Surgery for tonsilloliths (tonsil stones)?
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at
10:20 am
Those little tonsil stones at the back of my throat disgust and annoy me, and I am wondering if I asked my doctor to get my tonsils removed whether he would let me or not. I know the recovery after surgery is supposed to be extremely painful but I think its worth it if I never have to experience tonsil stones again. So will my doctor let me get them removed? And has anyone here every experienced a tonsillectomy? Is it worth it? Thanks 
Filed under: Tonsil Surgery
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you general dr will most likely try to get you to just take some antibiotics for a while to "get rid" of the tonsil stones but science has shown that it may get rid of them for the moment but they will come back shortly after and also if you take antibiotics a lot then they aren’t as effective when you have a really bad infection. your dr may even just dismiss your tonsil stones telling you that its just hardened mucus (ITS NOT!)
you need to see an ENT (ear nose and throat dr). they will most likely understand what you are going through and will be more than happy to remove your tonsils.
i saw an ENT last july and told him that i had had tonsil stones for 9yrs! and he totally understood how frustrating they can be.
i had my tonsils out in september at the age of 23 and i’m soooooooooo glad i did.
ITS DEFINITELY WORTH IT!!!
i’ve had 9 surgeries including the tonsillectomy so i pretty much know the drill of what happens so i’ll try to give you a run down of what goes on from the time you get to the hospital to the time you leave as well as the recovery process.
first you’ll probably be told not to eat or drink anything effective at midnight the night before surgery.
you’ll go to the hospital and go to the admission desk. they’ll put some info into the computer and put a wrist band on.
then you go up to what ever floor they tell you to and the nurse will put you in a room, ask you a bunch of questions, take your blood pressure and temp, and maybe ask for a urine sample. then they’ll give you a gown and tell you to hang out on the bed until they come get you. you’ll then be wheeled on a cart down to the preoperative area. depending on your age they may ask your parents to go to the waiting room or they may let them come to the preoperative area with you.
down in pre-op they will ask you a bunch of the same questions that you were already asked just so they can be sure everything was written correctly. they’ll take your BP again (they will put a cuff on that does it automatically every few minutes and this will stay on for the entire surgery and while you are in the recovery room), take your temp again, and also put a pulse ox monitor on your finger. it just measures how much oxygen you have in your body so they can regulate it(this will also stay on during surgery and in the recovery room) it doesn’t hurt or anything. and they’ll start an IV in the back of your hand or in the bend of your arm. the dr doing the surgery will usually appear to ask if you have any last minute questions and run through exactly what he is doing again. then if you are extremely nervous they may give you something in the IV to calm you down. it will most likely give you a burning sensation in your arm for a minute but it goes away quickly. it may make you feel tired, looopy, or just chilled out depending on what drug they used.
then they will wheel you into the operating room and help you scoot over onto the operating table. they’ll then put an oxygen mask on your face and heart monitor patches on your chest. then they will either give you the anesthesia through the mask or through the IV. if its through the mask you will just breath it in. it smells like nail polish remover. you may feel like you can’t breath cuz the smell is sooo strong but with in a minute you are out like a light. if its given through the IV you will have a burning sensation in your arm for a frew seconds and then you may start to feel dizzy or sick but before you can even tell someone you don’t feel good you are out like a light.
when you wake up you may feel like you just closed your eyes and then opened them again. you may not even realize for a second that the surgery even started let alone it being done already.
you’ll almost certainly feel really tired. you may also experience uncontrolable shaking, being emotional and crying cuz you don’t know whats going on, feeling dizzy and possibly fainting, and/or feeling sick and possibly throwing up. these are all common side effects after anesthesia.
you will start out in the recovery room where there are nurses and other patients coming out of anesthesia. they will monitor you and bug you every few minutes to make sure you are alright. they don’t really expect you to full wake up in this room. once you are stable you will be wheeled back up to the room you started in when you got there and that is where your parents can see you again. at this point a nurse will come in and really start to try to get you to wake up. they’ll try to get you to drink something like apple juice or 7up. they also try to get you to go use the bathroom.
they usually try to get you up and out as quickly as they can so they can make more room for other patients.
if you don’t feel like you can get up and go then don’t let them rush you. its best to go at your own pace this will lessen the chance of you getting extremely sick or dizzy.
one little thing that i always try to let people know is if you get the least bit chilly ask for a blanket. they have a "warming oven" so when they give you a blanket it is nice and warm. if you are still cold ask for another one and another until you feel comfortable cuz when you get cold you get more shaky and in my opinion then get more nervious.
oh and if you are prone to cold feet wear a pair of regular socks and then also a pair of those soft fuzzy socks and it will keep your feet toasty.
the recovery process takes about 10 days.
you will most likely be taking liquid lortab (which tastes nasty) and liquid amoxicillin (the yummy bubble gum med that you most likely took at some point in your childhood)
take the pain killers when ever you can. even if your pain isn’t all that bad cuz if you skip doses the pin will come back to haunt you. and you may think there isn’t enough medicine to last the whole recovery but don’t worry cuz they usually allow for one refill which will give you more than enough.
as much as it may hurt make sure you have lots to drink cuz that will actually lessen the pain and recovery time in the long run. \
when you sleep make sure you set an alarm for at least every 2hrs to have a drink cuz your throat will get extremely dry especially cuz your mouth will most likely be open while sleeping.
i’ll break down my pain levels day by day to give you an idea of what your recovery may be like. i’ll give it to you on a scale of 1-10
day 1 and 2 (2-10)
day 3 (4-10)
day 4, 5, 6, 7 (8-10)
day 8 and 9 (4-10)
day 10 (2-10)
by day 12 i was pretty much back to normal.
the reason the pain will not be too bad and then will rise is cuz as the scabs are forming and your throat is healing it makes it hurt more.
once the scabs start falling off the pain starts going away again.
you’ll get a nasty taste in your mouth DO NOT TRY TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. its due to the scabs forming. you do not want to try to get rid of the scabs before they come off on their own. if you try to brush back there or use mouth wash the scabs may come off before they are ready and you would start bleeding which can be life threatening and you would need to go to the ER.
the scabs usually come off between 8-12 days after the surgery. you’ll sudenly feel the need to cough and after a few good coughs you’ll spit out a piece of scab. for me the nasty taste in my mouth suddenly shot through my nose. i actually thought the scab was gonna come out of my nose (of course it didn’t but it was weird how the taste become an extreme smell in my nose as i coughed the scabs out).
you cannot use ibuprofen for 3 weeks prior to the surgery and you cannot start back up using it until 3 weeks after the surgery. ibuprofen can thin blood which would put you at a much higher risk of bleeding.
you also cannot use a straw until 3 weeks after the surgery.
as far as food goes you are not supposed to have any dairy. i know so many people say "you can eat all the ice cream you want" but thats not true. back in the day drs used to recommend ice cream cuz its soft and cold but they do not recommend it any more cuz dairy creates a lot of mucous which will cause a lot of congestion and you’ll have to cough hard to try to get in out and coughing will highly irritate your throat. plus the congestion causes you to loose your voice.
(i did not have any dairy during my recovery and i could talk just fine and i was not congested at all)
things to drink are:
-tons of cold water
-apple juice
-passion fruit juice
-peach juice
-gatoraid
for the first 3 days the only things you are supposed to "eat" are things like jello, popsicles, and soup broth. (thats why you need to have a wide variety of drinks so you don’t get extremely bored with your diet)
after the first 3 days you can start eating things like:
-mashed potatoes
-mac n cheese
-soup
-oatmeal
-apple sauce
-peas
-baked beans. (my ENT was in shock when i said i loved eating baked beans during my recovery but that was cuz he usually deals with little kids like under 10yrs old and knows many kids don’t like them lol)
you’ll go for a 10 day check up. the dr will just look at your throat they won’t poke around or anything so don’t worry about that happening. as long as they say you look good you’ll be able to go back to a pretty much normal diet. they suggest still eating fairly soft foods. (i had a mcdonalds cheeseburger when i left the appointment).
you just cannot eat chips or pretzels for 3 weeks after the sugery cuz they are rough.
also you cannot exercise for about 3 weeks afer surgery as well cuz they don’t want you to strain anything.
you do still have a risk of bleeding for 4-6 weeks after sugery so you shouldn’t make plans that would require you to leave the area.
I had one years ago. They won’t take them out now unless it’s absolutely necessary. I had to have mine out because I was coughing up chunks of infection. It was painful, but they do things differently now so it wouldn’t be nearly as bad. But like I said, the doctor won’t recommend having them out unless he feels it’s really necessary.