I remember having my tonsils removed when I was in Kinder…well, I sorta remember. I can’t recall every little detail- I do remember freaking out when the nurse asked me for a urine sample when we first checked into the hospital & clinging to my Mom’s leg because I had no idea what the nurse actually wanted from me. I can remember being in the operating room & having the gas mask placed on my face, being told to count backwards from ten to zero & only being able to get to about 7 before going under. I recall waking up in the recovery room, asking the nurse for water & her telling me I couldn’t have any just yet… being wheeled back to my room, and throwing up copious amounts of blood, scaring both me & my Mother! Doc said it was perfectly normal, whew! The nurses came in every few hours to give me shots for the pain. I stayed in the hospital 2 or 3 days & by the time I went home I was in pretty good shape- I don’t remember any overwhelming pain once I got home.
A lot has changed since my Tonsillectomy all those years ago! When we signed the consent forms for our 8 year old son’s surgery, there was no mention of what we should really expect post surgery. We were told to expect ‘some’ pain, but it was basically made to seem like a very minor operation. We soon found out this is a MAJOR event!
What You Need to Know:
1.) Your child will be loopy before surgery, very loopy. Our son was given a ‘sleepy juice’ cocktail to drink about 45 minutes before being whisked into the operating room. I expected it to knock him out right away, instead it made him hyper and I had to keep him from hopping off the gurney! He was talking crazy & flying high. He did finally begin to settle down as they were wheeling him into surgery. Here he is a few minutes after ingesting the sleepy juice:
2.) Your child will NOT be spending the night in the hospital. These days, Tonsillectomies are considered out-patient surgery. Our son was discharged about an hour after his tonsillectomy. I was very apprehensive about taking him home so soon- but that’s just the way it is now.
3.) Your child will probably NOT be given a prescription for pain meds, instead you’ll be advised to manage the pain with Tylenol & Motrin-alternating between the two every few hours. I was told that children’s bodies metabolize narcotic medications differently than adults and because of this Docs don’t want to prescribe them for fear of overdosing the child.
4.) There will be pain, LOTS of it! Our son was in constant pain from the moment we got home. The only thing he could eat was frozen yogurt & even that took a long time to get down. He couldn’t eat more than three or four spoonfuls. Tylenol & Motrin weren’t enough for him, but they helped a little. There is nothing worse than listening to your child whimper and moan in pain, all night long, unable to sleep-he was begging for his next dose of medicine-and I couldn’t give it to him because it wasn’t time. The pain was so great that our son became dehydrated from lack of eating & drinking. We had to take him to the ER, where he was given IV fluids. Please try to get some liquids into your child- or you too will be sitting in ER.
5.) Your child will have the worst breath ever! Whoa! Until those scabs in your child’s throat heal & fall off (yes, your child will swallow them without even knowing), that breath is gonna be deadly! You’ve been warned!
In closing, I’d like to add your child will probably miss 7-10 days of school. We scheduled our little one’s surgery for Spring Break, thinking one week would be enough time to recuperate- we were wrong. And the older the child- the more pain there will be.
I hope this info helps someone-I wish I’d known a few of these things before going forward with our son’s surgery. I’m just glad it’s over!
