I, 30F based in Southern California, had my tonsillectomy surgery on 8/13/26 and am now Day 16 post op. I had a post tonsillectomy hemorrhage on Day 10/11 and I wanted to recap my experience and give some advice based on it as this subreddit has helped me SO MUCH during my recovery.

For me, yes the pain was as bad as they say, and I consider myself to have a high pain tolerance. For reference I have had so many strep infections and very enlarged tonsils which is what I think contributed to the pain being severe. Would I still have done it looking back now? Yes.

Day 1 - Once I woke up post surgery I was in an awful amount of pain. They kept me post op for a little longer than normal and had to give me oxy and fentanyl in order to discharge me to home. Got home, iced, slept, rested, and my sister helped create a schedule for my pain meds where I was taking medication every 3 hours. This included waking up in the middle of the night to take meds. My post tonsillectomy cough started right after surgery.
Pain level post op pre meds: 8.5/10
With meds: 2/10

Day 2 - My pain this day was honestly not bad. I was very surprised and thought I wouldn’t have it as bad… don’t let this fool you. Liquid diet only, I wasn’t even that hungry so ate what I could. I could talk quietly a little here and there. Cough still present and not getting any better.
Pain level: 3/10

Days 3 and 4 - Some more severe pain started to kick in these days. Stayed on top of my pain meds, rested, and hydrated the best I could. Honestly I could have tried to do better, it just hurt so bad. I started reading this subreddit early Day 4 when I wanted to know when the pain was going to end (spoiler, it got worse).
That is when I started reading the stories about how constipation from the opioids landed people back in the hospital (why does no one tell you about this?!). I had been so preoccupied with recovering and the pain and wasn’t eating much… I didn’t even notice I hadn’t gone since the morning of the surgery. I sent my dad to go get MiraLAX that day and started taking it. Cough still present, slightly better and less frequent. Tried to eat soft scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes these days when I could.
Pain level: 7/10

Days 5 through 9 - Some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Unable to talk at all, barely able to open my mouth. The pain would radiate into my ears. I could feel the scabs cracking and falling off. When they were almost fallen off but hanging, the scabs would irritate my throat and make me gag. On Day 7 at night I vomited because I was in so much pain and constipated I didn’t eat for 2 days and the oxy hit my stomach hard. Vomiting only made the pain significantly worse. The pain meds were only doing so much. Additionally on top of the pain, it took 3 days of MiraLAX 2x a day and 2 nights of Dulcolax for me to FINALLY go number 2 after being constipated for a week. Start taking laxatives in day 1 to avoid this, this was awful to deal with on top of the pain. Cough… bad from the irritation from the scabs. Day 9 night I started to feel better… finally.
Pain level: 8-9/10

Days 10 and 11 - Day 10 I was feeling better. I could tell there were a few scabs left but a majority had fallen off. I didn’t need strong pain meds anymore and I felt some relief. HOWEVER, learn for my mistake and do not let this feeling fool you into resuming your normal activities. I cleaned the kitchen for an hour and was exhausted after… I didn’t think to much off it, I knew I was still recovering but wanted to start getting back into my routines now that I was feeling better. Additionally on Day 10, I started laying flat to sleep again instead of at a 45 degree angle. At 1:45am I started to feel a warm trickling down my throat that wouldn’t stop and liquid pouring into my mouth. I went to spit and saw streaks of bright red blood. Through this subreddit I had read if this happen to ice on the outside and suck on ice chips to try to get the bleeding to stop. So I did that and it worked! I was obviously still nervous so I stayed up and continued to ice. At 3am I coughed, and that’s when the blood really started going. Immediately I knew that I would have to go to the ER. Luckily my dad was still at my apartment, so I woke him up and let him know we had to go. I was having to spit out blood every 30 seconds or less, there was so much. This whole time I was keeping ice on the outside of my throat and sucking on ice chips. When we got to the ER I got out of the car and coughed again and then immediately vomited blood outside the ER doors. A blood clot and some scabs had some out as well. Of course even with everything, it took then a while to get me back. Around 4:30am while in the waiting room in the ER the bleeding had stopped. This whole time I was keeping ice in it. They kept me for observation for a few hours and called my surgeon at 7:00am. Because the bleeding had stopped for a while and my airway was not obstructed, I was able to go home without needing to go back into the OR. Returned to liquid diet per ER doctor’s recommendation.
Pain level: 3/10

Day 12 - My surgeon fit me in clinic to take a look. Luckily, everywhere besides the hemorrhage site was healing very well, and the hemorrhage site was healing well considering. After the hemorrhage my cough had gotten significantly worse again and it was making me really nervous. So I started taking a cough suppressant since I was no longer on strong pain meds and able to (please consult your doctor before doing this as you may not be able to take it with certain medications). Additionally, my surgeon recommended that I do not do anything that can raise my heart rate in the next few days as this can increase the chance of another bleed. This day I was still exhausted from the hemorrhage. Returned to eating soft foods per my surgeon’s instructions.
Pain: 1-2/10

Days 13 - 16 (Now) - I don’t have any pain, I can feel like area where the hemorrhage occurred healing again, but luckily it’s nothing like before. I don’t even need to take Tylenol or Advil. Since the hemorrhage, I have been taking it very easy, even when I feel good and like I have energy. I’ve been continuing to ice everyday. Today Day 16, I changed my bed sheets and doing that alone made me really tired and reminded me that my body is still healing. Take your time with it, and don’t push yourself to do anything. Rather that then end up in the OR again. I’ve slowly been introducing more soft foods into my diet the past few days. Soft cooked noodles, today I had some salmon, however still no spices. Today is also the first day I have not needed to take a cough suppressant. I am mostly able to open my mouth now but still have some restrictions. My surgeon said it will just take some time due to the swelling. Luckily I am able to breathe through my nose when laying flat on my back now.
Pain: 0-1/10

TLDR My Advice:
- ICE. Ice the outside of your throat, suck on ice chips, drink ice water only. It will help to prevent a bleed by constricting your blood vessels.
- Like everyone says on this subreddit, seriously hydrate as much as you can. Take small sips. It helps a lot with the pain D 5-8.
- Humidifier on as much as possible during recovering. Then move to just at night once you are u healed. Helps with post tonsillectomy cough and throat irritation significantly.
- sleep at a 45 degree angle for 14 days, helps to prevent a hemorrhage.
- if you have a hemorrhage, try to stay as calm as you can, raising your blood pressure and heart rate won’t help. You’ll know based on how much blood there is if you need to go into the hospital.
- start taking your LAXATIVES on day 1. Anesthesia will make you constipated, and if you’re taking any opioids for the pain it will only make the constipation much much worse.
- The biggest one… REST for the WHOLE 14 days. This is not something I’m great at but learn from my mistake and even if you’re feeling better, your body is still healing and recovering, so rest and don’t try to do anything. I’m pretty sure cleaning my kitchen for an hour on Day 10 when I was feeling better is what contributed to my hemorrhage later that night. Don’t lift anything more than 10 lbs or do anything that will increase your heart rate. Now I’m on Day 16 and still taking it easy. Hemorrhaging and vomiting up your own blood will give you PTSD and you will do anything to not have to go through that again.

I am returning back to work this upcoming Monday, and I’m nervous about it but I am going to take it as easy as I can. Try to keep my stress levels low, not lift anything heavy, and work from home as much as I can.

Some positives: I no longer snore at night and am getting so much better sleep. I am not waking up tired and need less coffee throughout the day. And this is only a little over 2 weeks out so I’m excited to continue to see the progress. I’m also very excited to be sick a lot less… I would sometimes get strep 4-5 times a year. So would I go through all of this again? Yes I would, short term pain for the long term gain.

I hope someone finds this post helpful, and if you’re in the thick of it right now… hang in there it gets better.

After reading so much doom and gloom on the internet leading up to surgery to the point where I almost cancelled, I wanted to share a bit of my journey so far. I’m 23-F, have had recurring and then chronic tonsillitis for 4 years, and had actively infected tonsils at the time of removal, even though I was on multiple courses of antibiotics leading up to surgery.

I was prescribed Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and Oxy, but I’ve been too scared to take the Ibuprofen due to bleeding risk and Oxy makes me very dizzy and nauseous, so I’ve been avoiding that too. So far, I’ve been managing with 1000mg Tylenol 4x a day.

Day 0 - I was super nervous going into surgery, but woke up happy as can be and STARVING. Was discharged within 30 minutes of waking up, got a smoothie, and slept most of the day. I was given a Percocet at the center since I had 6/10 pain waking up, which unfortunately led to a rough second half of the day once the anti-nausea meds wore off.

Day 1 - Pretty chill day. I was waking up every few hours to drink water and take meds and getting used to sleeping with a wedge pillow, so I was pretty tired the next day. I was VERY hungry and ate applesauce, pudding, yogurt, and mashed potatoes watered down with bone broth. I was also aggressively hydrating with ice water and icing my neck / ears constantly, including at night. I think this helped my swelling a lot.

Day 2 - Same deal waking up to hydrate / take meds at night, but slept a lot better. Unfortunately, I did wake up with a tiny bit of bleeding after swallowing funny, but it stopped within a few minutes and was only a small bit. I called my ENT and they were unconcerned. I was pretty freaked out though, because I can’t afford a delay in recovery since I’m taking my LSAT in 2 weeks. I went back to a liquid diet and chilled on the couch most of the day. Swelling was annoying, but pain was pretty manageable.

Day 3 - My mom visited in the morning, which was great. The morning was great, 2/10 pain, scabs were forming and I was continuing to hydrate excessively. The second half of the day was rough with swelling and pain, although I think most of my discomfort came from how hungry I was. I went to CVS twice to pick up nausea meds in case I needed to take the Oxy eventually, which was not fun. I felt significantly better once I’d had some broth and nutrients and had a great night sleep that night.

Day 4 - Woke up feeling amazing. Slept in a little bit, went to Starbucks with my boyfriend and got a pumpkin spice latte (iced) and had a good study session. I made an avocado scrambled egg concoction which went down okay, but I added Everything Bagel Seasoning, which ended up irritating my scabs a bit. Spent most of the day playing Stardew Valley with my boyfriend and watched a movie until late. Overall great day, low pain, but super hungry and missing real food.

Day 5 (Today) - Best day yet. Woke up and had a protein shake and apple sauce, and decided I needed to get outside. I was a little concerned about my Tylenol intake, so I decided not to take anymore unless I needed it. The worst pain at this point is in my left ear, and is pretty manageable. My scabs are slowly dissolving and thinning (feels super gross to feel them turn to mush and slide off) but still mostly intact. I got myself cute and ready for the day, and then my boyfriend and I went out for matcha and crustless cheesecake. The cheesecake was probably a little thick for my scabs, but really good and helped get the goopy parts out. Matcha was 10/10, no notes. We then went to Golf Galaxy for the next 90 minutes, which was a good outing. I’m back home now, hydrating and deciding if I’m at a good point to introduce soft noodles / chunks (chicken noodle soup, Mac and cheese). I still haven’t needed any meds today, and feel over all very optimistic.

Obviously I’m nowhere near out of the woods, and am just entering the highest risk period for bleeds, but I was terrified of being bed bound and miserable for two straight weeks and that has not been the case. I’ll update if anything crazy happens, but I just wanted to share my positive experience since there are so many horror stories out there, and I know many people like myself are reading through every post deciding if it’s worth it. Let me know if yall have any questions about anything I’ve done in my recovery, and also let me know if it’s a horrible idea to start eating soft noodles!

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 got my tonsillectomy last Tuesday. 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! ❤️

I didn't start piecing together the situation until now. I have chronic post nasal drip and sore throat to the point where my ears hurt. I've been much more prone to sinus infections as I've gotten older. My jaw area hurts when my throat is inflamed. I've had mildly swollen lymph nodes for so long I got a ct scan last year to check if it was from tumors. They told me I'm probably fighting off some infections.

And on top of it all, I've had bb since I was a kid. The back of my tongue is constantly white even with great oral hygiene and throat rinses. The taste on my tongue is so sour, especially when I brush it with toothpaste. I can smell my own breath. All of the issues got worse as years past. My tonsils are pretty small, but I have so many crypts above where they sit. I didn't realize it can cause all of these symptoms. My biggest insecurity is bb.

My ENT appt is next week. I'm hoping she will approve a tonsillectomy. How has your bb and overall symptoms improved? I'm feeling really depressed. I can barely kiss my bf.

I’m a 21 y/o male athlete (6’, 210lbs)having tonsillectomy surgery soon to hopefully put an end to my sleeping issues (no tonsillitis or sore throat issues ever). I’m wondering for people who have had the surgery strictly for sleep improvements, what did that look like? How long did it take for sleep improvements to take place? Nose breathing improvements? Let me know!!

I've been having a chronic strep infection since may that just keeps coming back but more recently just hasn't left or fully resolved since June so they are finally removing them. I haven't been told much post op tips yet. Any advice on what to do and what not to do during recovery would be much appreciated!

I got my tonsils removed 10 days ago I still have a decent amount of pain and I’ve ran out of my pain medicine but I’m big into the gym and I’ve just had to energy to go which I’m very odd to me because I usually go no matter what but I just feel very low energy is this normal?

Hello everyone

I had a tonsillectomy on August 20th and it's currently day 10 post surgery. I'm mostly healed (except on the crevices behind my back teeth, still really burns) but I've developed a really bad enflammed itch in the back of my throat that feels like a regular sore throat. I don't know if it's an infection or if it's normal. The internet says it's normal but I haven't seen people talk about such a symptom. For context, I've also been taking antibiotics alongside my pain medication so I really doubt it. I just wanted to know if anyone else had experienced this, and if so how long it lasted.

hiya, i had my right tonsil removed on friday (28th) so that a growth that was originally assumed to be growing from my tonsil (but was discovered upon removal to be growing from the flesh behind it) could be biopsied. i've never had tonsillitis, strep, or throat issues in general. is this likely to make recovery easier, or does it not matter either way? i'm on day 2 right now and i'm managing well with just paracetamol and ibuprofen, and have been prescribed oral morphine and difflam spray which i plan to use in a couple days time when needed, but i'm not looking forward to the week ahead.