AIBU to ask when tonsillectomy pain will improve??

[lollydu]

Sorry I'm shamelessly posting in here as I'm kind of desperate!!

My 4 year old DD had her tonsils and adenoids out on 6th Jan. we are now day 9 and I can see no end in sight for the awful nights we've been having and how much pain she is in. We have been doing round the clock ibuprofen and calpol every 3 hours since the moment she came round from surgery and most nights she ends up needing a dose of morphine to get her to settle. And then it's every 2-3 hours up in absolute floods of tears and inconsolable. It definitely did get worse around day 5 or 6 when the scabs started sloughing off and now looks very patchy where the white is coming away but she is still in so much pain, one side in particular where she is having bad ear ache as well. Everything I've read seems to suggest an improvement around day 10 but we are firmly in the trenches at the moment and I just can't imagine it happening!

Please can I ask anyone with experience, how long did it take for the pain to abate a little so she can sleep peacefully at least.

That sounds pretty abnormal to me, I had only middling pain for a few days when I had mine out. I also didn't have any morphine. But that was 30 years ago and just me so hopefully someone with medical knowledge can advise. Hope your poor DD feels better soon.

About a week - I remember having a week off school and still having some minor soreness and tiredness on my first day back. But I was older so perhaps could cope better. My ENT consultant surgeon advised me to eat crisps to help with recovery! This was 38 years ago.

It's been 9 days now so we are definitely past a week - I can't imagine her being back to school today she's absolutely not fit for it. Consultant said 2 weeks off so she's back to school next Monday but she's just still in so much pain and not sleeping well at all I can't even imagine it being much improved by then either! She was doing so well the first 3 or 4 days then day 5 it all just got a lot worse! She's had a course of antibiotics and no temperature so I don't think she's got an infection.

Two of my kids have had tonsillectomy, neither anything like that. Both were okay by day 3/4.
Eldest DS ate his lunch in hospital on the afternoon after getting them out that morning

Poor little thing. I had my tonsils out on 20th December several years ago and didn't really start feeling anything near recovery until after 6th January, so a good three weeks. Was right as rain shortly afterwards/by week 4, though.

In my experience it depends on the method the surgeon uses, some use ties and some use diathermy, I used to work in theatre and saw hundreds done, then had my own removed in my mid 20’s by guillotine and diathermy. I was in so much pain for the first 10 days I barely ate or drank but after that it got better quite rapidly

if you’re still worried try contacting the ward for reassurance, hopefully it’s all just about to improve

My LG had same in October. Turns out she had thrush infection in her wounds and needed antibiotics to clear. Good luck.

I’d definitely get in touch with the hospital asap. This doesn’t sound normal. My 4 year old was off pain meds with 4 days (not even Calpol).

Our son had this done when he was 8 back in 2021. His recovery felt like it took ages. I remember him crying trying to eat a bagel. I would say it took him around 14 days but he had his adenoids removed and grommets fitted too. Seeing him in so much pain was awful but it was 100% worth it so hang on in there! Is there any nice ice cream places nearby? Wishing your daughter a speedy recovery ❤️

I had mine out as an adult. Worst pain ever. 2 weeks before i didnt feel like i was dying. 4 weeks for reasonable recovery . I was signed off work for 4 weeks. It was so much worse than natural labour or csection recovery

What is she eating? She needs to be eating firm, crunchy foods ideally to slough away bacteria. Toast, cereal, crisps..

DS16 had his out on 3rd Jan, he's on 2nd week and still experiencing pain when he yawns and he can hardly open his mouth. He's on ibuprofen and paracetamol. He has morphine as well but has taken very little. The consultant said he mist have a minimum of 2 weeks off college.

The worst pain took about over a week to go. Days 4-5 were the worst ever. What didn't help either was that he hadn't eaten so he ended up with heartburn as well.

He's been experiencing ear pain but I understand that's normal.

She will get better and you will see improvement but it does feel that it takes a very long time.

Definitely doesn’t sound normal to me, I’d be questioning if she’s maybe got an infection at the surgical site which could be the cause of the persistent pain. If she’s not eating much to knock the scabs off then this really increases the risk of infection

DD had hers out last year at 19, it’s meant to be far worse the older you are. She found day 5 the worst but by day 10 she was pretty much back to normal. Went out for lunch and drinks with her friends on no painkillers IIRC.

That's not right for such a young child, their recovery from a tonsillectomy is normally very fast.

Please get her looked at. And keep her away from other children, last thing she needs is to catch a bug and end up coughing and sneezing along with this painful recovery.

If I remember correctly (age 15) it was 2 weeks for me.

‘’but the older you are the longer the recovery

Not always, I was mid 20s. Eating pizza and crisps day after surgery, I was pretty normal in a couple days apart from pain when talking. I'd get it checked just in case.

Yikes, not normal especially not at that age. I'd go get her looked at again ASAP.

Thanks all - we had a marginal improvement last night and first night we didn't need the morphine so I think it is going in right direction just so slowly! She says her earache has gone on one side but now other side of throat hurting so I think the scabs sloughing off on the other side now.

In terms of eating - she was doing so well, up eating a massive lunch after the procedure very quick, eating once every half hour or so even just a bite to keep the wound site clean for the first 5 days, then scabs started coming off and it has gone quite downhill. If it carries on like this towards end of this week I will ring the ward as she won't be ready to go back to school on Monday

X

Just quick update - we did go to the docs and he checked her throat - all looks to be healing well. But they have a low threshold for antibiotics in these cases so have prescribed some. They said day 10-14 can be the peak of pain and should soon start to improve. Just wanted to post in case someone else searches for this in the future. It seems there are lots of variables in terms of recovery time/pain etc for each individual based on these replies. Thanks for your thoughts all x

Paediatric nurse on an ENT ward. That is not normal, and so far down the line she should not still be needing orapmph. She needs to be seen.

Wow I'm amazed at the variation here in recovery time. Interested that a pp said it depends on the surgical method too. Good luck op, hope she feels better soon.

Oh poor girl!! Take her in to be checked to make sure she hasn't got a wound infection. I was in agony, absolutely beside myself with pain for three weeks. Turns out my wounds were infected, needed a course of antibiotics! Deffo get her checked.

Oh sorry just seen your update! Glad she's been seen :) fingers crossed she feels better soon.

I was absolutely fascinated when a very experienced locum GP took a look at DSs throat post operation (by many, many months) and said "ooh, very neat operation. Surgeon did a very good job."

We had to have the head of the department due to DS being under 3 years old. Apparently that is their rule at the hospital we went to.