Tonsillectomy

[YoYo]

Hi all.

DS is having his tonsils and adenoids out on 4th January.

Is there anything I should know which can help him prepare for an operation in hospital, or help with the pain afterwards?

I feel bad for him coz he got these dodgy tonsil genes from me!!

TIA

[Ginger]

hi yules, i just went through this with ds1.
i talked it over with him so he knew that he was going to hospital and what was going to be happening. we even bought him a special present (a transformer) when he got home.

for the pain afterwards, they gave him a strong pain killer (morphine based) and i just used panadol as well. the trick is to keep on top of the medication (i wrote it down) so that it never actually wears off iykwim?
he has come along so well and is eating more than he's ever eaten before. he has put on heaps of weight and looks fantastic,
please let me know if i can help you with any specific worries or questions that you have.

[Early Kids]

Ds1 (4.5) is 3 months post op. I agree with keeping on top of the pain meds. Our dr supplied us with everything we needed to last two weeks. As for preparing I have no idea sorry


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[loulabelle]

keep on top of the pain meds. for the first few days don't wait until they feel pain, give the dose at the time its recommended.fluid and eating are the most important things post op. we had trouble getting dd to drink and she became dehydrated and needed to be in hospital on a drip for 4 days. so keep trying, even with a syringe if that's what it takes.

just remember that it will be a tough two weeks. children tend to go up and down after the operation, one day they might seem ok and the next in a lot if pain, so dont have anything big planned in that time. its worth it though, my dd is so much happier since the op,she even sleeps better now.

good luck! xx

[Lana]

My DS had his out 12 months ago. I got some books about going to the hospital and getting your tonsils out which we read a lot before we went so he had a idea of what to expect. Some other things that stand out from the day was that when he came out of the operation he was really disorientated and was pretty hysterical which I hear is pretty common as kids aren't used to that hazey post anesthetic feeling. As a mother it was pretty hard to see, but he went to sleep pretty quickly again after that but be prepared for that. He was hungry when he woke up but didn't want the hospital food so taking some comfort food for him would be good. At the same time though as his throat was still numb he spat food out as it felt too weird.

The recovery did take 2 weeks and as the others suggested keep the pain meds up 24 hrs. Good luck it has helped my DS and was worth doing despite the pain.

[YoYo]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Im so nervous, but trying not to let it show.

X

[Ginger]

i was super nervous in the lead up too yules, but if you could see the difference it has made in my ds in just 4 weeks you would be amazed. he is like a different kid. people have even been commenting on how fantastic he looks it really is wonderful.

[YoYo]

Thanks ginger xxx

[YoYo]

An update!

DS had his op last Wednesday and all went well. His tonsils were almost touching and adenoids blocking his airway. So glad it's been done!

Have another question though.

What foods did you find didn't make the pain worse? I know it's important for them to eat as normally as possible, but he's living off 2 minute noodles!

I'm keeping up the pain meds, as you said.... Every 4 hours, how long after the op did they start not hurting quite so much?

How long till their voice sounds normal!? (he's not talking much, and when he does it's hard to understand him coz he's mumbling) the whining is pretty bad too, though understandable! Would just like to know roughly how long we're talking here!!




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[Ginger]

my ds was considerably better after about 8 days and his voice gradually returned to normal.
he drank lots of strawberry milk!!! couldn't really eat anything.

[loulabelle]

apparently around day 5-6 they can take a step backwards, that may be what's happening. he's also probably quite swollen.
dd was about 10-12 days before she was more herself but it was about 3 weeks before I would say she was completely better. either way, you've probably past the worst if it and he should be on the way up from here. hugs, its very hard.xx

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[YoYo]

The day time is OK....night time is BAD! Waking every 2 hours wanting more medicine which he can't have. He wakes up and just holds all his saliva in his mouth then gets upset and whiney that it's all dribbling out. It's hard at night to be patient with him as he wakes up everyone and doesn't help himself by spitting out his dribble.

He says it feels like he's got pips in the back of his throat.

Poor little guy, I feel so bad. I'm conscientiously trying to be patient, but DH doesn't cope as well, especially at night, and mum is an all round grump when she's tired and doesn't care who she shows it too.... That is what is actually making things worse ATM.

[Ginger]

did they give you some morphine type medicine?

[YoYo]

did they give you some morphine type medicine?

Nope - paracetamol and ibuprofen

[Ginger]

hhmmm - the anaesthetist gave me some medicine that he said was like a 'relative of morphine' that ds was having every 4 hours. he didn't wake through the night at all- was sleeping a good 8 or more hours straight. maybe you should contact your surgeon? that sounds like a lot of pain and waking to me..

[loulabelle]

really?? thats odd, we got stronger pain killers (oxynorm)to use as well as panadol. I would perhaps ring your ent and ask about it, that may be why he's having such trouble. it doesn't seem right to still be having that amount of pain, to the point of not swallowing.

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[Ginger]

yes i agree with loulabelle. it was called oxynorm

eta- and i just checked my notes and he was having it every 3 hours (not 4 like i said before)

[YoYo]

Hmmmmmmm..... Thanks girls, I'll find out today. My poor boy