Fears For upcoming tonsillectomy

[jules190]

I am a 16 year old female living in the U.K. i have been scheduled for a tonsilectomy soon but i am really scared!
i really hate hospitals, and dont know what to expect.
id like it if some one could explain to me what will happens from the moment you arrive in the hospital until the moment you leave!
thanks!

[National Jewish]

This sounds like a very upsetting and frightening situation for you.  National Jewish Medical and Research Center does not do surgery.  Therefore we have no experience to give you the information that you are wanting.

In the US there is a program to help you learn what to expect, often days before the surgery.  Please check with your doctor’s office or the hospital for details about what will happen.

[rossgum]

ok. not sure if you've had it done yet, but im 19/m/uk and had mine done on wed.
went into the hosp at 7.30 (was a private hosp, not NHS, so might be slightly diff), went to my room.
Unpacked my stuff, and read/watched tv till 9.00
Nurse came in and told me to put gown on, checks pulse and blood pressure.
My surgeon came in and told me about the procedure. procedure lasts around 45 mins under general anesthetic, signed consent forms.
anesthetist came in, asked about allergys (allergies), any fake teeth!?!?, what have i drunk, eaten, etc etc.
at 10.30 ish, 2 nurses wheeled me down to anesthetic room, could see my surgeon and the anesthetist and a nurse, Everyones really nice and re-assuring.
IV (intra-veinous!?!?) needle placed into vien on your left hand (or arm), doesnt really hurt much (i dont mind needles so...). blood pressure and pulse checking machine (dont know name of it) attached to right arm.
saline passed through IV needle to clean it/flush it. Then another liquid (dont know what - possibly anti-sickness) passed through followed by the thick white general anesthetic.
takes about 5 secs or so to kick in... lights out! no dreaming or anything, time just blinks by.
wake up, weird feeling in back of throat, oxygen masked attached, that machine still on your right arm, you might be on a saline drip (i wasnt), mouth is super super super dry! you feel hlaf passed out, half awake, super sleepy, just weird in general... you might feel queesy from the anesthetic.
after spending a period of time in the recovery room (no idea how long, ur seriously out of it and not too concious) they take you back to room.
Painkillers given, usually morphine in low dosage. you will feel absolutely knackered and will prob be sleeping on and off over the next 4 hours.

I was unlucky and my throat kept bleeding, which meant, i kept choking every 10 mins or so, and my throat was constantly tickling, which turned out was blooding running down my throat into my stomach. ended up swalling a good 2 pints of blood which made me horribly sick. being sick was painfull (obv) but alot less painfull than i thought it might have been.
I had to go back into the operating room later that day to get the bleeding to stop (this is v v v unlikely though, i was told a 1% chance, so you dont need to worry about that)

They keep you in overnight, and need to check that you can drink and eat alright.
They give you anti-biotics and painkillers to take home.
Then they send you home!

im on day... 5 now and the pain does get worse over a period of 5-6 days then quickly drop off. the mornings and nights are the worse, so just take pain killers before u sleep and when u wake up. Dont have any alarms set, or sont get anyone to wake you up. you want to be sleeping aslong as your body wants you to sleep.
A membrane will form over where the tonsils were after about 24 hours, this is a yellow/white film thats still there after 5 days for me. its basically the skin healing itself. this membrane smells! when i say smells, it REEKS! brushing your teeth doesnt help because its from the back of your throat, so just warn any friends before they visit you in hosp or at home ur gonna have smelly breath over the next few days!

You WILL loose a fair bit of weight over the whole thing. ive lost around 5lb in 5 days (ouch!), but its not something u cant put back on when your better.
Overall, its not too bad, you will have up days and down days. ul be grumpy towards people, i snap at people for NO reason whatsoever, but thats all normal. You'll also feel slightly depressed aswell, thats normal aswell, just stick it out and ul feel fine in a week or 2.

Good luck with it all, let us know how it goes!