Tips & Information About Little Kids Who Are Having Tonsils Removed

The following is a guest post by Knoxville mother of two Christy Parrot. Thanks, Christy!

ChristyParrot Last year, our 3 (almost 4) year old, had his tonsils removed.  He had begun snoring over the summer and it became progressively worse until sleep apnea developed.  He would snore this really loud snore and then just stop breathing.  We found ourselves leaning into the silence and almost willing him to start again.  And he did, but it was a jolting snort of air intake.  His body was just taking over and forcing him to breathe.  Then he would start all over again and continue all night.  Needless to say he was not getting any real rest and during the day he was tired and cranky.  We weren’t sleeping that great ourselves.

We took him to an ENT and my cover-all-bases husband even brought along a video of the “best of” Graham’s snoring.  The doctor said both his tonsils and adenoids were enlarged and the video showed “textbook” sleep apnea.  His recommendation was to remove both his tonsils and adenoids at the same time.

We talked to everyone we knew that had been through it and prepped Graham during the next week.  But nothing could really prepare us for how miserable he would be.  It really was all worth it, but I wouldn’t wish a week like the post-op week on anyone.

About The Surgery

  • Removing the tonsils is worse than removing the adenoids.  The adenoids are farther up and swallowing doesn’t seem to affect them as much.  Unfortunately, Graham had to have both removed.
  • Although you report to the hospital early in the morning there is no set time for the surgery.  They take them back by age – youngest first (at least this is how our doctor did it.)  Right before he went back to the operating room, they gave him “happy juice” to relax him – that was kind of fun to watch cause he was silly loopy!
  • The surgery is over in a nanosecond.  Once they took him back, our fannies had hardly warmed our waiting room seats before they were calling us back to his room.  It took maybe 15 minutes – amazing.  But then the real ride began.
  • No matter how much prep work you do, your kiddo won’t really understand what “your throat is going to be sore” means.  When we got to his room, he was hoarsely crying out as he struggled with a nurse.  She was trying to keep his loopy self in the bed and he was determined to get out and find me.  He was in a lot of pain and they needed to get more pain meds into him.  However, the pain medicine had to be swallowed – swallowed down a raw and ravaged throat by a loopy, confused little boy.  Why oh why can’t they invent a pain medicine patch in your choice of cartoon characters for these situations?  It took two nurses holding him down in my arms to get it into him.  Poor guy – he thought he was going to wake up a little achy, ready to eat a Popsicle.
  • He woke up an hour or so later – still loopy – and still uncooperative.  In order to leave the hospital, he had to either eat a Popsicle or drink a sippy cup of juice – both provided by the hospital. (Of course he didn’t like the flavors they had.)  But the last thing he wanted to do was swallow.  It took us a couple of hours to get him to swallow enough to leave.
  • While we were there we talked with his nurse about recovery.  She assured us that the fact that his doctor used a laser to remove the tonsils was going to make for a better recovery than if the doctor had used a knife.  Apparently some doctors learned to remove tonsils the old fashioned way and never moved away from it when laser removal was possible.  She said the risk of bleeding was much greater if they cut them out vs burning them out.
  • You hear a lot about bleeding from everyone involved.  Apparently, a small number of patients will bleed – a lot – and its possible to have to go back to surgery.  I think the number is very small, but it is possible.  More people bleed later on in that first week (more on that later).

When You Get Home

  • When you get home, have lots of videos and books waiting.  Graham didn’t move from the couch for much of the week.
  • The most exhausting part for parents is getting meds and liquids into the kid.  They gave us hydrocodone to give him every 4 hours.  He had to swallow it and absolutely refused it.  Every time.  Every single time.  In addition, he had to stay hydrated. I kept remembering the other thing the nurse had told us:  If he didn’t stay hydrated he would end up in the ER and they would absolutely get liquids into him (remember the two nurses in recovery?).  I wanted to avoid that trauma again, so my husband and I became meanies.  We insisted, we were firm, we begged, we encouraged, we bribed. We tried everything!   He cried and begged us to not make him do it – talk about stabbing my heart.  I felt like the worst Mommy in the world, but I knew we had to do it for his own good.  Someone told me that a few tablespoons of liquid every hour or so would prevent dehydration (although more is better) so I relaxed a little.  A few tablespoons at a time seemed more doable than an entire sippy cup.  But more is better, so get as much into them as you can!
  • As for pain meds, there is no convincing a kid that he will feel better if he just takes the medicine.  But he had to take it before the last dose was hours out of his system or we knew we would never get it into him later.  Sometimes he would agree to take meds straight and sometimes we put it into a very small amount of a drink to make it taste better.
  • The surgery made him hoarse. I hadn’t anticipated that, it was painful to listen to him.
  • His breath was hideous.  The scabbing caused it – I can only imagine how his mouth tasted and he couldn’t brush his teeth.
  • The nurse said the more cold things he drank the faster his throat would heal.  We bought his favorite drinks and frozen treats.  We had popsicles of every flavor (except red, purple or orange – looks like too much like blood so they wanted us to avoid that in case it came back up and we couldn’t tell the difference), ice cream on sticks, bars and in cartons.  We bought chocolate shakes from every restaurant that made them in the hopes of tempting him.  We were constantly encouraging “one more sip.”
  • The nurses said he shouldn’t drink from a straw because it could strain his throat, but we let him.  The risk seemed small compared to getting him to drink anything!  We did let it soften in the fridge so it wasn’t so thick and he didn’t have to strain to pull it through the straw.

The Healing Process

The healing process takes two full weeks:

  • The first two days are awful because the scabs are forming.
  • Days three and four are better – we moved to Tylenol during the day and kept the hydrocodone for nights to help him sleep.
  • Days five, six and seven got bad again because the scabs were beginning to slough off.  This is when you have to watch out for bleeding.  If it happens, call the doctor and be ready to go to the ER.  However, I think this is just a precaution – most of the time the bleeding stops on its own, but better to be safe than sorry.
  • We were told “no sweaty play” for 14 days to make sure he didn’t aggravate the scabbing.  This wasn’t a problem because he didn’t feel like being that active.  By day 12 he was ready to go back to Mom’s Day Out.
  • We had his fourth birthday party on day 15. He was fine and back to normal.

The snoring continued for about six weeks after the surgery, but gradually stopped as he continued to heal.  Now, no snoring and a much happier, rested little boy, but whew! What a journey!

Christy Parrott is a stay at home mom of two.  She spends her days trying to raise sweet bunchkin’s and keep her housekeeping above hoarder level.

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7 Responses to Tips & Information About Little Kids Who Are Having Tonsils Removed

  1. Janet April 22, 2014 at 9:49 am #

    Ughh reading your post this morning makes me sick.. My little 2 year old granddaughter getting the same & tubes…. severe sleep apnea…. oHHH this is sad…

  2. jessica August 30, 2015 at 12:13 am #

    I needed to read this..my son who is 3 turning 4 in Dec just got his out yesterday..and the adenoids..he been in pain I cannot afford the hydrocodone so he’s going off straight tylenol..he’s been picky about eating and drinking…luckily I use the syringe for medicine to get him to drink his 2oz of H2O ..its overwhelming for me and its just me n him since I am a single mom…mahao

    • Heather August 31, 2015 at 10:14 am #

      The syringe is a great idea, Jessica. Sorry he’s going through this, but I am glad he has you. May the force be with you!!!

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