I am a 20 year old female from the UK, and had my Tonsillectomy 12 days ago on the 2nd October 2014. I didn't have laser surgery or any of that fancy stuff, just a normal cold steel tonsillectomy done on the NHS. Before the surgery I read horror stories all over the internet, about bleeding, I was terrified. So I have decided to share with you all my positive Tonsillectomy story, as it's really not as bad as people have made it out to be. Thursday 2nd October 2014 was the day of my surgery, I arrived at the hospital and was introduced to my anaesthetist and surgeon. At that point they explained the process of the operation, and gave me the chance to ask any questions I may have. Of course I had so many 'Will I bleed?' 'Will I wake up during the surgery?' 'Will I be sick?' All of these things were running through my mind but of course they re-assured me it would all go smoothly. About 2 hours later I was called into the operating theatre, by that point I had already removed all jewellery and changed into my hospital gown. I was terrified about the anaesthesia. The anaesthetist began by inserting a needle into my left hand, which was to stay there throughout my time in hospital. On a scale of 1-10 the pain of it going in was about a 3, and I don’t work well with pain, but it was hardly anything. Once it’s in I couldn’t feel it at all. I was then given a mask and was told to take big deep breaths, I remember looking up and the room was spinning, but before I got to say that I felt dizzy I was out like a light! The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room, I felt extremely disorientated and slightly emotional. I was confused as the process was so quick, immediately I felt the need to drink water and my throat was filled with mucus. The nurse gave me a small cup of water and told me to take very small sips, I then felt the need to spit out the mucus (gross I know) there was the tiniest bit of blood but that is completely normal right after surgery. Suddenly the pain hit me, on a scale of 1-10 the pain was around a 7 or 8. After being awake in the recovery room for around 10 minutes I was wheeled back into my room which I shared with 2 other lovely girls who were also going through a tonsillectomy. The nurse gave me some pain meds and instantly my pain was relieved from an 8 to a 4. I was able to swallow tablets perfectly fine. About an hour or so later the nurse gave me a sandwich to try and eat but I just wasn’t hungry, I felt quite nauseated from the anaesthesia. About 4 hours later I vomited. It was only one time and I felt a hell of a lot better afterwards! Once that was over, my appetite came back and the nurse made me some toast. Which was actually very easy to eat! When it was time for bed, I couldn’t sleep, I just found it difficult to sleep in hospital. So throughout the night I was drinking water non stop, I drank 2 litres. When I woke up my pain level was around a 4 and that was due to drinking so much water, so my throat didn’t get the chance to dry out. I was then given some Weetabix and a luke warm cup of tea in the morning and was able to go home. The doctors in the UK advised me to eat as NORMAL as possible. Although no spicy food and dinner had to be luke warm. No liquid diets, I was told to eat ROUGH foods such as toast, crisps, cereal and so on. I know that sounds like a nightmare after having your tonsils ripped out, but if you chew it up properly its fine and easy to swallow. I honestly do believe this was the secret to my fast recovery. Since I got back home, days 1 to 2 the pain was around a 7. I was taking 2 Codeine and 2 paracetomol in tablet form every SIX hours. I was drinking water non stop, going through 2 sometimes 3 litre bottles a day. Even throughout the night I was keeping hydrated so my throat didn’t dry out and cause pain, I had a lot of sleepless nights. I was eating a lot of toast! For dinner I would have mash potato with sausages, or pasta. Whatever I fancied. I found that drinking water was surprisingly more painful than eating! Days 3-6 the pain was pretty bad, around a 9 on a scale of 1-10. Drinking water was SO painful but I just had to push through! Even though your throat is in pain and it will probably feel like the worst sore throat you have ever had X by 5, you HAVE to speak! Not talking and writing everything down to your parents isn’t going to help, you need to get the muscles at the back of your throat working again. I tried to speak as much as I could. On day 5 I had finally plucked up the courage to look into my throat, I was a bit sceptical as I had seen pictures on the internet and was expecting my throat to look like something out of a horror movie. But to my surprise, my throat was VERY clean! Apart from 2 small white spots on either side which I think were the scabs forming. From day 7 onwards my pain has been less and less, now on day 12 my throat feels fully recovered! No pain apart from the tiniest bit of pain when I yawn. Yawnings a b***h! But other than that I am feeling great and heading back to uni on the weekend. I am more than happy with the results! I was getting tonsillitis practically every 2 months, my left tonsil was so huge it would rest against my uvula, they’d also swell up and cause me pain for days and I had crypts all over them! A week of pain for a life time of no tonsillitis, it is 100% worth it! I didn’t even notice my scabs falling off and I think that’s down to the rough food diet, it scraped it all away. I didn’t bleed once! Thank goodness. Remember that your chance of bleeding is SO slim. There are THOUSANDS of people who get a tonsillectomy every year, and the small 5% of people who bleed put their horror stories out on the internet. Don’t listen to everything you read. My advice is to DRINK DRINK DRINK! I cannot stress that enough! You can even drink fruit squash diluted if you want to. Also eat as much as you possibly can! The rough food diet is the key to a quick recovery! If I can go through this surgery then you can!  stay positive! x