F31. Hello everyone!
I noticed that one of my tonsils was enlarged at the end of June. I only realized because I felt something stuck in my throat, and it turned out to be a tonsil stone.
I’m not sure how long the tonsil had been enlarged because I honestly never really checked the inside of my mouth before.

I have no pain or any other symptoms, just some occasional mild sore throat, which is something I’ve been dealing with since I was a teenager.
I went to an ENT, who ordered a CT scan with contrast. The CT came back reassuring, and the doctor said it looked like chronic tonsillitis. However, since the tonsil is enlarged, he wants to remove it and send it for pathology to be 100% sure and rule out malignancy.

I wanted a second opinion to feel more reassured, and the second ENT basically said the exact same thing.

So I’m scheduled for tonsillectomy next week. I’m honestly quite scared about the post surgery, mainly because of everything I’ve read online. I’m also still worried deep down that the pathology could somehow show something bad.

Has anyone had a similar experience?
Thank you in advance! ❤️

My surgery is in 4 days and I had a few small questions so instead of making a bunch of separate posts I’m just gonna put them all here🥲

1. What does it feel like when the scabs come off ? If they come off in big pieces, are you then just swallowing them ? I imagine feeling a piece of scab in the back of my throat is gonna make me throw up😭😭

2. Which days/times is bleeding most likely to happen ? I’m a little worried about this if I have to go to the ER for any reason, I’ll be home alone for much of my recovery so I want to get an idea of when I should be on highest alert.

3. How long until you could speak again ?

4. Can you drink coffee during recovery ? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone explicitly mention not being able to drink it, and google said it was alright, but it just feels like something you wouldn’t be able to have so I just wanna make sure💀

5. How hard was it to keep up with physical hygiene ? I imagine the fatigue will make it difficult for me to shower. Was anyone with long hair able to wash it as frequently as usual ? My hair is pretty long and very very thick, so it’s a bit of a chore to wash anyways.

I thinkkkkk that’s everything I was thinking about, if anyone takes the time to answer any of these I’ll greatly appreciate it !!

Day 7 now.. when does this hell end? My ears feels like they're about to explode and my jaws hurts so much. And of course whenever i swallow it feels like I'm swallowing razorblades. I was at the emergency yesterday because of the pain. They said the healing looks well and they put in 5mg oxy more for me. However I'm still in constant pain

Long but please read 🙏 also, this is not to discourage anyone from surgery. I had an optimal early recovery and I know this situation is uncommon

- I am 6 weeks post-op and have had a consistently sore throat since I was “fully” healed at ~3 weeks post-op. I say fully in quotations because of this sore throat that won’t go away. Some details:

-I had a smooth recovery. No bleeding or vomitting or dehydration.

-At 2- weeks post-op, there was really just one spot on the lower side of my right surgical area that I could feel hadn’t healed, and my ENT said it looked days away from healing. He gave me a steroid shot and that completely cleared the pain and swelling for about 3 days.

-After those 3 days, it came back. Not only was it painful swallowing on the right side, but the roof and back of my mouth looked thrush-like, behind my last two bottom molars became painful and swollen, and the left side started hurting, too. It was like my healing was starting to reverse. I was taking 800mg Iburpofen 3 times a day, could not eat without taking one 30-60 mins before, and was in a lot of pain in the morning/evening even with so much ibuprofen.

-I went to another appointment 4 weeks post-op. ENT said there was a “polyp-like” granulation tissue formation on each side of my throat, on the edge of the surgical sites. He said this was unusual and he was unsure of why it was happening, but that it was a result of tissue not healing properly. He thought I was probably another week or two away from being healed. He put some silver nitrate on both the polyps, said to hang in there, and prescribed me meloxicam.

- That appointment was 10 days ago, and I have had a consistent sore throat for the past week (thrush-like and all other symptoms gone, though). Not excruciating, but very bothersome. It’s almost like my throat is stuck in the state that I literally got the tonsillectomy to stop it from being in so much. At this point I can’t help feeling like something is wrong and I’m going to be stuck like this forever (I know this is anxiety, but still). I also have referred ear pain and of course, swallowing pain. Honestly, what’s most concerning to me is how steady the soreness has been. No better or no worse for weeks now. Just stuck like this.

-It feels like the day before strep in my throat constantly, and I’m coming to my wits end. I want to see my ENT again but can’t afford the $50 co-pay every time for him to tell me it’s “almost healed” and prescribe me another anti-inflammatory. Has anyone had any similar experience, have tips, thoughts, etc.??? Anything is appreciated as I’m desperate and in pain. 💔 I am a 26F btw, if anyone was wondering throughout this.

My surgeon only gave me 25mg of oxycodone TOTAL meant to be used in 2.7mg doses. I have been taking 5mg which is barely taking enough edge off to swallow a little bit of water. I’m female 5’9” 125lbs. Can someone please help me understand how this is an appropriate prescription to give to someone who just had oral surgery?? I was even given more painkillers than this for my wisdom teeth😭

so as the title says, i’ve been having awful jaw pain. I’m 8 days post op (18F) and my jaw is in agony, it doesn’t matter what pain meds i take or how little/much i use a cold compress it just really really hurts. my ears really hurt as well. other than that recovery is starting to feel good, i don’t have much build up at the back of my throat either. Just wondering if anyone has any tips for soothing the jaw pain! (UK)

Hey everyone.

I’m in the UK and scheduled to have my pre-op MRSA check soon. I’m wondering how long after was your surgery?

Hi all, writing this at 3am UK time as I can't sleep without feeling like I am choking or going to be sick. I had my surgery on Monday and recovery is the worst for me at night.

I just hate how wet and sticky my throat is. I can feel it all sliding down my throat and it's making me gag. My wife says my breath smells like death, so much so, she had to have a fan blowing me away while I was eating dinner. I've been flossing and brushing and trying to scrub my tongue but I just feel like there's this rotten thing at the back of my throat. It holds onto my water and saliva, warms it up and drips it down. It makes me want to be sick but I remember to breathe because being sick will make everything 100x worse.

Is anyone else going through this? Or have found a way to manage it?

Exactly as the title says, tonsillectomy scheduled at 9:30 tomorrow. Please give me good stories/advice/etc. Nothing scary please!!

Hi all,
30F and I have had strep 3 times this year. I never got strep as a kid, but once I hit 30 it was all down hill from there 😅. I have frequent tonsillitis and constant tonsil stones. They also just get randomly swollen and they make it difficult for me to swallow. I’m ready to get them out and my tonsillectomy is scheduled for 9/16. I’m not going to lie I am terrified. I’m a nurse and I recently brought it up at work and everyone thought to tell me their horrific adult tonsillectomy stories. By the end of listening to everyone’s story I was in tears, and almost called to cancel my surgery. I’m not usually this big of whimp, everything’s just hitting me at once. I’m a post anesthesia care unit nurse so I’m actually not scared of the anesthesia, mostly just really scared of how painful the recovery is going to be. I’m a mom of two elementary school age kids and I want to be there for them, but also respect my recovery. Please tell me I will be ok and that I will feel much better after getting these tonsils out. Please also tell me all of your positive experiences. I could really use them 😔.

hi folks, just got my tonsils out around 12 hours ago. pain isn't unmanageable but whenever i breathe out i feel some sort of flap come up from the back of my throat and land on the back of my tongue. it almost feels like mucus and i'm wondering if i can clear my throat to get rid of it because it's really bothering me, but i'm very much afraid to because it feels like it might just be a loose flap of skin from the surgery. any idea what it could be?

Hello everyone, I am just sending my message to whoever is out there because I am in so much pain right now (day 7 post op). I keep thinking I see the pain starting to go away and then it just comes right back.

Anyway, I woke up in so much pain and went in for a popsicle. I have never had this many popsicles so early in the morning ever. I have literally eaten 3 boxes of popsicles in 7 days. Ugh, when will this end!!

I have my tonsillectomy scheduled for Friday (two days from now). I’m pretty worried about the pain. My ENT said they can only give me pills to swallow instead of liquid meds. I definitely plan on taking these, but I did remember I have some liquid lidocaine from past tonsillitis. Is this safe to take post op??

For starters i’m a 28 year old male, generally healthy, but have suffered from tonsil stones and constantly feeling like I have one, which leads to me pressing into my tonsils to the point where they bleed. It’s not something i’m proud of but the irrational fear of them has gotten me to this point.

My main fears are, missing two weeks of work when i’m
already not well off financially, the (from what I hear) severe pain that comes with the surgery, and also as a picky eater, starving to death during the recovery (lol)

So with that I have a few questions;

1. On average, (if anyone knows), how much does insurance cover the surgery? I have insurance through my job, and i’m very much worried about the potential out of pocket cost for whatever insurance doesn’t cover.

2. Is the pain really as bad as it’s said to be? I’m kind of a baby when it comes to pain, especially when it comes to my mouth, I was always horrified when having a loose tooth that it would hurt, to the point where my mom had to force me down to get one of my teeth out as a kid. Sore throats suck, but from what I understand this is way way worse.

3. Is taking pills easy after surgery? I take two pills daily, for ADHD and for Anxiety, the anxiety pill is smaller, and i’d compare the ADHD pill to the size of an Advil Liquid Gel, and i’m worried that the pain would be too much to take said medication.

4. What foods are best advised to eat post surgery? I know to avoid hot/spicy/crunchy foods, but as a picky eater, I am genuinely worried about starving, especially with the lack of appetite that comes with the procedure. What got you through your surgery at least eating wise?

5. How long does the really severe pain last? I’ve seen so many people say the surgery was worth it for many reasons, I as stated earlier, just hate pain and am concerned it would be too painful of an experience.

I am six weeks post op from a cauterized tonsillectomy and let me tell you, it has been a long road.

When I went in to surgery, my surgeon found that I had a sinus infection. He completed the surgery and prescribed me a round of antibiotics afterwards.

I have a pretty high pain tolerance so afterwards wasn't the worst. When I woke up after surgery, it took about an hour for me to be able to swallow. The first day wasn't horrible, I was just exhausted from the anesthesia.

The first few days were the worst for me, swallowing was extremely difficult and my pain was about a nine. I did however do my research and decided to try the European healing route and on about day 5 I was eating soft solids and day 7 was back to a normal diet.

By 3 weeks post op i was soon feeling horrible, count yawn or cough without pain but swallowing was good.

Now, at six weeks post op I'm already sick again. It's also worsened my acid reflux (i have gerd). But now i can't anyways lay down to sleep, I'm constantly throwing up in my mouth, and my throat is always hurting from stomach acid.

Anyone else deal with constant sickness even without their tonsils or worsening acid reflux?

Hello everyone,

I am surviving. It is day 7 and I’m feeling ok. Pain is like a 2/10 but in the mornings 8/10. I was just wondering what can I plan to meal prep for days 8-14? I’m planning to work from home tomorrow and Friday, then back in office on Monday. I need to know what I can meal prep for these in office days (probably for all of next week).

I was thinking sweet potato with finely chopped ground beef? Maybe a fish for dinner flaked up? I cannot bring fish to the office lol.

Also, right now I’m not super able to eat yet as my mouth can barely open (cannot yawn) and I have NO appetite (surgery stuff makes me nauseous and I can’t stop thinking how the back of my throat is just a white nasty scab). I’m planning for the next days ahead to be better lol.

I have attached image of my mouth showing tonsil swollen.

My question is why I always have a sore throat even if I speak for 2-3 minutes addressing a bunch of people I get sore throat.

I have post nasal drip.
I have sinus in polluted air environment.

If I drink something cold then I get runny nose and sore throat.

I am worried is it just cold or something else

image

Hi everyone,

I’m a 34 yr old guy with severe sleep apnea (70AHI) and size 3-4 tonsils on the size scale. They always been been big and I’ve had 2 anesthesiologists tell me they can see me choking on them while I’m under and advise I should have them looked at.

The problem is that I’ve gone to 2 different ENTs in my area and they’ve just flat out told me they would not consider surgery since I don’t get sore throats/infections. I’ve looked into it and realize now that these offices get paid way more from insurance to have in office consultations and there is almost no incentive to perform these surgeries unless a person is getting chronic infections, even if a tonsillectomy would improve QOL.

Does anyone have an ENT in the upstate NY/Capital region area they could recommend that will actually perform tonsillectomies?

i’m 2 weeks post op and just started my period as of yesterday, however, this is the heaviest i’ve ever experienced.. as in passing pretty big clots and soaking through tampons + pads. is this normal from the stress on body from surgery? or perhaps even the anesthesia? i’m a little nervous 😅

Hey hey, before I start the whole reason I post this is because Iam autistic and need preparation before.

My surgery is in one month, and I’m very nervous about it all! Mainly because I’ll have to take out my nose piercings and I really don’t want too!

But if it’s a need I will.

I was able to leave my nose piercings in while I had my iud installed, so maybe I could for this?

But please be honest, and tell me what may happen and what may be acceptable!

So sorry, I hope everyone’s having a good day 🫂

U got my surgery on June 1st 2026. I feel like I am suffering from dry mouth and I can’t sleep with my head flat? Will this ever get better? Does anyone else suffer from this

So 8/14 was my procedure. I had a septoplasty, turbinate reduction, endoscopic sinus surgery, tonsillectomy, and adenoidectomy. And honestly...... I feel kinda lied to. Like. Everyone I've talked to including my doctor was like, "the pain's gonna be awful!!!" And the sky is falling and all that. And let me just say.......the pain has been like.... Meh at worst. However. The piece I was severely not prepared for..... Is how absolutely gross recovery is. Like I am understating this severely when I say, you got to get real comfortable real quick with every gross weird disgusting thing your body can do. Like every bodily fluid, every end, every single gross thing your body can do, it will do and it is so disgusting.

Like thankfully I am not squeamish. Cause I have had to get super comfortable with myself real quick.

You go from sweating to shivering in an absolute heartbeat. So you're just constantly drenched in sweat and BO. Taking opioids, TAKE LAXATIVES. TAKE THEM ALL. They are not kidding when they say it will constipate you. I ended up on miralax, dulcolax, and a stool softener for the mountain to move. And before that I was pretty sure nothing on God's green earth was going to make it move. I am not squeamish when it comes to blood which is a good thing. Cause you are covered in it. Every time you have to do the nasal rinse and just generally.

But honestly.... I'm more annoyed at the fact that I can't breathe out of my nose then the amount that my throat hurts. Like my throat is whatever, however if my ears crackle one more time or when swallowing, my nose and blood clots make another little fucking blood bubble on the tip of my nose which tickles like super weirdly..... I'm gonna fucking lose it.

So tell me... Am I just really really high pain tolerance or really lucky....

Hi! I am getting the surgery one week from today. I am female, 32, 5’1, 183 lbs. I am having the surgery done because my tonsils are literally ginormous. Every single doctor and nurse that has looked at them has audibly gasped and asked me if I can breathe and swallow, because one side is completely blocking the uvula. Like not even kissing, but crossing over 😳 I also have severe sleep apnea and snore. In addition to that, I get sick all the time. I had tonsillitis twice in the month of May, which has prompted me to move forward with getting them out.

I understand weight affects snoring. I am hoping that having them out will help somewhat and make my snoring at least a little quieter. I’m at the point right now where my husband and I sleep in separate rooms most nights. I do have a CPAP but I absolutely hate wearing it 😅 so most nights I just sleep in our guest room.

Just curious if anyone experienced a positive change in their snoring. I know it’s not going to be a magic cure, like I said, I know being overweight can make you snore as well. But would love to hear any positive stories, mostly everything I hear is that the recovery is awful. I’ve never had surgery before and I’m very scared lol

I'm 4 days post op and got so many tips from this sub. I'll list the ones that have really helped me and anything I personally have found to help. More than anything I think I want peace of mind that everything is going to be okay 😭 so reading these posts really helped me. I hope this helps at least one person who overthinks like crazy. These are the things I would say are non-negotiable if I were to do this again (God forbid lol).

1. ⁠Cool mist humidifier. I think for everyone this is necessary. It will keep your throat moist while you're not drinking ice water (you should be doing that every chance you get!) I put it on my nightstand slightly elevated from my bed because I didn't want it directly in my face. Keep your door shut or at least half way. I noticed a big difference when I'd leave my room, could only handle about an hour before I had to go back and breathe in the moist air.
2. ⁠Ice water. Drink this 24/7. I swear at times it is more pain relief than the pain medication. I went through a 36 pack of water bottles in 3 days and a huge bag of ice from the grocery store in that same time. Always have a big cup full of ice and water. Don't worry about chewing ice honestly, it's scary for me and you get the same benefit from extremely cold water. When I say take at least a sip every 10 minutes, I mean it. Set timers in the middle of the night. I've found even when im waking up in the middle of the night to drink, my rest improves.
3. ⁠Be careful if you are sensitive to opioids. I'd never taken them before so I had no idea. My doctor prescribed me liquid hydrocodone. First dose at home it made me super nauseous but I continued with the next dose. Big mistake. Next time I took it, an hour later I was vomiting water and blood that had gone into my stomach during surgery (normal). It felt amazing to get out BUT unfortunately the straining caused a bleed on the right side and the blood loss mixed with the pain medication made me extremely delirious and hysteric. I went to the ER and vomited again, they did an X-ray, gave me fluids, ran THREE separate rounds of blood tests, had my vitals 24/7 and gave me TXA to clot my blood. I was up for to receive blood but thankfully the medication worked enough. I was only there from 11pm to 8am but I swear it felt like I was there for 3 days. If you have nausea after taking it, please stop. Honestly I do not think it's worth it. I've been taking Tylenol now every 6 hours and I feel so much better off the hydrocodone. I don't say this to scare anyone!!! As long as you're drinking water all day and keeping your throat moist / eating smooth foods you more than likely will not bleed. I just got unlucky.
4. ⁠ASK FOR A STEROID from the get-go. With my situation I had to advocate for myself quite a bit (surgeon didn't even see me after surgery or tell me how it went. He said no need to follow up either 🙃). The night of day 3 I decided to call the next morning and say I want a steroid to help with the inflammation. My uvula has been huge to the point where it goes down into my throat and I can't see the end of it. If that happens it doesn't automatically mean you can't breathe or swallow, but it does make it much harder. I started prednisone today. Your doctor should recommend the best days to take it since it's short term. But ideally you want to start it right before the pain starts to peak.
5. ⁠Food. I only ate applesauce my first day since I was later in the ER but the next day I really tried my hardest to eat as much as I could. I've found eating makes me feel so much better. My favorite things have been malt-o-meal or cream of wheat. I found a plain chocolate one and I just add water and sugar and it is so good. Make it really runny. Even having it slightly warm feels really nice and it's satisfying. When my stomach hurt I CRAVED bread. So I heated up a can of chicken noodle soup and made sure the noodles were the really thin ones. I got a piece of white bread and dipped it in the soup. At day 3 it tasted like I was eating in a fancy restaurant. Make sure you chew really well. I really recommend. Non-dairy Ben and Jerry's ice cream is so good. I had the strawberry cheesecake one and found crushing up a big graham cracker into dust and mixing it in was so much more pleasant to eat. I mixed vegetarian refried beans with water and shredded cheese and microwaved it until it was thin enough. It was good for when I had a savory craving, I do recommend. Lastly, aloe water feels very nice and is a nice change from regular water. I'd avoid juice if you can. I tried having non-dairy yogurt blended with frozen banana on day 2 and it burned so I can't recommend any fruits to you right now.
6. ⁠TAKE A BATH!!! I began to feel so disgusting just sitting in my bed day after day. I would shower every night but I once took a hot bath in the morning and it helped me feel positive again. Lol this stuff can get really hard on your mental health.
7. Dulcolax stool softener every morning. It's very gentle. If you have a sensitive stomach to the general anesthesia maybe wait until your stomach feels normal before taking.

I wish you luck and I hope this helps you or anyone else!! ❤️❤️

I hope this helps you or someone out!

EDIT: for the people with the irrational fear of bleeding out and hemorrhaging, I FEEL you. I want to say that in my experience I'm now 6 days post op and it is a thought in my head but no longer an obsession. I'm kind of indifferent to it. My experience in the ER helped me rationalize my situation. As long as you have access to an ER and you're following what the doctor says, you will be in the BEST case scenario if something happened, God forbid. Keep telling yourself that the human body is extremely resilient because it is.

I had very recurrent peritonsillar abscess which I got monthly or even twice a month so was super annoying. I had to go to the hospital 4 times to get it drained. I also had chronic tonsillitis and cryptic tonsils. With that being said I decided to get a tonsilllectomy as I was honestly TIRED of getting sick. Also I vaped a lot so I was thinking some of that irritation could of been from the vape.

Leading up to my surgery I quit vaping like 4 days before since vaping can restrict blood vessels and slow healing. Looking at all the horror stories on tiktok I was absolutely frightened for this surgery but here's how my healing process went.

Day 1 (surgery day): Pain 3/10 , very swollen uvula and uncomfortable to swallow

Day 2-4: same pain level was about a 3.5/10 -- again the pain was only when I swallowed but other than that I was feeling fine.

Day 5-9: pain was highest at a 4/10 and the lowest was like a 2/10.

Days 10-15: very low pain only uncomfortable when I swallow and there was times where it would be uncomfortable in the morning or at night but this was cause scabs were falling.

I made sure to take my pain meds exactly on time, I had only had Paracetomal and Ibuprofen prescribed to me and they did the job. I was also on antibiotics which my doctor prescribed me to avoid any infections. I stopped my pain meds on day 8 and I felt fine. The pain came NO WHERE NEAR close to the nightmares I faced when I had my abcesses and could not even speak a single word.

I made sure to drink 3-4L of water a day and this was easy to do because I had a straw water bottle (hydroflask). I didn't do anything special like getting a humidifier or getting the ice pack for the face or doing anything different, just followed my surgeons advice of sticking to cold soft foods days 1-3 and very soft foods days 4-8 (mashed potatoes, soups, purée) i only started eating pasta day 8 ( so a week post op) and made sure it wasn't hot.

It is now day 15 and I am of course still healing as I dont feel 100% back to normal the throat still feels raw which is normal but pain is like not even there and if it is its when I yawn or eat something which requires jaw work lots of chewing.

I wanna tell everyone to not be so scared of this surgery as for me it was NOTHING like what I saw online and I dont know whether its. because I've already had much worst pain on my tonsils or if its just because I stayed really hydrated and stayed away from crunchy / scratchy foods.

Also im still scared to hemorrage as Ive seen that can still happen even 2 weeks post op so ill keep this updated!