DS has suffered 10 bouts of tonsillitis (and associated ear infections) since August of 08. It makes him very sick and requires treatment with Anti biotics.

The most recent dose made him very ill. We ended up in emergency with his temp at 39 degrees (and not coming down with panandol), vomiting, his heart rate at 167bpm and his oxygen saturation enough to worry the paed.

Thankfully he is on the mend from this latest bout. We have been seeing an ENT specialist who wanted us to wait to see if he grew out of it which we agreed was the best approach.

However, given how ill he has been with the most recent bout, the ENT wants to do a tonsillectomy and take the adenoids at the same time. He is worried about the frequency of the tonsillitis, the high use of anti biotics the increasing severity of the symptoms and the fact that it is causing fluid build up in his ears which is affecting his hearing.

So we decided to go ahead and book him in and managed to get a spot in less than a fortnight. We have really agonised over this decision and have decided that it is cruel (and dangerous) to let him continually be this sick.

The ENT surgeon gave me a heap of material to read through about the operation and I?m now second guessing my decision. I know that no parent would ever want their child to go through the pain of the surgery but I feel like we really need to do this for his health.

I guess I?m just looking for reassurance that we are doing the right thing. I know he will be in pain and the recovery period is at least 2 weeks. Have you or your kids had the op? How did you help them with the pain? Do you thing it was worth it?

TIA

Spring xx