What Precautions To Be Taken After Tonsillectomy?

Tonsillectomy is the procedure to surgically remove the tonsils. Tonsils are two lymphatic tissues found in the throat. They are mean to protect us from any kind of infections. In some individual’s tonsils occur recurrently. A reoccurring sore throat, infection in ear, and difficulty breathing are some causes that demands for Tonsillectomy. Tonsils swells up and are very painful. Like other surgeries, Tonsillectomy has its own pros and cons. 

Pros of Tonsillectomy

Pain relieve: Sore throat comes up with lot of unbearable pain in the throat. The pain is so much terrible that the individual feels difficult to swallow the food. The individual’s nutrition and daily life goes on a toss. Tonsillectomy stops the reoccurrence of sore throat and also the pain occurring during eating and drinking. 
Discomfort and a better life: The discomfort caused by tonsils affects the daily life of the individual. It becomes hard to carry on life with pain and difficulty in eating. Due to lack of nutrition the body feels weak and fatigued at all times. The feeling is unpleasant. Tonsillectomy stops all these discomfort and helps the patient to gain access to the normal life again.
Easy breathing: Patients with tonsils find difficulty in breathing. They face heavy breathing and problem in speaking for a long time. Tonsillectomy removes the tonsils and further aids in bringing the breathing back to normal.

Cons of Tonsillectomy

Emotional distress: Patient’s feel emotional, nervous, and worried. Surgery itself is an alarming word for all of us. Repeated hospital visits, long term medications make the patient stressful. It is most difficult for the Children who are under five years of age to cope up with the Tonsillectomy surgery. They have a fear of needle, medicines etc. and sometimes they cry and become too emotional.
Bleeding Risk: Every surgery has a bleeding risk and so is tonsillectomy. The risk of bleeding although is rare in tonsillectomy. During the surgery, excessive bleeding unmanageable and leads to heavy blood loss. In such cases, the blood is aspirated in to the lungs during the surgery or when the patient is recovering from the anaesthesia. This aspiration of blood has a chance of causing aspiration pneumonia. Bleeding also occurs when the scabs come out from the surgical sites in the throat, they come out later after surgery during the healing phase. This bleeding is common in adult and teens. Bleeding of this kind occurs after 5 to 10 days of surgery and is not a major complication.
Infection: Risk of infection post-operative surgery is common. Mild kind of bacterial infections occur commonly in the area where the tonsils are removed. These kinds of infections are accompanied with fever and delays down the healing process. They are common and are easily treated with the help of antibiotics. Severe kind of infections never occur in Tonsillectomy surgery.
Recovery pain: Pain is felt in the throat and mouth area for some days by the patient. It is common sign. This pain goes off in few days after the surgery.
Difficulty in eating: The patients after the Tonsillectomy finds difficult to eat for few days to a week. The difficulty is only during the healing period afterwards no such discomfort is felt by the patient. The patient is kept on liquid diet that is on juices and soups for few days so as to prevent the discomfort of swallowing food.
Long recovery: The recovery time of Tonsillectomy is little long. It last from 2-4 weeks. The recovery time is stressful accompanied with sore throat and pain.

Precautions taken after Tonsillectomy

Like with every surgery, Tonsillectomy also requires the patient to rest for at least 5 -6 days. Outside activities are restricted for the first few days to prevent infection from the surroundings. Second important precaution is the diet. Liquid diet like fruits juices, purred veggies, yoghurt, and other soft food are to be given to the patient to subside the pain. Third is regular medications. It includes antibiotics and pain killers to subside pain and prevent infections. The patient should be given the medications after meal only. Fourth is maintaining hygiene keeping hands sanitized, clean towels, bedding, and clean clothes of the patients are some of the ways to avoid infection. In case of abnormal heavy bleeding from mouth, high grade persistent fever, unbearable pain, extreme fatigue and difficulty in breathing the patient should be immediately taken to the hospital. Last is the follow up. The patient should return to the hospital 3 to 4 weeks post-surgery or as asked by the doctor. This is must as it ensures everything is fine and the patient is completely healthy. You can find list of hospitals in Bengaluru where tonsillectomy is performed here.