
What if you see someone who is about to get hit by a car and you can't call out to them because of the inflammation and they die
 
I had mine removed as an early teenager and it was bad enough. There was an older fellow in the same recovery ward as me and he was not good after, and I say that as someone who woke up afterwards coughing up blood :/
 
I and other Gaffers documented our journeys here. I was 25 when they came out. It sucked for a week but was ABSOLUTELY the right choice. Dramatic life improvement.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=374471

And yes, I do feel like my sense of taste changed slightly ever since, but I don't know if that's my brain playing tricks on me.
 
Got mine out at 21. Took about 2-3 weeks to eat real food but I was more or less out most of the time. Recovery sucks but it's worth it in the end. I can't stand to even look at applesauce now though... used it to take drugs and threw it up more than once.

Edit: I figure I should add that yeah, it really really sucks while you're recovering but I was the same as you OP. Got tonsillitis all the time along with fairly frequent sore throats. Been about 6 years since I've had them removed and it was 100% worth it the right decision. It will suck but I will say that the day you realize you can eat solid food is one of the greatest feelings you can enjoy in life. I ate a slice of cold pizza while I microwaved a couple other slices then I ate a bagel and then I went to McDonald's despite never regularly eating McDonald's. It was great.
 
I've considered getting my tonsils removed in the past and my doctor warned me that I would be out of work most likely for around 2 weeks and could potentially be in extreme pain for that time. I thought that was ridiculous because little kids get them removed all the time. Well it turns out for an adult it is a pretty major surgery.
 
Pyrokai said:
What can I expect at this age getting them removed? Anyone else get them removed so late as well? Looking for stories from others who did The same thing.

I'm kinda terrified. I know the older you are, the worse the recovery is..... But I'm mostly worried about what my throat is going to feel like after the recovery as well....

I'm getting them removed because I have recurring sore throats, strep, and tonsillitis. In the end, I think this is the right decision but I'm just pretty worried at the moment. Getting them removed April 19th
Click to expand...

I hope its not to bad for you. I used to get soar throats and tonsillitis pretty frequently​. Then during one bout i notice a tonsil creater full of white stuff. Turns out it was basically a breeding ground for tonsil stones which i believe was causing those issues. Since finding it i just clean it with a cotton bud once every month or so and i havnt had tonsillitis since (been a few years now and im currently 35).

Could you have something similar that might save you having the op.?
 
Got them removed at the age of 22.

The moment I woke up in hospital after having them removed I just felt a little pain like having a sore throat, went right to sleep again.

Waking up the next morning, I wish I'd die.

My gum tip was so swolen that it blocked my throat when lying, I had a hard time sleeping for the first few days. After around 4-5 days it was manageable.

I wasn't able to swallow without pain for the first week.
Eating without taking pain reliefers wasn't possible the first two weeks. But you really have to eat harder crusts and stuff like that too to get the scabs off continually, you don't want a large one to get ripped off because you stayed away from anything but soft bread. (+ I got myself some tramadol as their shitty meds didn't do shit besides gettiing me stomache cramps, and littlerly zero relief)

Best tip is to keep as hydrated as possible. Every 10-20 minutes a little sip is already enough, BUT KEEP DOING SO EVERY FEW MINUTES. Should also be the first thing you do when you realize you woke up from nomatterhowlong you slept.
This will get you through the first week.

Also: DON'T - like really don't even if you feel like throwing up - cough.
The guy next to my bed had his removed too. He would cough so much, it started to bleed twice and he had to be taken into emergency.

After the first week, I started to feel better. I still had to take meds for being able to eat, but each day my throat looked better and better, it was easier to swallow, and sleeping was back to normal.

At week 4, I was lifting weights again, eating spicy chilly and pizza crust.

The only two things which were different for quite a few months was my sense of taste, which slowly got back to normal, and a strange feeling in my throat which I got used to and now don't even think about.


The only downside of the removal is that every time I take a large sip of something, it will straight go up the back of my nose and leave my noseholes. Kinda annoying but that's probably to stay.

I hope I could help.
 
Consider what God has done. Who can straighten out what he made crooked?

- Ecclesiastes 7:13
 
Really wondering about this recently. Tonsil stones are getting really annoying. Have to find these little surprises every few days, and until this year I didn't even realize I could remove the bigger ones manually. They smell like concentrated rot and decay despite their small size and their effect on one's breath are probably terrible.

On the other hand, I don't really have a problem with tonsilitis and at my age it's gonna be a painful experience for some weeks or months. Not sure if that's worth it.
 
Thanks for the info, guys.

phxxBullet said:
The only two things which were different for quite a few months was my sense of taste, which slowly got back to normal, and a strange feeling in my throat which I got used to and now don't even think about.


The only downside of the removal is that every time I take a large sip of something, it will straight go up the back of my nose and leave my noseholes. Kinda annoying but that's probably to stay.

I hope I could help.
Click to expand...

Anyone else with this nostril sipping problem? Sounds awful, lol.

Also, good to hear about taste returning to normal but.....


Magnus said:
I and other Gaffers documented our journeys here. I was 25 when they came out. It sucked for a week but was ABSOLUTELY the right choice. Dramatic life improvement.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=374471

And yes, I do feel like my sense of taste changed slightly ever since, but I don't know if that's my brain playing tricks on me.
Click to expand...

May I ask what specifically changed in taste for you? Also, thanks for the link to that thread. Will check it out!
 
Pyrokai said:
Oh yeah, and should I expect my voice to change at all and my sense of taste to change or is that a myth?
Click to expand...

I was worried about my voice changing because I was in choir back when I had my tonsils removed but there was literally no difference. I didn't notice any change in my sense of taste either.

Magnus said:
I and other Gaffers documented our journeys here. I was 25 when they came out. It sucked for a week but was ABSOLUTELY the right choice. Dramatic life improvement.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=374471
Click to expand...

Haha, looking back I think I was overly pessimistic in that thread. Yeah, the scabs do stink and make everything taste bad (like someone else in this thread mentioned) but it's not that big of a deal. Just annoying.

I absolutely agree with you. The surgery is totally worth doing. Since then, I've gotten a sore throat maybe 3 times? In over 10 years.
 
hqdefault.jpg

You are already dead.
 
I'm 24 and I had them removed last August, recovery sucked. They prescribed me percocet or vicodin, I don't remember really. The meds got rid of most of the pain and recuperation took 10 days if I recall correctly.

Good luck, drink lots of water.
 
Is the procedure necessary? My friend went for tonsil surgery and went into cardiac arrest though he survived. He was allergic to the anesthesia. Ask your doctor about how to check if you're allergic.
 
Got mine removed when I was like 6-7 years old sadly it happened so long ago I can't tell you much about it other than be careful after you get home as I was still drowsy from the procedure and almost cracked my head on a faucet after almost passing out washing my hands.
 
Never got tonsils removed, or wisdom teeth pulled or even had chickenpox.

I am 26.

GOAT human specimen right here
 
phxxBullet said:
The only downside of the removal is that every time I take a large sip of something, it will straight go up the back of my nose and leave my noseholes. Kinda annoying but that's probably to stay.
Click to expand...

lol this used to happen to me all the time after having them removed. Now it has pretty much stopped though. But it used to be really annoying.
 
Actually got mine removed at the beginning of this year at 22. It sucked. My removal was done robotically and you think that would make it a little more precise. IDK really. Anyway, for the first three days my uvula was so swollen I would have to let it lay against my tongue or else swallow the damn thing. I actually did that once. Swallowed my uvula in my sleep and woke up choking on it. The pain was manageable with meds. They gave me some really strong addictive stuff though so I stopped taking it after 3 days, plus I had to go back to class and work and it was making me too drowsy. so I had a difficult time with the pain, especially in the morning. Overall it was a 10-day process. it was about a month before I could yawn again though. My throat had to loosen up after the recovery.

Zaru said:
Really wondering about this recently. Tonsil stones are getting really annoying. Have to find these little surprises every few days, and until this year I didn't even realize I could remove the bigger ones manually. They smell like concentrated rot and decay despite their small size and their effect on one's breath are probably terrible.

On the other hand, I don't really have a problem with tonsilitis and at my age it's gonna be a painful experience for some weeks or months. Not sure if that's worth it.
Click to expand...

Tonsil stones suck. I had em and yeah, Not having to worry about them after tonsillectomy was a nice plus for me. Removing them manually can cause them to appear more often, though. Most people end up bruising their tonsils doing it as well as adding more bacteria back there.
 
It's been literally 18 days since I've done the surgery. I also removed something from my nose that the doctor said was making it hard for me to breathe. I don't wanna scare you but: the recovery is hell.
Complete and utter hell. The first 3 days are bad, but manageable. You can usually drink water and take ice cream without much pain. In my case the biggest problem(that still hasn't gone 100% away) is that I could only breathe through my mouth most of the times, especially when lying down. So, what'd happen? I'd sleep and when waking up my mouth, tongue and throat would be completely dry and hurting. I started to fear sleep.

But the real thing start from day 4 onwards. It felt like every day it was getting worse. Sometimes I couldn't even eat ice cream from the pain. Day 7 I started to bleed a lot from my nose. It's normal to have some bleeding, but that one wasn't stopping and it was really red. I went to the hospital and stayed there until my blood pressure went back down.

Day 10 was the peak. I was "used" to wake up in pain, put the painkiller under my tongue and wait until the pain subsided. But day 10? No painkiller did anything to help. I had already spent the last days barely swallowing anything other than water so I was already feeling weak, so that pain pretty much broke me. My mouth and tongue were filled with sores from breathing through it all night, so not only my throat was hurting, everything was painful. It was one of the worst days of my life. You kinda lose hope after seeing that each day it just gets worse.

Happily enough from day 11 onwards I kept getting better and better. I even managed to eat actual solid food!(after a painkiller of course, but still). Nowadays I still wake up with dry mouth and throat but the pain at least isn't there. Sometimes I can even eat solid stuff without needing a painkiller but I'm way better than I was in those terrible days.

I've had that surgery done because of sleep apnea and snoring, I still haven't noticed any improvements but I think it'll be worth in the future.

But yeah, the recovery process for adults is infinitely harder than for kids.

Oh, I also lost like 7kgs or something, so that's a plus.
 
cloudwalking said:
Haha, looking back I think I was overly pessimistic in that thread. Yeah, the scabs do stink and make everything taste bad (like someone else in this thread mentioned) but it's not that big of a deal. Just annoying.

I absolutely agree with you. The surgery is totally worth doing. Since then, I've gotten a sore throat maybe 3 times? In over 10 years.
Click to expand...

I still get sore throats often but they're super mild, super manageable, and don't yield severe swallowing pain, fevers or body chills/aches. The difference is night and day
 
Pyrokai said:
May I ask what specifically changed in taste for you? Also, thanks for the link to that thread. Will check it out!
Click to expand...

Again, I wonder if it's all in my head but I felt like things took on a slightly more metallic taste the first few months after the surgery. Bizarrely, I noticed this most dramatically when tasting toothpaste. It used to taste 100% minty/fresh and now has a more chemical like taste to it. I don't know - it really could be psychosomatic, like I'm paying more attention to it all since then. I'm no expert on this.

Regardless, I'm 100% used to everything now and feel like I can still taste the full gamut of flavours and everything.
 
I had mine removed at 23 (mind you, this was a couple of decades ago).

It was complete agony for weeks.

Be prepared OP, it bloody hurts.
 
I got mine removed two years ago at 26. It took about two weeks to get back to relatively normalcy. Here's the overview.

Day 0: As long as you're taking your pain meds, you'll be fine. You're mostly gonna be loopy and sleeping anyway. Never stop drinking fluids, though, or you'll feel like you're trying to swallow a hot piece of coal. It'll really hurt to talk.

Days 1-5: These days suck, honestly. You'll have your pain meds to keep it manageable, but again, you'll need to be drinking fluids literally all the time, or you'll be in considerable pain when you try to swallow or talk. Your voice will be pretty hoarse. You won't be able to eat anything even mildly solid. Popsicles, applesauce, and jello is pretty much the extent of what you'll be able to get down your throat.

Days 6-10: You'll start getting better, but again, make sure you're constantly drinking fluids. At this point, you can eat, like, mac and cheese, or MAYBE spaghetti. Stick to soft solids. If you're taking an opioid pain reliever, this is probably when you'll notice that you haven't pooped in a while. This is normal for opioids (oxycodone in my case). Once you stop taking them, you'll go back to normal. You'll be able to talk a bit more, but you might have a "weird" voice. For whatever reason, my voice was higher-pitched and I had kind of an accent because of where I was holding my tongue. It's temporary.

Days 10-14: You'll start to adjust to swallowing differently (not having tonsils back there really does make a huge difference), and your weird voice will start to get back to normal. After a couple weeks, you'll largely go back to eating normal food, give or take a few days depending on your recovery.

After a month, you'll pretty much be 100% again.
 
It's good to be reading some of the positive aspects of the long term as well, haha. Keeps me in check with why in doing this in the first place. A mild sore throat with no body aches and chills sounds awesome​ compared to what I get now at the frequency I do.

Really loving the detailed synopses. Thanks all!


Viewt said:
Days 10-14: You'll start to adjust to swallowing differently (not having tonsils back there really does make a huge difference), and your weird voice will start to get back to normal. After a couple weeks, you'll largely go back to eating normal food, give or take a few days depending on your recovery.

After a month, you'll pretty much be 100% again.
Click to expand...

Oooohhhh this bit is interesting. Is it better swallowing for you now?
 
10 days of extreme suffering, especially when you try to sleep.

Hell starts on the third day. On day two you'll feel it's not as terrible as you thought. But then...

edit: Little bonus for when you swallow the scabs when they aren't ready to fall off yet. I swallowed the one on the left side while trying to eat eggs. The problem is that only half of it came off, and it was stuck hanging in my mouth. I had to force swallow it and when the second half fell off was just praying it wouldn't result in an hemorrhage.

Once the scabs are off you're good to go.

edit2: Stay home and enjoy your backlog, that's the best way to go through this experience.
 
I had a very strange experience with my tonsils.

I had them out when I was 7 and they botched the surgery, somehow, and I ended up needed facial surgery to fix my nose. Basically, my nose wouldn't stop bleeding post-op. I had to get it adjusted and cauterized.

I don't remember the recovery being that bad. I think it took me about a week to feel okay. It wasn't even the worst sore throat I've ever had but I know it's recommended to get them out early, so maybe that's why it wasn't so bad.
 
I got mine removed at 23. I was never under general anaesthetic before so it was a surreal feeling sleeping in 2 seconds flat then waking moments later not realising some hours have just went past. When I woke up there was no pain as the nurse had given me morphine but as soon as I got up to leave (on the same day - that's the NHS for you) I was in severe pain and vomited out blood.

The next 4-5 days were agony but you just have to push yourself and get through it. I absolutely HATE swallowing tablets so having them with a fresh wound in my throat was awful but I just grit my teeth and did it. Might help if you take them with a Banana. As for food, I had porridge, soft rice and bread and since I had mine during the summer, cold watermelon was amazing.

It's the best decision I made for my health for sure so you'll be fine. Good luck.
 
My tonsils are humongous and they get swollen at least twice a year. I've been to 3 different separate specialists and they all said they would recommend living with tonsillitis twice a year for the rest of my life then to get them removed. They mentioned that getting my tonsils removed at my age (30+) would be extremely painful and not worth it. Apparently there's a bunch of complications that can come from the surgery as well.
 
Pyrokai said:
It's good to be reading some of the positive aspects of the long term as well, haha. Keeps me in check with why in doing this in the first place. A mild sore throat with no body aches and chills sounds awesome​ compared to what I get now at the frequency I do.

Really loving the detailed synopses. Thanks all!




Oooohhhh this bit is interesting. Is it better swallowing for you now?
Click to expand...

You just kind of re-learn the muscle movement. In my case, at least, every time I'd swallow after the surgery, a little bit would get into my nose. The old muscle memory for swallowing just didn't work correctly anymore, and I had to adjust over time to compensate for that. After a month, though, I was back to swallowing normally without any problems.
 
Viewt said:
You just kind of re-learn the muscle movement. In my case, at least, every time I'd swallow after the surgery, a little bit would get into my nose. The old muscle memory for swallowing just didn't work correctly anymore, and I had to adjust over time to compensate for that. After a month, though, I was back to swallowing normally without any problems.
Click to expand...

My daughter is complaining of that too! doc never told us that would happen so I thought she was just being weird lol. Got hers out last Wednesday.
 
Pyrokai said:
Also, good to hear about taste returning to normal but.....




May I ask what specifically changed in taste for you? Also, thanks for the link to that thread. Will check it out!
Click to expand...

Well, at least for me, everything tasted slightly boring.

I could still taste spicy, sweet, bitter, etc. food after the removal, but it would be kinda dull. That took a good few months, starting right after the removal & being back to normal (At least I believe it's back, maybe I'm just used to the less intensive taste now? But it definitely got better).

Braag said:
lol this used to happen to me all the time after having them removed. Now it has pretty much stopped though. But it used to be really annoying.
Click to expand...

The first few times where quite funny actually, cause I didn't expect to straight out drip my morning sip of water into my bed. But the burning in my throat/nasal area really bugs me when it happens.
Thankfully, it doesn't happen more than twice a month now.
 
Had mine removed when I was 19. It was incredibly painful, even fresh cold air hurt my throat. It was even more painful that I couldn't eat anything proper for like 3 weeks only cold soups and ice cream. You gotta do it but I'm not going to lie, it's not an easy recovery.
 
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