Tonsillectomy?

[erincon23]

Has anyone gone through an older child having a tonsillectomy? DS18 will most likely have to have his out, and is concerned about it. I'm calling the ear, nose and throat dr tomorrow to make an appointment, and thinking about planning the surgery for the second week of December (right after he gets home from college). I know we'll ask the dr. all these questions, but wanted to see if I can get a "real-world" view. How long did recovery take? How long did the surgery take -- was your child home the same day or stay in the hospital overnight? He's particularly concerned because he's a singer -- these darn tonsils are causing major problems, but he wants to be reassured that he won't have any bad effects on his voice from the removal. He has auditions coming up (not until mid-Jan and Feb, so that's why we want to do it soon), and needs to be recovered by then. Any experience you can share is helpful!

Thanks!

 

[Leshaface]

Has anyone gone through an older child having a tonsillectomy? DS18 will most likely have to have his out, and is concerned about it. I'm calling the ear, nose and throat dr tomorrow to make an appointment, and thinking about planning the surgery for the second week of December (right after he gets home from college). I know we'll ask the dr. all these questions, but wanted to see if I can get a "real-world" view. How long did recovery take? How long did the surgery take -- was your child home the same day or stay in the hospital overnight? He's particularly concerned because he's a singer -- these darn tonsils are causing major problems, but he wants to be reassured that he won't have any bad effects on his voice from the removal. He has auditions coming up (not until mid-Jan and Feb, so that's why we want to do it soon), and needs to be recovered by then. Any experience you can share is helpful!

Thanks!

I don't have kids, but I did have the surgery when I was 17

My parents said it was less than an hour that I was in surgery. It was an outpatient center, so I was in and out that same day. I was in bed for two weeks, my throat was VERY tender and sore, and could not literally talk for a good 6 days. I sang in the choir in highschool and at church and the surgery did not effect my singing at all!

He'll be so grateful to have them out! My tonsils gave me so much trouble. I was always sick and now am hardly ever sick! It's great!

 

[Mermaid02]

Had mine out at 18 back in 1986- spent the night in the hospital- got out of recovery, was put in my room and was on the telephone in about 10 minutes chatting away. For me, it was a piece of cake. The recurrent strep was so much worse than the surgery! I have only had strep TWICE since 1986 and I used to have it more often than my period!

Good luck to your son!

 

[kimblebee]

I had mine out at 19 and was in and out the same day. It did take a few days before I could talk but I don't remember any abnormal pain. I survived on Slurpees for a few days and then moved on to noodles and soup.

I did end up being allergic to the codeine in the T3's but that had nothing to do with the surgery.

One major thing I do remember being told is that you can NOT use a straw for at least a month after surgery. The muscles that are being used are the same ones that were operated on so you have to be very careful. Also only gentle throat clearing allowed. Other than that, he should be fine.

 

[mhsjax]

Had mine out at 18 back in 1986- spent the night in the hospital- got out of recovery, was put in my room and was on the telephone in about 10 minutes chatting away. For me, it was a piece of cake. The recurrent strep was so much worse than the surgery! I have only had strep TWICE since 1986 and I used to have it more often than my period!

Good luck to your son!

Wow you were lucky, they say the older you are the worse it is when having them taken out.

My DD had them out at age 5, they was miserable for about 8 days, she was in terrible pain, but then again she didn't deal with strep throat either, her tonsils were just too big and it made her snore.

 

[pilotwife_02]

I had mine out a few years ago, but I was a bit older, 30

I was getting strep throat over and over again (as soon as I finished antibiotics I'd get it again withing day). The doctor said the strep virus was living in my tonsils.

Anyway, it was outpatient and they sent me home with some vicodin. I was in pretty bad pain for about a week. I didn't much cause the pain not only was in my throat but radiated to my ears as well. Before I had surgery I asked the doctor how bad it would feel and he said it would be like the worse case of strep throat I ever had....for 2 weeks.

Unfortunately he was right, but I haven't been sick with strep since! So while it hurt bad it was worth it. When people ask me how bad it is, I tell them I'd rather give birth again then have my tonsils out again

But I think everyone is different, it depends on how bad/large they are, mine were pretty large.

 

[Mermaid02]

Wow you were lucky, they say the older you are the worse it is when having them taken out.

My DD had them out at age 5, they was miserable for about 8 days, she was in terrible pain, but then again she didn't deal with strep throat either, her tonsils were just too big and it made her snore.

The doctor said my tonsils were "dead" and they had big holes in them. ICK! Maybe since they were "so far gone" that is why I had an easy time of it.

 

[nancycg56]

Has anyone gone through an older child having a tonsillectomy? DS18 will most likely have to have his out, and is concerned about it. I'm calling the ear, nose and throat dr tomorrow to make an appointment, and thinking about planning the surgery for the second week of December (right after he gets home from college). I know we'll ask the dr. all these questions, but wanted to see if I can get a "real-world" view. How long did recovery take? How long did the surgery take -- was your child home the same day or stay in the hospital overnight? He's particularly concerned because he's a singer -- these darn tonsils are causing major problems, but he wants to be reassured that he won't have any bad effects on his voice from the removal. He has auditions coming up (not until mid-Jan and Feb, so that's why we want to do it soon), and needs to be recovered by then. Any experience you can share is helpful!

Thanks!

My daughter had them out when she was 20. The surgery was pretty quick ~ an hour maybe ~ and she came home shortly after. She did take two full weeks to recover. She hasn't been sick with colds or strep since and she was ALWAYS sick before.

 

[mhsjax]

The doctor said my tonsils were "dead" and they had big holes in them. ICK! Maybe since they were "so far gone" that is why I had an easy time of it.

That could be, although that is an interesting way to describe them. lol. My poor DD hers were so big that when you opened her mouth to look at where they removed them, the area where they cauterized them was huge on each side, it took up most of her throat. She was in horrible pain, but like I said they were huge. Even her very mono toned soft spoken Dr, yelled when he saw how big they were. I knew then that they were something special, He never has any reaction.

 

[mamamary]

My nephew had them out when he was approx. 20. He did it during the winter break from college. He had a real hard time with it. He was in alot of pain for about 2 weeks. I know during those two weeks he had some kind of trouble with them and had to get rushed to the hospital. My sis in law had them out just recently. She is in her early 40s. She also had alot of problems.

Now my son and I had them out when we were young and it was a very speedy recovery.

Good luck to him.

 

[erincon23]

Thanks! His are HUGE, apparently. He hasn't been getting strep at all, but his throat always hurts, his voice tires quickly when he sings, and he can't seem to shake a constant nose drip (he has bad allergies, but this year nothing helps). I don't think I'll tell him that it could seriously hurt for two weeks!

BTW, today, for the first time, I can type normally here without the delay that a lot of us were complaining about last week...

 

[j's m]

I had them out in 1968 when I was 18. Back in the good old days when they kept you in the hospital for any kind of surgery. I went in the afternoon before surgery and stayed 2 more nights! And that was for an uncomplicated surgery. All I know is that I had recurrent sore throats all my senior year, I guess that's also before they called it strep.

It was probably a month before I could eat everything. The easiest thing for me to eat was bread, and I hated the feel of ice cream. It was great, I lost a ton of weight before leaving for college and gaining the freshman 20.

I hope your son does well with the surgery.

 

[jsmith]

My 21 year old son is having his out the 16th of December. He has horrible obstructive sleep apnea and is almost continually battling a strep infection. He has been told to anticipate being flat out for 10 days and not feeling up to much for 10 days after that ( he is also having some scar tissue removed). The surgery is pretty basic but the ENT has made the recovery sound pretty drawn out.

 

[mckryan]

DD 18 had hers out last May, as soon as she got out of school, and she was having pain for a good 2-3 weeks. The doc said that the pain would be worse the 2nd week, and it was. The good news is that, knock on wood, she's had a really healthy summer and fall, and normally she's been sick 2-3 times by now. Doc thought the tonsils weren't that bad until he got in there and took them out. He said they were disgusting and would have never gotten better. I so wished I had pushed harder to get them taken out when she was younger because the recovery is so much easier in younger patients.

BTW - surgery was same day. Went in first thing and we were home by lunch time.

 

[happily single]

I had mine out when I was 21, back in the mid-1990's. it was absolutely horrible!!! I could not eat or speak for at least 3-4 weeks. i think i was literaly out of work for 6 weeks Now i just get the normal colds, nothing like i did before. but it was horrible. sorry.

 

[mhsjax]

DD 18 had hers out last May, as soon as she got out of school, and she was having pain for a good 2-3 weeks. The doc said that the pain would be worse the 2nd week, and it was. The good news is that, knock on wood, she's had a really healthy summer and fall, and normally she's been sick 2-3 times by now. Doc thought the tonsils weren't that bad until he got in there and took them out. He said they were disgusting and would have never gotten better. I so wished I had pushed harder to get them taken out when she was younger because the recovery is so much easier in younger patients.

BTW - surgery was same day. Went in first thing and we were home by lunch time.

Same here about the 2nd week. She got better for about 2 days and then started crying again, (she was 4)/ Then one day she started really screaming, turns out the scabs were falling off and all of the sudden the crying stopped and she felt better.

OP I don't know what to tell you, it is a rough surg. Make sure he drinks constantly, they kept telling me "A dry throat is a painful throat" Also like someone else said, she couldn't stand ice cream. also nothing tasted good or felt good to drink. I remembered that my mom had a tooth extracted and they told her to put a tea bag on it, if it was bothering her and then I also remembered that women use tea bags under their eyes for swelling. Well, I made that girl iced tea. And she drank that stuff by the gallon and also ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I called the Dr to see if this was oj, and they said anything that she could get down that was soft was ok and let her have it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I had mine out at 19 or 20, after having strep 4 times in one year. Well, 2 times diagnosed, other 2 times were just the same symptoms. Turned out later on that the lake I was rowing on was having a huge algae bloom year (we weren't told), and that's probably what had knocked down my immune system so much that I kept getting sick.

Anyway, I was all alone at college for the summer, taking a summer course. I was in my room for a week, doing nothing but taking a demoral, passing out, waking up, going to the bathroom, drinking some water, taking another pill, passing out, etc. I lost a TON of weight b/c of that plus my throat still hurt really badly after and I couldn't eat much.

At first I thought it was all cool. I had a little dent behind my jaw that I'd never had before. I could trill my rs when speaking Spanish, when I couldn't do that before after 4 years of classes. Those were cool.

But then reality hit...now when I get sick, since I don't have that part of my immune system anymore, the germs go past my throat and to my lungs. My illnesses are far more serious now than they were before when I just had a heinously sore throat. It's not fun, it's not nice, it's a big problem for me.

I wish like anything that I had chosen to do other methods of shoring up my immune system. Better diet, perhaps some vitamins, definitely chiropractic and acupuncture. Do everything I could to HELP my immune system, not just cut the first line of it OUT.

So I highly highly highly and strongly recommend that your adult child look into doing that before scheduling anything. I had the HARDEST time finding someone to take my tonsils out, and it turns out they probably had good reason to try to talk me out of it.

 

[mhsjax]

I had mine out at 19 or 20, after having strep 4 times in one year. Well, 2 times diagnosed, other 2 times were just the same symptoms. Turned out later on that the lake I was rowing on was having a huge algae bloom year (we weren't told), and that's probably what had knocked down my immune system so much that I kept getting sick.

Anyway, I was all alone at college for the summer, taking a summer course. I was in my room for a week, doing nothing but taking a demoral, passing out, waking up, going to the bathroom, drinking some water, taking another pill, passing out, etc. I lost a TON of weight b/c of that plus my throat still hurt really badly after and I couldn't eat much.

At first I thought it was all cool. I had a little dent behind my jaw that I'd never had before. I could trill my rs when speaking Spanish, when I couldn't do that before after 4 years of classes. Those were cool.

But then reality hit...now when I get sick, since I don't have that part of my immune system anymore, the germs go past my throat and to my lungs. My illnesses are far more serious now than they were before when I just had a heinously sore throat. It's not fun, it's not nice, it's a big problem for me.

I wish like anything that I had chosen to do other methods of shoring up my immune system. Better diet, perhaps some vitamins, definitely chiropractic and acupuncture. Do everything I could to HELP my immune system, not just cut the first line of it OUT.

So I highly highly highly and strongly recommend that your adult child look into doing that before scheduling anything. I had the HARDEST time finding someone to take my tonsils out, and it turns out they probably had good reason to try to talk me out of it.

My DD wasn't very sick before her surg, a few bouts of strep, maybe 4, she was 4 when they took them out. She has had nothing sense then. Barely a cold.

Also I think the op is like my DD they were called Kissing tonsils, they interfered with her sleep, she has sleep apnea and her breathing was more important then keeping her tonsils. also interfered with her eating, she couldn't swallow any meat. We spent a lot of time getting angry at her for not swallowing her food, now she is a champ. I don't think that taking tonsils out is necessarily a bad thing, but shouldn't be done on a whom either.

 

[arminnie]

I had mine out as an adult. My stupid doctor also decided to repair a deviated septum at the same time. OMG - the recovery was HIDEOUS.

But that was a long, long time ago. Today's pain management can be so much better. I don't think I was given anything for pain. Make sure you have a doctor who believes in staying ahead of the pain.

It is so worth it not to have a major illness every 6 months. Many many years later I had some sinus issues. After about 6-7 months of getting nowhere I had surgery to clean out the sinuses, reduce the turbinates, and open the "windows". I have no idea what that means - but 11-12 years later I've barely had a cold once or twice.