As I’m sure you can imagine, getting your tonsils out at any age isn’t going to be fun. But they mean it when they say it’s worse when you’re older. So maybe I’m crazy for getting them out in my thirties, but you’ll just have to believe me that I had very good reasons.

The Surgery

So what does it mean for someone to get their tonsils removed? Well I’ll tell you. It means at least ten days of constant, agonizing, world shattering pain. And worse then that, it means you can’t eat!

The surgery was pretty fast, and I was well informed before-hand on how things might be when I woke up. There’s not a whole lot more I can say, because the trouble started later.

Coming out of the surgery, I really just wanted to sleep. And sleep and sleep and sleep. After doing almost nothing but snooze for several days, I began to want to get back to some of my normal routines. But here’s the problem with that:

The Pain

I’ve heard some people compare Tonsillectomy to having your wisdom teeth removed (they never had their tonsils out, of course). Although both your tonsils and your teeth reside in the same neighborhood, the same they are not.

So how can I really describe it?

Think about the worse sore throat you’ve ever had.

Go on, I’ll wait. I really want you to get a good picture in your head.

So it’s like that pain, but three times worse.

And that nerve where your tonsil used to be? It’s connected to your ear, so go ahead and add on a searing earache.

And that earache? Well that’s going to make your head hurt as well.

All that is going to make you want to lay down, but you’ve already been laying down all week, and that’s making your back ache.

And through all of this, you haven’t been able to eat hardly anything, so guess what? Your stomach also hurts.

And just when you start feeling like the pain is going away, the scabs fall off, and the pain not only returns, but is even worse than before.

So Is It Even Worth It?

I’m not going to lie to you, when I hit about day five, I started seriously doubting my decision to have that surgery. Not that I could change anything, of course. But I really started wanting to kick myself for consciously choosing to inflict myself with such agony, chronic tonsil issues or not.

But then my darling man brought me a glass of chocolate milk, and propped up some pillows for me, and I calmed down (I had to, crying really hurt). I kept telling myself that when it was all over, I would be happy to never have to worry about my tonsils again.

So I’ve passed that ten day mark that they tell you about, and honestly, things are shockingly better. I’ll never forget how bad it was, but now that I’m over the worst of it, I’m starting to be able to think more about the benefits. So do I think it’s worth it? Yeah, I do. I don’t think anyone should take it lightly, but if your tonsil problems are bad enough, I would say it’s worth it to never have to worry about it again.

Just, you know, be prepared for a special kind of hell.

But Bonnie, What About The Food??

So I’ve already mentioned that eating was difficult, nigh on impossible. But you can’t just stop eating for ten days, so something’s got to get in that tummy.

There’s a pretty standard list of foods that you’ll hear about any time you look up tonsillectomy recovery. And that list is going to look a little something like this:

• Soup or broth
• Pudding
• Eggs
• Ice cream
• Smoothies
• Yogurt
• Jell-O
• Mashed potatos

And the worst part is that they specifically tell you that anything you eat should be bland. Bland!

Aside from not being able to tolerate flavor, you’ll notice that most of the items on this list are sweet. Now this might be wonderful for those with a sweet-tooth, but I’m not particularly keen on overly sugary treats. And I’m not the only one.

I also really enjoy having a variety of flavors in my meals, which isn’t easily accomplished when your diet needs to consist of “bland, easy to chew foods.”

So there’s no real way of getting around it, and for the first few days I mostly just ate soup. My darling man was kind enough to heat up things like chicken noodle and cream of mushroom for me. I like soup just fine, but it gets old, really quickly.

There are really only two foods that I want to highlight as having gotten me through recovery, because they’re the only ones I actually enjoyed, rather than just forcing down so I didn’t die.

Chicken Flavored Ramen Broth

No, not chicken flavored Ramen. Just the broth.

Several days in I could still only manage soup, but I was looking to switch things up a little, so I had some chicken ramen. The noodles were about as hard to get down as the chicken noodle soup I’d already had, but the broth…

Right after my surgery, the best medicine I had was ice water. Now, if ice water was medicine, this broth was magic!

I honestly don’t know what it was about the broth, but it made my throat stop hurting for entire seconds at at time (that’s a big deal, trust me). When I finished, the pain was actually manageable for like half an hour. It wasn’t anything perfect, but it was a relief to have a short break.

In case you’re wondering why I bother mentioning the Ramen instead of just saying chicken broth, I tried other chicken broths, and none of them came close to the same. So I started making broth for myself when the pain was especially bad, and now we have some Ramen noodles in a bag in the pantry without their season packets, because I didn’t want to waste them in case I can use them for something else.

The Egg And Oatmeal Combo

About a week into recovery I was becoming ravenous. I had already lost some weight, and I was feeling like I was wasting away. I needed something substantial.

That morning I woke up dreaming about a waffle breakfast. Fluffy, lightly golden waffles, with just a drizzle of syrup. Hash browns, nice and crispy, with an over easy egg on top. And just because I’m indulgent, two strips of bacon and two sausage links.

The drooling probably helped my throat, they say you shouldn’t let it get dry after tonsillectomy.

But I got the tummy rumblies. Bad. And no soup, or pudding, or smoothie was going to do the trick.

What I settled on actually worked better than I imagined. I made some maple flavored instant oatmeal, nice and runny with milk, because the oats would help me to feel more full. Along side that, for that savory flavor I was seeking, I made some soft scrambled eggs, cooked nice and slow so they were creamy, but not snotty. And don’t forget a sprinkle of salt! (Sorry, but bland just wasn’t gonna cut it).

I made it through the whole meal, and that marked the first time since my surgery that I actually felt full. It was beautiful. I liked it so much that it’s what I had for dinner that night too. And then breakfast again the next day.

Moving Forward

The obvious benefit of having my tonsils removed is that I don’t have to deal with the chronic problems I had anymore. But the unexpected benefit here is that I somehow gained a new appreciation for warm, hearty, homecooked, flavorful food. Which is surprising given how much I already love food.

I dreamed up a lot of yummy recipe ideas while I was doped up on pain meds, we’ll see if I can remember any of them. And if I do, I’ll be sure to share them here!

If you happened to read all of this, thank you so much! And if anyone stumbles across this while thinking about having their tonsils removed, I hope my story helped in some way.

Thanks for reading!