tonsillectomy next week, any advice?

[akosidave]

I decided to have the two golf balls at the back of my mouth removed from along with the adnoids. I politely declined the offer of a UPPP as it sounds too aggresive for my wants. Any words of advice on the upcoming surgery other than ice cream and it hurts?

[gpk111]

Dave,
There are several thoughtful topics on this site discussing OSA and surgery that should be relevant.

Good luck with your surgery,

[Emilia]

Best of luck! I had mine out when I was 24, and was on my back for a week of recovery. The last thing you will want is ice cream.... It coats your throat and you'll want to cough... Ouch! I lived on Jello! I know you will feel so much better after you recover. It was one of the best things I did for myself.

[Spark11]

Popsicles and non-citrus Jamba Juice Smoothies (I liked the Banana & Blueberry mixture). Ice cream was too thick and made me cough too. Taking pain medicine on a regular schedule helps too.

I had a tonsillectomy and UPPP along with other corrective surgeries called Phase I in May. I am feeling much better now and my pressures are much lower, but the first 4 to 6 weeks were tough. The tonsillectomy wasn't my toughest problem, even though I had heard that it was difficult surgery as an adult. I had problems with the sutures and my overactive gag reflex causing nose bleeds (I also had septoplasty done).

Good luck to you, you will be glad you had it done.

[SleepyT]

i hope it goes well for you! i had mine out when i was 20...and i found cold food and beverages to be intolerable! i couldn't even have ice cubes in my tea! perhaps you will have more luck with soups? who knows...i guess it varies from person to person.

it took about a week for me to recover..but like you, it had to be done. here's to getting the whole thing behind you! good luck!

[andyw715]

I had mine out in this past April (among other things).

Drink, drink, drink. If you have to breathe through your mouth, wake up every hour or so and drink.

Ask for pain meds and tylenol separate. That way you can take them at alternating times. Also try doing a shot of liquid tylenol about 1/2 hour prior to pain meds. It makes it more tolerable.

A humidifier works wonders.

check out http://www.mybigfattonsillectomy.com/ great site with forum to ask questions and get more ideas.

I'm 38, and took 2 weeks off of work. For me I needed it.

[LoQ]

Ask for pain meds and tylenol separate.

What kind of pain meds don't contain acetaminophen??? I would be very careful about this advice. Many Rx pain meds contain acetaminophen, and it is easy to take a toxic dose of that, so don't be doing that without telling your doctor what you want to do.

You CAN take ibuprofen alternated with acetaminophen, but if you've just had a tonsillectomy, you probably shouldn't be taking ibuprofen at all.

[BlackSpinner]

I decided to have the two golf balls at the back of my mouth removed from along with the adnoids. I politely declined the offer of a UPPP as it sounds too aggresive for my wants. Any words of advice on the upcoming surgery other than ice cream and it hurts?

Don't move house on the same day! But if you must tell them to set up your bedroom first. It does mean that you won't have to do any of the moving or unpacking so maybe my ex husband was smarter then i thought.

[andyw715]

Ask for pain meds and tylenol separate.

What kind of pain meds don't contain acetaminophen??? I would be very careful about this advice. Many Rx pain meds contain acetaminophen, and it is easy to take a toxic dose of that, so don't be doing that without telling your doctor what you want to do.

You CAN take ibuprofen alternated with acetaminophen, but if you've just had a tonsillectomy, you probably shouldn't be taking ibuprofen at all.

Thats why I asked for them to separate the two. For me the daily Rx of something like Lortab (acetaminophen and hydrocodone) gets close to the max acetaminophen dosage.

Ibuprofen was out due to its anti-cloting properties.

There are times (many times in the 2 weeks I used pain meds) that acetaminophen would have been enough, but would have had to make sure not to take to much. So in the end I was on oxycodone and acetaminophen, a combination (but separate) that worked well for me.

[bearded_two]

I think that you will be seeing far fewer acetaminophen/narcotic combination medications prescribed (or even available) in the US in the near future. There have been a number of acetaminophen overdoses caused by these combination medications and the FDA is taking action to reduce these overdoses.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCo ... 164897.pdf

[LoQ]

acetaminophen and hydrocodone

In that combination, acetaminophen is the pain killer. Hydrocodone has some anesthetic property to it, but its chief roll is to enhance the ability of the acetaminophen to do its job.

However, if you take the narcotic on the heals of the acetaminophen, you are probably getting a similar effect to taking them both together. Therefore, I agree there is some wisdom to separating them, as long as you understand that the narcotic part should be taken fairly soon after the acetaminophen if needed.

My experience with narcotics is that they don't do a lot for pain, but the DO make you sleep! They also make my skin crawl. Shudder.

[Muse-Inc]

If they tell ya to talk, do it! My mom had her's our in her umm 40s? and wouldn't talk -- lost her voice for almost 10 days. Had mine out with an outta control infection, had probs but they said talk and I did...well, hummed and sang to myself -- hey, I was on morphine & outta my mind for a day or so -- never lost my voice.

[andyw715]

acetaminophen and hydrocodone

In that combination, acetaminophen is the pain killer. Hydrocodone has some anesthetic property to it, but its chief roll is to enhance the ability of the acetaminophen to do its job.

I was under the impression its the other way around, acetaminophen enhances the effects of the hydrocodone.

[LoQ]

I was under the impression its the other way around, acetaminophen enhances the effects of the hydrocodone.

You might be right. Or perhaps each enhances the other?

[gsark]

Had mine out at age 67 so anything is possible. Hope your Doc uses Coblation as opposed to cauterization. Coblation is less painful and faster healing. Hardly had much of a sore throat, however he worked on my uvula to help with my noisy sleep. Healing of that area and the roof of my mouth was little fun.

Enjoy Mac and Cheese for a week or so and you'll be fine.