Tonsillectomy ??

[tiahsmum]

Hi,
My 2 and a half year old daughter has to see an ENT specialist tomorrow as she has had 6 bouts of tonsilitis in 12 months, the latest bout of it was two weeks ago , the doc put her on anti-biotics for 10 days, she started improving a little bit, then on the day after she came off the anti-biotics we had her at the hospital as she woke up screaming in pain and struggling to swallow, the hospital said yes she has tonsilitis?? still or again??? still not sure which one? bacterial or viral? not to know?? put her back on the penicillin and nurofen for pain. :confused:
We went back to the local docs yesterday and he has referred me onto the ENT doctor, he thinks she might have to have a tonsillectomy, i know if she has to have them out then she does but I am a bit concerned at her being 2 and a half and how she would cope with the pain etc, :( has anyone else been through this?? would love to hear from you!

Thanx Heaps

[RedPanda]

Hi Tiahsmum! I may not be much help because I had my tonsils out when I was 20, so I wasn't really as young as your DD. It sounds as though she is going through a similar thing though. I had mine out when I had a recurring bout of tonsillitis that came back whenever I came off the antibiotics. I think I had it about four times in five months. Docs really don't like taking out tonsils these days, you really have to be suffering before they'll do it. I wish I had them out when I was younger - apparantly it's easier when you're younger.

[Mummamoo]

Hi Tiahsmum,

Our Heidi had her tonsils out when she was around 3 (could have been just before). She had chronic tonsilitis, recurring. But the last bout before she had them out was continuous for 6 months ... and that was antibiotics for the whole time.

Her other problem is that she has allergies, one of them being to penicillin and since that is the antibiotic used for tonsillitis, we were up the creek with not many paddles !!

We were referred to the ENT guy and she was scheduled for the next week, which was pretty quick turnaround.

She went in on the morning of the surgery, was assessed and put under. We stayed in over night and they do obs every hour to check for swelling and breathing difficulties. Plus, they keep their pain relief up to keep them comfortable.

She was on panadol and painstop. The painstop was the worst because it contains alcohol and it stings like no tomorrow going down. They pretty much let you go home the next day, as soon as they have eaten and a drank something. They won't let you go before. We werer there till mid afternoon and they nearly had to call the doctor back in because Heidi wouldn't eat. But then I got a packet of chips from the vending machine and bingo - the whole bag. Odd, we had dried ice cream, jelly and custards - all things to slide down easily and all she wanted was chips !! And she doesn't normally like chips. Go figure.

Anyway, within days of being home she was all back to normal. We kept the pain relief up for a good couple of weeks, but she bounced back really fast - littlies often do.

She still gets sore throats, but the infections haven't recurred.

Good luck and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to pm me.

Cheers,

[FourAngelKisses]

Brooke had her tonsils out at 4, we had to take her to Sydney for it though so she was in hospital for 2 nights. After the op, she was pain free (they had given her a panadol suppositroy while in surgery) and was eating pieces of toast. They don't give them soft food after a tonsilectomy these days...something to do with it promoting bacteria growth or something.

From memory, she was back to her normal self after 4-5 days and only needed panadol for 2-3 days. She had always suffered from tonsilitis, 6 times in 12mths (one time it was twice in 3wks) and she ALWAYS had a cold. Once the tonsils went, the colds went, so there must have been some sort of link.

Funny thing was....on the way home we brought her a bottle of strawberry milk. DH was encouraging her to drink it in order to keep her fluid levels up and we got halfway home and she threw up all over the back seat and her car seat. It was a 4.5hr trip home and she waited until we were 30mins from home before doing that.

[tiahsmum]

Thanx Hazel & Mummamoo,

Mummamoo, dont know how you coped with your daughter having it for 6 months?, the poor lil thing and especially being allergic to penicillin also. It's only been two weeks and i am going batty! Especially with her constant waking up in pain from it.
Hopefully if she does have to get them out she will bounce back just as quick, but i guess we will have to wait and see what the ENT doc says tomorrow. :fingerscrossed: it goes well!

[tiahsmum]

Thank u also Angel kisses & ATD-FAH, will def hold the strawberry milk if she has to have to op! :yes:

[FourAngelKisses]

Thank u also Angel kisses & ATD-FAH, will def hold the strawberry milk if she has to have to op! :yes:

I think it was because she drank too much in a short amount of time, plus she had probably had some blood run down while she was sleeping which gave her an upset stomach. But pink vomit all through the car was gross, and trying to clean it up so we could continue the trip home....eewwww.

[Lunar]

DD has had really swollen tonsils for nearly 4 months. She was on anti-biotics for 7 weeks and it didn't help. We are seeing her ENT next week and hopefully it won't be long before they are out. She hardly sleeps at night as she is fighting to breathe, it is so sad.

[tiahsmum]

i know what you mean Emysmum DD has also been waking alot at night because they are so swollen & painful, so im hoping if she does have them out that it will help her sleep & breathe better :fingerscrossed:

[Mummamoo]

Thanx Hazel & Mummamoo,

Mummamoo, dont know how you coped with your daughter having it for 6 months?, the poor lil thing and especially being allergic to penicillin also. It's only been two weeks and i am going batty! Especially with her constant waking up in pain from it.
Hopefully if she does have to get them out she will bounce back just as quick, but i guess we will have to wait and see what the ENT doc says tomorrow. :fingerscrossed: it goes well!

One of the reasons that the ENT guy thought it was so important is because Heidi just pretty much stopped eating and she was starting to lose weight ... and she's not big to start with so it wasn't good.

[suemp]

my son got tonsils and adnoids out at 3 as he was born with them so big it restricted his breathing. you are able to go in with your child as they are put under anesthetic which is by gas mask. the op took about an hour. i got to go into recovery with ds. there was blood around his nose but other wise fine except he was very distraught. the next day he went home after b/fast. no problems..good luck

[reAllytee]

If this is whats needed go with it :hugs:
It will be hard i can imagine but so much better for her health in the long term.
My mum had to suffer with my older sister & then myself having reoccuring infections & sore throats due to our tonsils but she had a fight with me as it wasnt the done thing to remove them when i was older & no doctor would even give a refferal to an ENT !!!!! Finally my mum got it one day & the first thing to doctor did was ask me when he looked down my throat " have you got a bad taste in your mouth all the time & bad breath ? " both my mum & i answered saying yes all the time ( as a child i was always harassed by my family to brush my teeth as though i wasnt doing it due to my breath ). He then advised us my tonsils were rotting in my throat & was disgusted no doctor had referred me earlier.
From then on i suffered yes but its worse getting them out when your older but once i was over it all i had no swelling around my throat neck that i had for years as well as no pain & no bad breath !!!!! I then didnt get another sore throat for 5yrs !!!! This coming from the girl who had a sore throat pretty much all the time & was sick nearly every month !!!!
Good luck i hope all goes well most kids spring back quickly & easily after this op :)

[FourAngelKisses]

no doctor would even give a refferal to an ENT !!!!!

I had this happen with Brookes ears (deaf since birth due to glue ear and chronic ear infections all the time), but I got around it by making an appointment to see a specialist, then telling the Dr that I had an appointment and needed a referal. She had no choice but to give me one. Dr's suck at times.

[Tan-mumof3]

Hi my DD had her tonsils out in feb this year (she was 4). She had extremely large tonsils and adenoids which were forever infected and affected her breathing, since having them out she is 100% she is eating more and growing more, and is happier. The actual recovery from the op wasn't nice she cried alot for the first 48hrs and then played on it alot for the next 2 weeks or so when she didn't want to do something etc, but it was definately worth it :yes:
Goodluck with your appointment.

[tiahsmum]

I just thought i would update after our appointment, she does have to have them out! I found it so much better talking to the ENT specialist than i ever have at the GP about her tonsilitis! So it looks like we will be going in soon. Mixed emotions, happy that finally a doctor who knows what they are talking about and willing to do something about it, but a bit scared for DD at the same time. I dont know it's a bit of a weird feeling!! Anyways thanks to all of you who replied :fingerscrossed: the op & recovery goes well. :)

[FourAngelKisses]

That's great news!!! Do you have a date yet?? It can be hard dealing with the fact that your child needs an operation, but she will be fine. To kids, it's a huge adventure, it's a lot harder on us. When Brooke had her tonsils out, the anesthetist got 2 different flavoured lip balms out of her pocket and had her smell them and told her to pick one (she chose strawberry) and then he put some on his hand and had the air from the gas mask blow over it so that she could smell it when she went to sleep. It was really nice.

(DS1 has had 3 operations, DD has had 4.)