Tonsilectomy

From the experiences I've seen, you should have nothing to worry about! One friend's 4 yr old daughter just had her tonsils out about two wks ago...she was fine the next day. And bouncing around two days later! I also had a friend have her two yr old boy have his tonsils out...he was bouncing around the very next day. Kids are resilient! I'd prob be out for a week if i had to do it now:) Good luck!

I would strongly suggest that you contact Bill Stanton's Health in Snellville at ###-###-#### for further valuable information before having this done.

Kim
Mother of 4

Hi L.,
My 2nd son just had his tonsils and adenoids removed.. My first son had the same done with tubes back in September.. Yogurt was a HUGE hit on our side.. But I just wanted to note the pain meds.. For ours they gave them Tylenol with Codeine.. I was not a fan.. With my first son he stayed soo drugged and even started "Requesting" more medicine (he is not a meds taker) and then with my 2nd son it seemed to not do anything. I ended up using just regular Motrin on the 2nd day with him and he took to that a lot more.. So my suggestion is to find out what other pain meds that children can take besdies the Ty w/Codeine.. It is true days 3-7 are the worst.. The first day was a breeze it was the ones after that were hard to handle. But after about a wee things are pretty much back to normal.Please email me should you have any other questions. I know there were several.. Like is this normal or that.. But with both my sons having the surgery and them being two seperate people.. I pretty much saw it all.. Good Luck..

How is he having the Tonsils taken out.If they are coming out by laser sugery than he cant eat ice cream.So I would find out how they are coming out

Hi,

My son was 2 1/2 when he had it done, and the hardest thing was getting him to take his medicine. His throat hurt too bad to swallow it, plus it tasted terrible. He re-injured his throat several times while fighting the medicine before we finally talked to a pharmacist who recommended using tylenol suppositories instead. He still had to take his antibiotics, which was hard, but at least it was one fight instead of two.

As far as a book goes, we read Franklin Goes to the Hospital. It was a cute book that talked about many of the things that he would encounter.

Good luck, and know that despite a couple of hard weeks, it's worth it in the end. My son breathes SO much better and has gotten sick SO much less.

If you do not let your child know you are anticipating problems,there will be less pain. Two of mine had tonsils removed. They gladly ate ice cream, and drank Coco-cola which was pain relieving. The cold beverage being sipped can remove most any pain. Mine were eating real food by day 2. Soft and never above room temp for probably a week or so. Canned fruits with cottage cheese was a favorite,especially peaches. This could also be mixed with yugart. V.

It's actually a whole lot easier when they are younger. My daughter got her tonsils taken out 2 weeks after mine were taken out. I was in pain for days, but the day after surgery she was up and ready to go. She didn't really eat much after the surgery, but she was muchin' on some McD's french fries the next day as if nothing happened.
Good Luck!

I had mine taken out when I was older. Wasn't hungry at all. If for 3 days all child eats ia licks of popcycle, go along with it. It's sore and hard to eat. Be understanding as to it hurting.

My 3 year old had his out Thursday, so we are knee deep in recovery. My son does not do well with pain, so I was very concerned. So far, our experience has not been bad at all. To be honest, his tonsils had been making him so sick for so long, its just like one of his bouts of strep. (Granted...we are giving prescription pain meds as directed to help keep severe pain at a minimum)

As far as pain, our doctor advised us to keep him on the prescription pain meds every 4 hours for a few days because it is harder to stop existing pain than it is to prevent it. Once he seems to be getting better, she said to replace a prescription dose with Tylenol...not to lengthen the time between doses. Gradually (over days) replace it all with Tylenol. She mentioned that some parents are too quick to come off the prescription and the kids won't eat or drink. Fair warning...it tastes horrible!! Go ahead and get it flavored when you get it filled before surgery (and definitely get it done before surgery) They must drink constantly to prevent the throat from drying out, leading to more pain and potential bleeding when the scabs come off, so for us it is more important to keep him comfy enough that we can get liquids into him.

Every 15 minutes or so, we offer popciscles, ice cream, apple juice or milk (his favorite). He won't eat the popscicles like normal, so we mash them up so he can eat them with a spoon. Our little guy was hungry yesterday, so I gave him pancakes. I found the frozen ones that go in the microwave. They are silver dollar sized and really soft.

We did not get any books prior, mostly due to his age. I was afraid he wouldn't understand enough, so I can't help you with that one. On the distraction front, if he is going to Scottish Rite, they have toy bins and the kids get to pick out a prize. My mother also brought him a gift bag full of fun books.

We had one issue in that his oxygen levels were too low for them to let us leave the hospital. We were the last ones on the surgery floor, so he got lots of special TLC. They gave him a steroid to shrink swelling and he vomited mucus and secretions up immediately. (yes, I know yuck). Anyway, that must have been what was blocking his airway enough to keep him from getting the Oxygen he needed, because his levels immediately shot up and we were released soon after. So...since your child is older, be prepared to tell them to cough if needed. (my little guy was too young to understand that)

Its not easy, but its so much better than I expected. Our doctor advised us to plan for the worst and hope for the best! :) She said some kids will be on Tylenol by the 5th day, and some may need 2 weeks.

Best of luck! We were up at 5am yesterday eating ice cream. It was kind of a special little moment. :)

My son had his adenoids out right at 4 years old. I was looking forward to a weekend of cuddling...by the time we got home from the hospital, he wanted to play and run around. The hardest part was when he was coming out of the anesthesia, he tried to rip the IVs out and was scared. And prior to going back for the procedure, I was worse with fear than him. :-)

Good luck.

My now 15 year old had his tonsils and adenoids out in 2001. We used Dr. Paul Atwater and chose to have the procedure done at Piedmont despite him being on staff at Children's. It was the BEST experience I could have EVER had. My now 12 year old had his adenoids out at 5 and again we used the same doctor and hospital. I couldn't have asked for more. Because they don't see many children, my boys were so babied. They loved it. The hospital also allowed me to go back into the room with them and stand over them as they were being put to sleep so Mommy was the last thing they saw. And because the doctor used a harmonic scalpel, there was essentially zero downtime from even eating. It uses sound waves to cut rather than actually cutting into the tissue. The one that had his adenoids out woke up and was right back to eating and playing by lunchtime. The one that had his adenoids and tonsils removed took a little longer to come out of anesthesia so he slept the majority of the day. When he did get up, I only gave him Popsicles but by the end of the night, he had eaten a few of those, plus an egg sandwich and popcorn without any pain or discomfort!

Hi L.!
My son had his tonsils, adneoids, & ears cleaned just about 3 weeks ago. He too is 4 years old. We were concerned for the post surgery b/c he is our sensitive child (cries at every little thing). We did not want him to strain his throat b/c of the crying. A few hours after the surgery he whined very little for the pain, to my surprise, and was a strong. He took the pain medicine & the antibiotics (I added watermelon flavor to it & it helped a lot!!!), but it did hurt when taking it at least for the 1st 2 days. After that, he took it like a champ. The hardest part for me was keeping him from being physically active for 2 weeks. How do you tell a 4 year old boy not to jump or run around even after feeling well after 2 days. His pitch in his voice did change after a few days. He sounded like Alvin from the chipmunks for about 2 weeks, but went back to normal before our post op follow up. We talked about his surgery for at least 4 weeks and loaded up on his favorite fruits, popsicles, ice cream, yogurt. In fact, we had him go grocery shopping with us the day before to pick out his favorites. His siblings discussed it with him on and off for a week, which helped. Bring his favorite toy, blankie,etc. Your son will do just fine and we had a great experience with our hospital and the staff! Good luck.