I am 63 years old and when I told my friends and family that I had to have my tonsils out their comment was, "Lots of ice cream, how lucky!" I
didn't have any idea of the pain and anquish that this procedure would have caused. My ENT gave me a page for post-op that was written for a child.
AND.. let me say... that it isn't the same when you are an adult. BUT..
fortunately, my husband found this website and it has been a lifesaver.
Each one of you at different stages have helped me get thru this ordeal.
I am now at day 10 -- and still have the scabs and pain in my throat and
ears. Drinking water & gatorade constantly, chewing ice, popsicles and
eating nothing stronger than pastina made in chicken soup has gotten me
this far. Also, my ENT did give me Roxicet for pain -- and I have been taking it-- which has also gotten me through the aftermath of the procedure... but now I"m only taking it at night to let me get a night's sleep. This is an extremely tough recovery period -- and don't let anyone make fun of it. I finally sent a page of the HealthBoard which described the 3 stages to a few of my friends that
would say, "It wasn't bad when I had mine out when I was a kid!!" Happy for them.. but this is no picnic"! Good luck to any one who is just starting the recovery -- and keep looking on the board -- it is so HELPFUL!! Thanks everyone, I appreciated it and still do!!

I'm so glad I found this forum! I'm 39 and am on day 7 of my recovery. For the first 24 hours, I could drink, hardly any pain, and a very good feeling that I would heal in a breeze. No so. Had the surgery on Wednesday AM, started taking Amoxicillin on Thursday. I was allergic and broke out in a rash on my face and had swollen eyelids that looked like a scene from Rocky. Doc told me to stop the antibiotics. I was taking Roxicet for pain, but by Thursday night, that was making me sick. Doc prescribed Tylenol w/Coedine. Much better, but only lasted about 3 hours or so. I hate taking meds, so I forced myself to go about 6 hours before taking any more. By Friday, I was in real pain, shooting up my jaw into my ears (right side mainly). Couldn't swallow, couldn't talk, wasn't drinking anything because that was when it felt it's best. I was able to have some chicken broth on Friday, but it hurt like hell. I made the mistake of trying to eat soft canned ravioli. Not sure what's in it but it burned like you wouldn't believe and put me back into the "There's no way I'm eating anything" mentality again. God, I was STARVING! I finally realized that I wasn't peeing like I should and my face was getting really dried out. I had to drink. Hated the thought of it, but I made myself drink. Once I started drinking on Sunday, I have been feeling way better. Other posts are absolutely right when they said it's much worse at night. I wake up really early (5am) and just want to cry. I was able to start talking again on Monday. I am now able to eat (I'm eating soft bread stuffing right now). I have found that Vitamin Water has been a real restorative beverage for me. It's giving me strength back and helping to pee. I'm down to taking the Coedine before dinner and then around midnight to try an aid in sleeping. Even though it hurts, my advice is to drink. Keep the throat used to swallowing and keep it moist. I am having a problem with major flem that I have to spit out (way better than swallowing it). I basically use a tissue or a small cup and "blow my throat". I think removing the flem is helping it to heal. it's a little green so I may have an infection. I see the Doc tomorrow for follow up and will post again (don't worry, it won't be this long)[FONT="Arial"][/FONT]. So, today-day 7, I see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm taking the rest of the week off of work. Gotta go call my boss!

Hey gertie, just read your post, i am 49 and had my tonsillectomy and septoplasty 3 weeks ago today. I spent the first night in the hospital, as I hope that you are, they didn't want to, I had to ask my doctor. It was not as bad as all the posts i just read, for me anyway. And I will say that i drank tons of water, I mean sometimes a gallon a day, this is really important! Had to take my pain meds every 4 hours, pain was coming back after 3 1/2 hours, but NOT untolerable! It just really sucked. You would be suprised at the amount of pain you can handle! I took roxicet for the first 9 days, then switched to Darvocet which took care of it from there. Slept 2- 3 hours during the day, ate a few small things like jello, soft pasta, scrambled eggs, drank ensure. Don't get me wrong, the pain can be severe, but it is not as bad as I thought after reading these posts! Just make sure you call your doctor if there is excessive bleeding. (I got none, and that is what I was really scared about. Also, got no scabs falling off like I read about, I have to check with my doc what kind of procedure he used, because I never had a scab at all. ) Good luck, I know that the forst few days are pretty bad, and don't worry, but daysd 5-7 actually can get a little worse, then better from there. :blob_fire

jude, ask for liquid percocet-- roxicet is the name brand. it is 5mg oxycodone and 325mg tylenol. this will help, but you'll have to take 2 tsp every 3-4 hours. after i went through two bottles of that, they just gave me the percocet pills. you won't need more than 5 or 7.5mg of them at one time because you're not trying to get messed up, just take away the pain. i was in a drugged state for almost 12 whole days. it's amazing what they can do for the pain though. hope this helps!

We got our surgeries done on the same day, I guess we should both be on about day 5. How did things go for you? I am so grateful for this site, I felt like I was going crazy or that something was really wrong. I could only take the Roxicet for the first 2 days cause the nightmares and naseau were killing me. So I went to liquid children's tylenol and then my husband got me some extra strength liquid tylenol and today I broke down and asked my doctor for a prescription for Vicodin and I am so glad I did, it still hurts on the vicodin but at least it's bearable now, I felt like I was taking a turn for the worse today and I definitely did. I don't know why but I really thought I would recover easily and was not well prepared for the pain and challenges but now that I found this site things are better. It's nice to know I'm not alone and that in some cases it could be worse. I hope you are doing well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.