ANyone had an adult tonsillectomy?

[Sarah428]

It was decided yesterday that I need an adult tonsillectomy, surgery is scheduled for Jan 9th. Any words of wisdom? After hearing how bad the recovery is for adults I'm not looking forward to "hell week" but at least that will be the end of it...I hope!

[mst]

I haven't had one, but probably need one. I will be interested to hear how it went for you. Please post afterwards!

[raka1214]

I was 21 when I had mine taken out:rolleyes:

The surgery was fine - you don't get to eat ice cream because as you get older something about the milk products in the ice cream create secretions as an adult that can cause you to choke.....so I ate popsicles. I also had to take these HUGE honking pills and I always wondered how they expected me to do that when they had just peeled the back of my throat raw but I got them down.

I started eating regular food probably a bit earlier than they would have liked but I was hungry and while it didn't feel great it wasn't terrible either. I had more problems getting the anesthesia out of my system than I did with the pain.

My biggest issue was 2 to 3 weeks after the surgery - all of the scabbing (I know ICK!:eek: ) had gone away and my throat was very clear - still a little red in a couple of spots but nothing major. I had been eating regular food, had returned to work and I wanted a banana. I took the first bite of that banana and thought I was going to die it hurt so bad. Apparently the potassium in the banana hit those few red spots and OMG:eek: :eek: :eek: I swore off banana's for quite a while because of that.

Good luck - it's not easy but I honestly can't say that it was the worst thing I've ever been through either. Like I said, getting all of the anesthesia out of my system was harder to me than the surgery itself.

[ourthreegirls]

I was 21 too.

The best part for me was all the weight I lost! I had a really hard time transitioning back to regular food so I didn't eat a whole lot.

I really don't remember the pain being *that* bad. What I do remember (which goes along with what someone else said about ice cream) is eating dairy products. No one ever told me to stay away from it, so I kept drinking millkshakes. Something about dairy products produces this build-up of mucous (I assume it's mucous :confused: ) in your mouth making it increasingly difficult to swallow. Let's just say I was young and stupid, it took me awhile to figure out that I shouldn't be drinking milkshakes - and I never bothered to ask anyone....

Good luck!

[blazedog]

I realize that the respondents aren't a statistically accurate sampling as those having the operation responded.

Is this becoming a prevalent operation? When I was a kid, everyone had them removed, so it's hard to find a baby boomer WITH tonsils I would suspect?:D

What criteria are used to determine an adult should have them out?

[Sarah428]

Not sure what the criteria is across the board but in my case I've had 4 strep or tonsillitis (sp?) infections in the past year, all 4 were antibotic resistant and I missed over 24 days of work total with major pain, dehydration and temps in the 104-105 range.

According to my ENT specialist I have "pockets" that bacteria (and food, yuk!) becomes trapped in making it easier for me to get infections. He also said that each time I get an infection that scaring occurs, the longer I would wait to have them removed that harder it would be as increased scar tissue makes it more difficult.

[zwieback]

What criteria are used to determine an adult should have them out?

I don't know exactly what all the criteria are for everyone, but I know someone who recently had it done (I think she's about 40-41) and she got it done because she kept getting severe sore throats. I want to say that she had 3 or more in 1 year (it was at least 3). These weren't just a sore throat that might come with a cold. These were sore throats where it was hard for her to swollow because her glands would get too swollen and her throat would somewhat close up.

[testkitchen45]

I was in my early 20's when I had mine removed b/c I kept getting strep throat (the tonsils held onto some of the bacteria, I think :eek: , probably like your situation). All I recall about it was that it was no big deal. Really. I had mono as a young adult, too, and that gave me a worse sore throat than having tonsils removed. So don't worry too much about it; you'll be fine.

[clairea]

I had mine removed when I was 17, so more "adult" than "kid" in terms of how the surgery was handled. I do remember not being able to eat dairy products for a while, and swallowing anything really hurt for several days. Other than that, I don't think it was that big a deal, though. I remember going out with friends the next evening even though I couldn't eat anything.

[generic]

My friend who is in her late 40's had her tonsils and adenoids out a couple of years ago. Hers was done to alleviate sleep apnea.
The worst thing for her was that she completely lost her sense of taste for several months! :eek: When it did come back, it was very gradual, and took a long time to get back to normal. I don't know if it was something that was done to her tongue during the surgery, or what, but it was really hard on her waiting for her tastebuds to come back to life. I see no one else has reported this effect, so I assume it's rather uncommon.

I had my tonsils out at 16 due to recurring strep infections. For me it was no big deal. Just lots of popsicles! :) Here I am 29 years later, and have never again had a strep infection, so it was worth it.

[raka1214]

Mine was done because I kept a constant sore throat and swollen glands. Like others, my tonsils had "pockets" that held the infection in so, just when I thought I was getting better it would flare up.

I actually went into surgery with an infection - something they do NOT want to do necessarily but, like my doctor said at the time, "there hasn't been a day she hasn't had infection in the last six months, so why wait?"

I had a terrible time coming out from the anesthesia. It was the first time I had ever been put to sleep and they gave me to much or I reacted terribly, don't know, but my heart rate kept dropping. DH was sitting in the waiting room and wondering why it was taking so long - they wouldn't let him back there because they couldn't get my heart rate regulated enough for them to feel like I was actually going to be okay. I think I slept for the first week - well, I ate grape and banana popsicles like they were never going to make anymore:D

[Valerie226]

I had them out when I was about 25 because of recurrent sore throats/tonsillitis. shoulda done it years before! this was 35 years ago. I didn't feel too sharp for a couple days but sipped cold liquids, ate soft food, sat on the beach and worked on my tan! it was a bit worse than the tonsillitis I'd had so many times, but really not that bad. I did stay over night in the hospital but that may be different now. I had a very "talky" job so took about 2 weeks off work but could have gone back to work much sooner for most jobs.