OT-Tonsillectomy for ds6

[verlee]

We just found out that our ds6 needs to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. We think he may have sleep apnea b/c they are too large for his mouth. Has anyone else had this procedure done with their child? How was the recovery. We were told it would be challenging. I just want to know what to expect.

 

[jpaxton1118]

I would love to know this myself. My 9 year old is about to have the same thing done. They made it sound like he was going to be in pain for 2 weeks!

 

[Steph9072]

ds had his his tonsils and adenoids removed 1 day after he turned 3. He had sleep apnea to the point he would sleep about 4 hours in a 24 hour period. I won't lie when he was waking up after the surgery I have never felt so helpless. He was waking up & hurting and I couldn't helphim. The first three days & nights were hell. After that he seemed to slowly get better. Oh and by day five he was sleeping 10 hour a night.

But I made sure to give him pain meds as the doc said regaurdless if he seemed in pain or not. Even waking him up for his meds the first 4 days. As the doc said to stay on top of the pain is easier than trying to get it under control. Also they had me give at least a sip of a drink every hour. Sammy ate lots of chipped ice & popiscles.

HTH

 

[TriMom]

It will be the best thing you have ever done for your DS. We had my oldest's removed when he was 4, and my youngest had his out at 18 months. The Dr. wanted to wait for the youngest, but he couldn't breath, so he was the youngest patient my ENT had done. The surgery totally changed their lives. Things that I didn't even think about like discipline problems went away because they were finally getting enough sleep.
Anyway - recovery. Yes it is hard. Plan for about 5-7 days. My kids didn't want anything to eat, so I pushed gatorade for a few days. Chocolate pudding worked better than ice cream. The ice cream was too cold. The biggest suggestion that I have is your house environment. You need to make your house feel like a cave. Set the thermostat to 68, and run a humidifier in every room DS is in. It made a big difference in how comfortable they felt.

Do not let up on the pain meds for at least 4 days. As in always redose at the next available time. It is had to get the pain under the control once they really start hurting.

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

 

[brymolmom]

Hi there.

We did this a year and a half ago with ds who was 5 at the time. It was nerve-wracking, but fine overall. By far the worst parts were when he was just being taken in (had been given some meds that made him 'loopy' so he didn't care - but mom did ). I was surprised they didn't let me stay with him until he was all the way asleep. YOu might want to ask this question just so you're prepared (I didn't know until the last minute). And the other worst time was just when he came out of the anesthesia. He was SO OUT OF IT and was trying to pull out the IV and was asking 'why does it hurt?'. The nurse was giving him some med to make him more comfortable but it took 3 doses until it put him out in a nice restful sleep. So it was about 30 - 40 minutes of trying to calm him - but he was so out of it that it wasn't possible. After he woke from the medicine sleep, we went home and he was OK. He was STARVING! I started with popsicles, went onto soft mac & cheese a couple hours later, then went to scrambled eggs a couple hours after that. He was only eating a little bit - so he kept getting hungry!

I kept up the Tylenol/Motrin swap every couple/few hours and he was OK. He was playing with toys on the second day. A few days in - I started trying to wean him off the Tylenol/Motrin and would give it less frequently - but every time he would complain of 'ear pain' - so I would give it to him again. Did that for about 9 or 10 days. But he was out and about after just a few.

On the 10th day after his surgery....we boarded a plane for WDW. I think I gave him one dose of Tylenol when we were down there - but that's it.

He hasn't snored since!

Good luck!

 

[unionville]

My son's adnoids and tonsils were removed right after he turned 6 years old. When he woke up from the surgery, he became very upset and agitated about the IV. Once they gave him medicine to relax him until the IV was removed, he did fine. He never needed anything stronger than Tylenol or Motrin after the first night. He was told not to go to school for a week, so he had lots of fun at home. You would have never known he had the procedure. Having the tonsils and adnoids removed has reduced the number of times he get sick and he sleeps better at night - no gritting of teeth! Although, he still gets strep.

 

[mom2faith]

I have to jump in here as an adult who just had this procedure in December - PLEASE DO NOT BE AFRAID AND JUST DO IT!! your child will thank you, and not even realize it

I did a lot of reading, etc before my surgery and apprantly the rumors are true, it is worse when you are an adult. For some reason, they way the throat developes at some point between the ages of 12 and 16 this goes from being a simple procedure to PURE PAIN!!! It was horrible, I could not eat, talk, sleep, anything for 2 weeks. It was week 3 before I attempted work and that was only half days. I have given birth and would do that again before a tonsilectomy any day. In fact my joke is that if they grew back tomorrow they would stay in - it was that bad.

Now, that being said, my cousins kid got hers out the same week. She is 5. She was eating cheeseburgers the next day!! (Oh the thought of the ketchup and pickles on those wounds still makes my skin crawl - but it did not bother her a bit). She healed up way faster than I did and was not in nearly as much pain as I was. (Oh, I would like to quickly add that I took very good care of my wounds, I drank lots of water, with no straw and did not eat anything that could get caught in there, I was afraid of infection).

Now for the benefits - I LOVE SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! I did not know how much of an affect my breathing had on me. I always thought I had a small bladder and that the reason I peed several times a night was due to that - nope, I was wrong. I got up to go to the bathroom because I was already partially awake. I was not getting into a deep sleep and I was waking up with the apnea and not even realizing it. I sleep throught hte night now and feel amazing!! You son will be so happy with that!!

So, even though it was awful as an adult, I have spent the last 4 months fighting to get my DDs out. Hers are also huge and touch evenwithout infections. She has tremendous breathing problems in her sleep, but we a told by every specialist that she will "grow out of it". Forget that. I am going from specialist to specialist until someone takes her. They are coming out while she is a child so she does not have to go through the painful prcedure as an adult.

Good luck to your son, I promise, it was not be that bad and when it is over, it is done. He will have a whole new life once he is sleeping through the night!!

 

[verlee]

Thanks for all the replys. I am feeling a better about the procedure.

We were shocked to hear he would have to have major surgery. He has rarely been sick and we are not experienced with major illness. The recovery does not sound good but if it can help him breath better I am excited. Our son snores and is usually pretty tired, and always breaths through his mouth. I am kicking myself that I did not recognize the symptoms sooner. Looking back, I think it started around 2.5 yr old. We just thought he had allergies and we were trying to solve the problem ourselves (both dh andI have allergies).

 

[verlee]

How did you all make your kids comfortable? I like the ideas about choc. pudding and humidity. Anything else?? I guess I am most concerned about dehydration. What did you kids drink?

 

[Steph9072]

How did you all make your kids comfortable? I like the ideas about choc. pudding and humidity. Anything else?? I guess I am most concerned about dehydration. What did you kids drink?

Prior to surgery my Mom bought Sammy a "surgery dog", he was allowed to take "surgery dog" into surgery. When they left the hospital anywhere Sammy had a band-aid from shots or IV so did "surgery dog."

After surgery during recovery Sammy loved eating ice. We built him a tent in the toy room that opened enough to see the TV so he felt he was playing but he was resting. He and "surgery dog" that is.

 

[RN4Babies]

I had my tonsils out at the age of 25, and my ds18 had his out (along with his adenoids) when he was 6 years old.

-Icy things felt better for us than milky things. One of my favorite tricks was to make a "slush". Let a popsicle soften slightly so that you can make shavings or small chunks into a cup of cold soda (7 up, generally) Ice cream and pudding made both of us feel like there was a yucky coating on our throat; gag!!!

-Medicate for pain religiously for the first four or five days (longer as necessary). As pp have said, it's hard to get the pain back under control if you don't.

-It's generally day surgery, unless there's a complication. DS's IV fell out when he was still in the recovery room, and he didn't want to drink anything yet in the day surgery recovery area. He got a little dehydrated, and developed a fever as a result; that led to an overnight stay in the hospital instead of going home. Moral of the story: if an IV comes out before it's supposed to, and your child isn't drinking yet, strongly suggest that they replace the IV.

-After a few days of icy foods, progress slowly to soft foods...jello, warm cooked cereals, soup with cooked veggies/noodles in it, mashed potatoes, etc. My mom bought me jars of baby food...the fruits were okay, but the rest was so gross!! Applesauce, small diced canned peaches, etc. would be much better!

Usually any kind of medical procedure is much harder on the parents than on the child... It's a common operation that usually makes breathing (especially at nighttime) much easier, and illness much less frequent.

P.S. I just saw you're in Wisconsin too! If at all possible, have it done at Children's Hospital, either in Wauwatosa, the Kenosha area or up in the Fox Valley. Pediatric hospitals have all of the supplies needed for a six year old, whereas some of the community hospitals with a pediatric wing sometimes do not. We had ds's surgery done at a community hospital, and the day of his surgery they couldn't find an IV catheter small enough for him; surgery was postponed four hours until they found one!

 

[TnTWalter]

2 of my 3 had it done last summer. Longest 2 weeks of my life. LOL. But so much better now. They only remember the cool ride [they got to ride jeeps to the surgery room] and their masks were characters they liked and they got balloons. They don't remember the misery afterwards. Just keep up with pain meds and get anything you can think of that they'll be able to suck on.

Hang in there.

Trish

 

[nessz79]

My son had his out last summer when he was 3 (almost 4). I won't lie- it was very nerve-wracking for the first week, especially the first 4-5 days. The Dr. emphasized how important it was for my son to drink plenty of fluids, but it was nearly impossible. The good thing is having him pumped up on the IV fluids prevented dehydration for the first couple days. I was able to get him to drink tiny amounts at a time for the first couple of days. The dr. advised doing one long drink every few hours with the help of Cephacol spray (spelling?). However, this did not work with my son, so we did the tiny sips every few minutes. It was very hard as my son was very combative for the first 4 days.

The Rx meds were necessary for the first few days, but I soon realized that his extreme moodiness, anger, and combativeness was partially due to the narcotic pain meds. I called the doctor's office and they had me switch to an OTC med (can't remember which one...prob Tylenol). I no longer had to hold him down to take his meds.

Once we got past day 4 or 5, he was much better. We still had setbacks until about day 8, but he was eating soft foods and drinking pretty well by day 5-6.

The good news is that your son is a bit older and may better be able to understand the importance of drinking fluids. The hardest part will probably be when he's waking up. Mine was extremely angry and violent and I couldn't help but break down crying because it was so NOT like my son to act like that.

Also, your child will need to vomit once after the surgery. It's best to get it out of the way at the surgery center. Since our son wouldn't take hardly any ice or water there, we had to wait until we got home. There will be some blood in the vomit, but as long as it isn't bright red (usually brown), it's ok. And they feel much better afterwards. Just wanted to add that in because it was something that I wasn't really prepared for.

I think the key is to be mentally prepared. Set up a little support network. If your son is close to grandmothers, father, etc have them take over once in a while so you can take a break. Hugs to you! It will be worth and the recovery week will be a distant memory soon after!

 

[Binnie]

DD3 has hers out on 4/2, and today was her first day back at daycare. They told me at the hospital that she would feel crummy for several days, but I had no idea that they meant 10!

As others have said, it was a day surgery. We were home by 1 PM on the day of surgery. That night she ate an entire box of popsicles (the Mini ones) but nothering else. Day 2 wasn't too bad. She at some soup and some macaroni & cheese. But after that, she virtually stopped eating. DH and I were forcing her to eat ice cream and pudding, and anythign else we thought she could choke down.

The best advice I got was:

• Manage the pain. Day 3 we didn't know how badly she was hurting, so we got behind on her pain medication (don't let them tell you you don't need something stronger than Tylenol! That's an evile lie!) and it was SOOOOOOO hard to get her back to comfortable.
  
• Be aware of the stench. Your kidlet's breath will smell like death. It's OK. Brushing teeth will not help, and could make the pain worse.
  
• As far as what to feed your munchkin, our doc said it right when he said anything that the kid can get down. It's not much, and at a certain point, you have to just accept that the kid will eat when he's hungry.
  
• Drinking is another issue. The child must drink almost constantly. We used juice, gatorade, milk and chocolate milk, iced tea (decaf--my dd loves it!), and a lot of water. And popsicles, of course!

It has been a miserable experience for DD and I, but I so glad to have it done. We went from constant junky coughing (to the point of vomiting) and snuffy nose to nothing so far. I'm thrilled.

I'm now hoping to save major $$ on co-pays!

 

[verlee]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I really feel like I will be better prepared for the procedure. If anyone has any more stories about what their experiences were please share.

 

[mrstxcop]

our oldest dd had her tonsils and adnoids removed when she was in 2nd grade ... it was the best thing we ever did --- she kept getting strep throat and sinus infections --- it got to the point where the strep would not even go away anymore, it was just going dormant when she took the antibiotics and about 2-3 days after the medicine was finished the strep came back...

the ENT said he had never seem tonsils that bad --- when he touched his utensil to them they literally fell to pieces and he had to scrape everything out --- her surgery was supposed to last about 45mins but lasted almost 2 hours due to him having to scrape all the tonsil bits out of her throat...

our dd did really well with the surgery and with recovery --- she never needed anything stronger than Advil ... we filled her pain medication but she never took it ---

we made sure to have pudding on hand, as well as ice cream...mashed potatos, mac and cheese that i mashed up with a fork...slushes from Sonic were on her list, but remember not to use a straw to drink from during recovery...she had to eat her slush from a spoon...i mashed bananas for her and gave her egg drop soup...actually by day 3 she was ready to eat more solid food...

i also went out and got her some coloring books and books for her to read ... i bought her a couple of dvd's and got her a new game for her gameboy ... i also bought her a really nice notebook with a fancy pen where she could write us notes, so as not to talk...i still have all the notes she wrote in her little 7yr old writing...

good luck mom...i know it can be stressful but you will be so greatful for it in the long run...the first school year after the surgery, in 3rd grade, our dd got perfect attendance...she was beyond excited to not be sick anymore...

 

[2disneyboys]

We havent' had tonsils out so I was glad to see this thread. (although looks like it may be on the horizan for my youngest ds6 in the next few weeks... actually watching son and discusing breathing/sleeping problems w/ ped... I also thought it was just allegeries)

On the comment regarding being surprised they didn't get to stay w/kid until asleep ... that was me!!! 4 years ago, my oldest (he was 4 1/2 at the time) had to have his appendix out and I had just expected that I would get to go to the pre op room w/ him (dh could always go to pre op w/ me so I assumed same for me w/ ds) well at our Children's Hospital (love that I live 5 mins from one) they gave DS the "I don't care" medicine and then I had to kiss him goodbye in the hallway right outside of the surgery ward... that was so hard as I wasn't expecting it. I tearfully asked the nurse if I could have some of that I don't care medicine! but my ds had never been sick before this so I was a wreck. I went to the surgical family waiting room and was pacing and watching the clock w/ the rest of my family (that 1 hr took FOREVER TO PASS) and was really just a wreck, when I heard the surgeon talk to another family about their child's heart surgery and I though gosh.. I"m so worked up about this and thier child was REALLY having major surgery compared to appendix!!! I was actually grateful that the other family didn't know what DS's surgery was for! although I can chuckle as this now, I was honestly a wreck at the time!

Moral of the story... talk to the Dr. or nurses ahead of time about the Big details AND the little details like how long you get to stay w/ child etc as you are usually so caught up in the details of the actual procedure, it may not occur to you to ask about the "goodbye" moment which I can promise you will be harder on YOU then the child regardless of how your hospital handles it.

 

[Scully12]

I had my tonsils and adenoids out when I was 10 years old. My tonsils were literally the size of golf balls and I would snore ridiculously loud. I was really small for my age and as soon as I got them out I had a big growth spurt.

I kept a scrapbook/journal during the time I was out of school. I kept all the letters my classmates had to write me. it's fun to look back and see all the bad grammar and handwriting.

It me a long time to recover. I couldn't really eat or drink or speak or swallow for days with out it hurting really bad. I wrote notes to my mom asking her how long it took to starve to death because I could eat. It was miserable for me but every person is different. A man a couple houses over was probably 40 years old and he was eating and talking fine the very next day afterward.

It fixed my snoring though! That very night my mom kept having to check on me all the time because she couldn't hear me snore anymore

 

[GottaLuvMickey]

We just found out that our ds6 needs to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. We think he may have sleep apnea b/c they are too large for his mouth. Has anyone else had this procedure done with their child? How was the recovery. We were told it would be challenging. I just want to know what to expect.

My niece got hers taken out a couple years ago, she was 5 and she talking normal and in very little pain by the time she went to bed that night! She was eating soft, but not SUPER soft foods just fine the next day! I recall her eating a biscuit and eggs for breakfast! Now me on the other hand, I had mine taken out a week after she did, but I was 23 and I couldn't eat for 3 weeks! But here's my 2 cents if you want it... PLEASE get them taken out now! I was miserable growing up because no doctor ever gave us the option to take mine out and I waited until I had my own insurance... get it taken care of now, he'll thank you in the future!

 

[GottaLuvMickey]

I have to jump in here as an adult who just had this procedure in December - PLEASE DO NOT BE AFRAID AND JUST DO IT!! your child will thank you, and not even realize it

I did a lot of reading, etc before my surgery and apprantly the rumors are true, it is worse when you are an adult. For some reason, they way the throat developes at some point between the ages of 12 and 16 this goes from being a simple procedure to PURE PAIN!!! It was horrible, I could not eat, talk, sleep, anything for 2 weeks. It was week 3 before I attempted work and that was only half days. I have given birth and would do that again before a tonsilectomy any day. In fact my joke is that if they grew back tomorrow they would stay in - it was that bad.

Now, that being said, my cousins kid got hers out the same week. She is 5. She was eating cheeseburgers the next day!! (Oh the thought of the ketchup and pickles on those wounds still makes my skin crawl - but it did not bother her a bit). She healed up way faster than I did and was not in nearly as much pain as I was. (Oh, I would like to quickly add that I took very good care of my wounds, I drank lots of water, with no straw and did not eat anything that could get caught in there, I was afraid of infection).

Now for the benefits - I LOVE SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! I did not know how much of an affect my breathing had on me. I always thought I had a small bladder and that the reason I peed several times a night was due to that - nope, I was wrong. I got up to go to the bathroom because I was already partially awake. I was not getting into a deep sleep and I was waking up with the apnea and not even realizing it. I sleep throught hte night now and feel amazing!! You son will be so happy with that!!

So, even though it was awful as an adult, I have spent the last 4 months fighting to get my DDs out. Hers are also huge and touch evenwithout infections. She has tremendous breathing problems in her sleep, but we a told by every specialist that she will "grow out of it". Forget that. I am going from specialist to specialist until someone takes her. They are coming out while she is a child so she does not have to go through the painful prcedure as an adult.

Good luck to your son, I promise, it was not be that bad and when it is over, it is done. He will have a whole new life once he is sleeping through the night!!

OMG! I totally could have written that! Except it was my 5 year old neice and my daughter is only 7 months old... But believe me! As soon as she is old enough to get hers taken out, I will be doing what you're doing! Going from doctor to doctor until someone will take them out!

Oh, and I LIVED on those Bolthouse Farm smoothies that you can buy in the big bottled 2 packs at Sams & Costco! That's all I could consume for 3 weeks!