Adenotonsillectomy - what do I need to know?

[whatwouldkatyactuallydonext]

Dd (6) is having her tonsils and adenoids out and grommets in next week.
I am a lone parent with a ds (16) with autism and learning disability so I'm panicking a bit!

My ds gets a taxi from home to school door to door so at least I don't have to do the school run, and he can stay with my parents after the op for a couple of days in case dd is feeling really bad. He does however tend to get much more demanding if I need to focus on dd.

I really would like to know what I'm in for and any helpful tips that you have as I'm going to have to be really prepared. Any info I can find online seems to be from the US or detailing horror stories! It doesn't help that I suffer from anxiety (particularly around hospitals, illness and germs and being out of control)!

I won't have anyone at the hospital with me, so I'm dreading that. Also the thought of 2 weeks under house arrest is horrible (in a very small flat, I don't have a bedroom and sleep in the lounge).

On a practical point - will I be ok driving dd home alone when she's discharged (it's a day operation) or would it be better to get a taxi? The journey's about 15mins.

The information the hospital gave me was to take an overnight bag just in case - in what circumstances would she need to stay overnight? Also the hospital is day patients only - does that mean we'd have to travel to another hospital if she needed to stay? Would I take her in the car or would she have to go by ambulance?

Advise gratefully received please!

Bump

Peadiatric nurse on an ENT ward
Here.
Keep on top of regular pain relief. Make sure you go home with Oramorph. But some hospitals don't do this.

You'll be fine to drive her home.

Normal diet. Lots of crunchy food like crisps.

Make sure she's drinking. Any sign of bright red fresh blood go straight to A&E.

Thank you!

DD had hers out (separately) when she was 15/17.

The hospital let her leave once she was eating toast and drinking ok. She did have a fair amount of pain for the next few days, tonsils were worse than adenoids. We had to go back with her tonsils because she was bleeding and they kept her overnight then but controlled it with medication so she didn't need to go back to surgery.

I was fine to drive her home. Just needed to keep on top of pain relief, they gave her codine liquid to take home which made her a bit spacey.

Take a book / things to do if you're staying because there was lots of waiting around - before surgery for her turn, during surgery and after while waiting for pharmacy. Both times we were in first thing in the morning and home by 5ish.

She was fine within a week both times.

Oh and they transferred her from one hospital to another via ambulance when she was bleeding (No blue lights) which was a bit annoying because we had to wait for one and it would have been much quicker to drive!

When you say bleeding do you mean vomiting blood or spitting it out/it being in the drool iyswim? Was there loads or just a bit?

Anyone know?

DS has his out when he was 2.10yo. Definitely keep on top of the pain relief - follow the schedule even if they seem ok, because it’s important for them to keep eating and they won’t if they’re in pain.

They told me day 5 post-op would be the worst in terms of pain (something to do with the healing process and it scabbing up), then after that he got better quite quickly.

Before the surgery we took him crisp shopping, which he loved! They advise you to give them crunchy foods which may seem odd but it helps clear all the gunk from the throat.

Had no bleeding here, and he was at the park for a brief visit at the end of the first week, so by no means were we stuck in for a solid 2 weeks. Just played it by ear really.

Forgot to add he stayed overnight but he was young and last on the list. We were told he wouldn’t go home anyway until he had something to eat, which he did at about 7pm when he woke up after his 2 hour post-op nap, demolished a sandwich and bag of crisps then promptly fell asleep again!

Thank you

She will want to blow her nose. Try to not let her as it will pull on things and hurt. Plus her adonoids need to heal over.

My DD5 had it done in June. She was ok post op but didn’t want to eat and felt dizzy. She was given something to stop the dizziness and she ended up having her pulse of 163 and a high blood pressure. They admitted that the medicine which meant to stop dizziness cause all this. Next her temperature was up and started vomiting blood. They quickly took bloods for testing and confirmed post op infection. She was on IV antibiotics. They kept us overnight. I must say I was petrified. The next morning she woke up like nothing had happened, had her breakfast, lunch and around 5 pm we were sent home. To be honest the 2 weeks I was warned about, how horrible it would be, were much easier than the first 48 hours. She wasn’t in pain. Just in the mornings when her throat was dry she asked for calpol. We were also given antibiotics home.
Make sure your DD eats normal food as it helps to bring the gunk that sits in her throat to go down. This prevents any infections.
My DD sleeps and breaths better, no snoring and sleep apnea. Good luck to your DD. She’ll be fine. They are much stronger than we think.

TwinMummy that must have been really frightening, but good to know your DD improved quickly after that.

All really good advice, so thank you

Can't wait for it all to be over as she's been suffering from tonsillitis, ear infections and glue ear for years, poor thing.

Just dreading it and having to do it by myself.

good luck 💐my DH wasn’t much of a help so it felt like I was doing it all by myself 🤔

Hi ,

My son had it done last August when he was almost 5. We stayed overnight and he was absolutely fine, eating and drinking.

When we got home, the pain was immense. We were giving pain medication regularly and also had the dose of morphine on day 3 ,4,5 after surgery. But he had really bad pain even with the morphine. We took him to
Out of hours where the doc said that the pain was expected. But the next day he was still in so much pain and we took him to a&e and the docs suspected it was an infection and prescribed antibiotics. 3 doses of antibiotics and he was a different child.
Lots of wishes for you child.
Good luck !

Bumbleb that sounds horrible.

Dd is currently going through a period of overly-dramatic responses to anything remotely painful (think crying over the smallest scratch!) so I'm worried how I'd tell if it's 'normal' pain or something more serious.

I'm surprised they don't give the antibiotics as a precaution afterwards for everyone really.

As had his out aged 4, they said it would take two weeks to recover and it really did, take it slow, keep your expectations low and as all P.P have said keep a schedule of pain relief. We did venture out on little drives for a change of scenery in week two but ds was tired and didn't want to walk around lots. Stock up on films/ tv series she likes. If she's not improving I to week two check she hasn't got an infection ds did have and it massively slowed his recovery.

Ds has his done at the start of August. We followed the pain killer routine to the letter but he never had any pain and was refusing painkillers by day 5. He is not a brave boy!
Be prepared for a voice change. Ds has gone from nasal and stuffy to a mans voice! He’s 8!
He had the most horrendous complications but honestly it was 10000 to 1 and nothing to do with the actual op. The thought of a winter without back to back tonsillitis makes it all worth it.