Tonsillectomy

looby75

As some poster here might know from my previous posts my ds has a LOT of ent problems, he gets tonsillitis every 4-5 weeks, ear infections regularly and has missed a lot of time in school due to this. I am a single parent on benefits, and because of his illnesses I'm not in a position to get a job right now, doubt any employer would be happy with me being off work every few weeks to look after him!


Anyway we got fantastic news on Thursday, ds had his first visit to the ENT clinic at the hospital and the doc took one look at his notes, asked a few questions and immediately agreed to put him on the list to get his tonsils and adenoids out :j :T :j :T I've been told the waiting list is about 3 months, so fingers crossed that by the new year tonsillitis will be a thing of the past.

It's going to change so many things for us if ds stops getting ill, obviously he won't be suffering any more, I won't keep picking up illnesses from him (on my second bout of tonsillitis in just over 2 weeks right now ) and I will be able to go back to college/work again.

I don't think there has ever been a mother so happy to know her son is going to have a op before LOL

rjh090384

woohoo he will be a happy bunny now. i had mine out although i only had one bad case of tonsillitis but i stopped breathing they were so swollen so i got them out. feel so much better now!!1

looby75

rjh090384 wrote:

i had mine out although i only had one bad case of tonsillitis but i stopped breathing they were so swollen so i got them out.

Yikes that must have been scary! My ds does have sleep apnoea when he has tonsillitis, which is probably why the doc agreed to put him on the list immediately. I had heard they made you wait at least 2 years before agreeing to take them out, I know my dd had to wait almost 3 years before they did hers.

clarew

good for you. Stock up on the paracetamol and ibuprofen for using when he comes out of hospital, will be sore for a few days. encourage him to eat as much as possible when he gets home, will reduce risk of infection. (just avoid things like fresh orange juice/salty things as will sting a bit).

Will make a big improvement in your lives though!!

hjb123

Glad to hear that your son is going to get the dreaded tonsils out. I had a lot of problems with mine while I was doing my A Levels - about 8 years ago now - and had had trouble with them for ages before that. The doctors kept saying that it would clear up and that I was on the older side for having them out - anyway in the end they gave in as it never cleared up. I was put on the waiting list and said that I could manage to make cancellations - I got one - was told about 2 days before to go in. Went in lunchtime one day, had the op at 3pm and was allowed home the next morning. A couple of hours after the op I was eating egg sandwiches - lovely (sarcasm) ones made by the hospital.

All the soup and ice cream etc that we had stocked up on for after my op wasnt needed as I was able to eat solid foods.

It will such a relief for your son - and indeed you - once the tonsils are out!

Becles

I had similar problems when I was a child. The doctor referred me to the ENT consultant and I had my first appointment with him on the Friday afternoon. My Mam explained everything and he examined me and agreed the tonsills needed to come out.

He then said "hang on a minute" and made a couple of phone calls. He came off the phone and said another child was sick and had cancelled their operation, so if I could be in hospital on the Sunday afternoon, he'd take them out on the Monday :eek:

I can remember living on cold soft foods afterwards, so stock up on yoghurts, jelly and ice cream!

looby75

Thanks everyone

I was told that an over night stay might not be necessary now! Apparently as long as my ds is eating and drinking ok they will send him home the same day, apparently they like to get them out of hospital asap now as one of the favourite places for MRSA and other nasty bugs to start is in the back to the throat. So fingers crossed that my ds is so used to having a sore throat by now that he'll have no bother eating and drinking lol

looby75

Becles wrote:

I can remember living on cold soft foods afterwards, so stock up on yoghurts, jelly and ice cream!

They aren't that nice now, they give you crisps and toast to eat and all soft stuff is banned! It's all to do with making sure that any bits of tissue that's left behind gets brushed off and doesn't cause infection, and believe it or not it also helps with pain control, the body produces natural pain killers better when you eat rough stuff.

My dd had her tonsils out when she was 5 (as you can see ENT stuff runs in the family) and she was eating raw carrots within hours of her op! I will admit that as soon as she got home I let her eat as many ice pops as she wanted though lol

chloejane_2

that is really great news my daughter had hers out when she was 3 best thing that ever happened to her as she would be ill, ok for a week, be ill, ok for a week and that pattern continuted for about 6 months refered to ent dept then they were removed in 6 weeks very good service she came round and ate everything in site as she was starving and only had calpol for a day then had no problems at all, we did have some antibiotics and good supply of pain killers at the ready but didnt need them! i think its much better to have them out at a young age as the child bounces back normally very quickly, unlike myself who had to wait till i was 16 and it was 3 weeks before new year to have mine out but being christams and new year a few drinks helped to ease the pain

Becles

It's changed a lot since I was little then. I think it was about 1982 when I had mine out.

I had to go in on the Sunday afternoon, and I can remember having a horrible bath. There was about 2" of tepid orange disinfectant in the bath, and a nurse sponged it all over me. It stank!

I had the operation on the Monday morning. At tea time they brought me some tomato soup and said I had to eat it. I protested because I used to be intollerant to tomato (have grown out of it now!), but they didn't believe me. So I ate it, then promptly threw up all over my bed, which they were not happy about!

I was on soft food all day Tuesday, then allowed out on the Wednesday.

rjh090384

thanks looby was scary. they still wanted me to wait 6 months for a consultation though then for operation. so we paid privately for consulatation £35 i think then went to nhs for operation less than a month waiting. panicked the anaethatist when he saw my tonisils though....he didnt know where to put the tube and also all the people were coming from fdifferent wards asking to see "the girl with the giant tonsils"
good luck to ur son anyway!!