Night 5 was uneventful. He woke up easily during the night and took his medicine well. I was warned that days 5-9 were the worst because the scabs begin to slough off. I was grateful that he rested well that night.
It's also worth noting that his tongue had a white coating on it the entire time he was healing. This was normal as well as gross. Just part of it.
Day 6 was sort of horrible. His pain increased greatly. We noticed large chunks of the scabs began to come off. He was aware of it as it felt like something was stuck in his throat as he described it. I would just have him drink large amounts of water to push it on down. He seemed to have a fairly good appetite so I had him eat some chicken nuggets to sort of help things along in the back of his throat. Ew. Again, my main focus was staying on top of the drinking, giving him the medicine right on schedule, and keeping him rested. He did not rest well this night as the pain was unbearable. He woke up kicking, moaning and crying in pain. Getting him calmed down enough to take the medicine was difficult. Lots of praying, singing, rocking and begging. And even a few threats of having to return to the hospital to "get another poke" if he didn't calm down, take his medicine and drink.
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| Post-op Day 6 |
Day 7 was the worst day and night for pain. The scabs continued to slough and I continued to push the drinking. I reminded him that the more he drank the quicker the scabs would go away and the quicker the scabs went away, the sooner he would get to run and play. I would challenge him to drinking contests...whoever drinks this (3 ounce) cup the fastest wins. I would give him a cup that held about 12 ounces and told him that when he drank it all I would stand on the counter and do a happy dance. This really did the trick and I used it several times. I even paid him to drink. The kid cleaned up.
This day was the most disgusting scab-wise. It was like there was a long, thick, ropy, dangly arm just hanging back there on the right. I was actually light-headed after looking at his throat and was physically sick. So. Gross. James, if you are ever reading this in the future, I love you dearly, but it was nasty. However, his breath seemed to not be stinky from this point on.
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| Post-op Day 7 |
Days 8-10 were progressively better. He overdid it on day 10 though and digressed a little bit. That was the first night for him to go sleep back in his own bed and he woke up in a lot of pain and ended up coming to my room in the middle of the night. He had a bit of bleeding earlier that day as well. Nothing too bad but he gargled with ice water just to be on the safe side. Day 10 was also his last dose of the prescription pain medication. We had been giving it to him only at bedtime. The rest of the time we just used Tylenol and on day 7 we added in Ibuprofen alternately with the Tylenol.
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| Post-op Day 8 |
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| Post-Op Day 9 |
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| Post-Op Day 10 |
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| A special visit from Uncle Bean and Aunt Lindsay! |
Day 11 we took it much easier to try and recover from the day before. He was very tired and weak.
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| Post-Op Day 11 |
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| Waiting for Daddy |
Day 12-14 were all great. No medicine was needed and he slept great! His snoring has stopped and he is sleeping later and better. I'm so thankful.
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| Post-Op Day 12 |
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| Post-Op Day 13 |
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| Post-Op Day14 |
Today was day 15 and his post-op appointment with his surgeon. She was very pleased with his progress. He had me take in the notebook we had been keeping track of his drinking in so he could show Dr. Morgan. He got around 70-90 ounces a day! She was very pleased with him and said his throat looks great! She told him she wished all of his patients did as well as he did. He beamed! THEN he dropped the bomb. He said to Dr. Morgan and her nurse, "My mommy dances on the bar when I drink!" Oy. Going to have to work on that one. I QUICKLY told them that as incentive I would do the happy dance on our kitchen counter to get him to drink all of his water. Thankfully they both laughed. Oh the things a Mommy will do to take care of her babies. Let's just hope he doesn't bust out that story at church. I should've thought that one through a little further.
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| Post-Op Day 15-ALL BETTER!!! |
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| So happy Bubba's better! |
We are done! Thank you Lord! So it's sort of like childbirth but way less fun. You forget the pain because it is so worth it. At the beginning of this, particularly the first night, I didn't know if I would be able to say that. It was hard, no doubt about it. It is way harder than people prepare you for. Maybe because the outcome is so good they forget how hard it was when they went through it. And like I said earlier, each child tolerates pain differently. Also, a lot of the pain has to do with how much the tonsils are adhered. James' were attached over a large area. Some kids' tonsils are hanging on by only a small amount. The larger the area they are attached, the worst the recovery will be.
So here is my advice and suggestions: Do whatever you have to do, yes even dancing on the bar, to get your kid to drink drink drink. The more they drink the better they will feel and more quickly they will heal. Bribery, treats, money...whatever it takes.
Have lots of yummy treats and drinks on hand as well as little surprises or gifts. We spent exponentially more on the food, drinks and little gifts/surprises to get him through this than we did on the surgery itself. Two weeks is a long time to not be able to run around and play and they will get bored. Have lots of tricks up your sleeve. We visited the library multiple time to check out stacks and stacks of books and movies. I let James play games on my computer and he had unlimited playing time on his leap pad. Now is not the time to worry about rotting your child's brain with too much tv and technology. They need to be still and resting. And to be fair, we are now in the midst of some un-spoiling from the past two weeks and it's no fun.
Also, don't be too concerned about the fact that their healthy eating habits are temporarily suspended. James wanted donuts every morning so donuts he got. As long as he would eat it, I would let him have it. Otherwise there would be massive weight loss. I have a friend whose daughters both lost 15 pounds during their recovery after a tonsillectomy. I tried to "bulk James up" pre-surgery. Now that all of it is behind us we can start cracking down on healthy eating habits again.
You always hear about the Popsicles and ice cream after a tonsillectomy. James ate exactly ONE Popsicle in the whole 2 weeks after his surgery. He did eat a little bit of ice cream and ice cream bars, but not as much as I expected. He mainly wanted soft bread, apple sauce, and yogurt. The ice cold drinks were too hard for him to drink so room temperature or only slightly cold drinks worked best for James. And the small cups (3-4 oz) were an easy and rewarding accomplishment for James to get down some water. Just enough to not be overwhelming but it really added up quickly during the day.
And go ahead and wrap your mind around the fact that NOTHING will be accomplished in your house for a good 10 days. So don't worry about the laundry, dishes and housework (or getting a daily shower). It will all be there when it's over.
I've heard some people say their experience with their child's tonsillectomy was a breeze and no big deal at all. But mostly I've heard people with experiences like ours...very challenging and painful. I told our surgeon today that we don't have a deep well from which to draw for non-emergency situations. We have a son that was diagnosed with cancer at 6 months old, a daughter with Sandifer's syndrome as a baby, and James who spent the majority of his 5 years sick. You just have to bear down and get through it. Day 10 or 11 is the turning point. Just hang in there and know you will be able to catch up on your sleep after that.
Comments
im all the way from Iceland. Your blogg was very useful. My 6 year old daughter is on the 7th day.
Thank you.
Sgrun
Cassi
I am praying!!! Keep me posted on how y'all are doing!
I am amazed that you could take such clear photo's of your little one's throat!! Thanks for that, it is so interesting to see - if pretty gross, of course ;-) . Mine doesn't want to open his mouth at all, he says it hurts. He has always been able to talk (sometimes quite softly), but even then he muffles with a half-closed mouth. He actually manages to wail very loudly too, but again with his mouth half closed. It is interesting how they differ, isn't it?
P.S. My son had severe sleep apnea and had a lot of trouble eating prior to the surgery. They felt his tonsils were the culprit and would solve his sleeping/breathing/eating issues, along with his growing delays. He has already started to breath much better at night and I'm assuming will only get better the more swelling subsides. It doesn't feel like it now, but I know it will be worth it in the end!
In the midnight, my son sat up and gulp out huge amount of blood clots,and rushed to the bathroom and started throwing up blood out of his mouth. It was scary sight as you can imagine. We rushed into the ER, and he was scheduled for 2nd surgery right away because of broken blood vessel. The doctor took out 300 cc of blood from his stomach. We stayed in the hospital overnight until the doctor checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding anymore.
Day 2-5 were very tough at home, fighting to drink water, no ice cream, no Popsicle, refuse to eat and drink, not even the medicine. It was so stressful for us that we had to send our younger daughter to our relatives to take care of him.
On day 5, we went to urgent care because doctor suggested IV to help dehydration. When he was screaming when the nurse was about to begin, he cough out blood again. Rushed to the ER the 2nd time, and this time he was hospitalized, the pain was so severe that the doctor had to give him morphine 6 times throughout the night to resume his drinking.
At this point, my husband and me starting to see that he has panic attacks every time the pain comes back. We can't talk sense into him no matter what we say at those moments, he just complete shuts down and starting banning his head on whatever closes to him. Our hearts are completely broken.
After 2 days of hospitalization, his pain is controlled with Tylenol with codine, and Motrin. He came home yesterday, showing appetite for the first time, and ate some smashed pasta. Pain is up to his ear now, but he is very brave at drinking medicine, but in the middle of nights are still difficult.
We are now on day 8, and thank you for sharing your experience with us. It really help us dealing with so much trauma that has already happened. It comforted me to know that day by day he will get better to the day 15.
Thank you again for sharing! For anyone else , please think hard and through before you follow doctor's suggested procedure knowing that there is a lot of danger in doing tonsillectomy as there are 5 major blood vessels around the area that can all cause heavy internal bleeding. If you have done it, I suggest sleeping with your child in the first few nights so you can to help deal with any emergency situation in time.
The lip and tongue clip were nothing compared to the tonsil removal. We were not ready for this challenge. It has been so so hard. She started refusing her Tylenol Motrin about Day 2. Wanting no medications at all but in severe pain. It has been the biggest battle. She wants nothing past those lips. I've resorted too acetaminophen suppositories every 4 hours. Which are easier to adminstor be to a fighting child. The night before last she had nausea. Vomited 6 times in 3 hours. No blood. I believe it was from being dosed With the suppository and no food. Luckily she did rehydrate herself all day yesterday with some food. Yesterday by far had been our best day. She was incredibly weak until she nibbled on some eggs. But wanted to engage in puzzles and colors finally.
I've read days 7-10 are the worst. I've been bracing myself for these days, although this whole experience from day 1 has been awful. She does not like anything cold and when she does eat it's two small nibbles of something. Nevertheless we are trucking through. Your post has given me hope. Every moment of the day I'm internally scared any minute the pain will come ten fold and without her taking regular meds, things will take a turn for the worst. I just want this to be over.
Your post and others' responses have made me feel not so alone.
Thank you.
Best of luck to everyone. We can do this.
Hopefully we can all move past the trauma (and yes I do say trauma because this has been traumatic for us the parents and her) and get back to our normal life.
After reading your blog, I feel a little relief cause I know what to expect if this happens to her as well as far as the night crying screaming etc.
I managed to encourage her to get down 1% milk cause that's all she would drink (sip) and she ate a half of popsicle. I'm kinda scared to see what these the rest of the days and night will hold for me and her up until.the 10th day.
But I do appreciate this blog.
Thank you for your blog i now know what to do going foward and what to expect.