Advice please! Scared

[parisianprincess]

DD, 11, had a tonsillectomy 7 days ago. Recovery seems to have been fairly standard. They warned us that day 5-7 can be tricky and it has been.

Less than an hour ago she woke us saying her throat was really sore - crying with the pain. She was prescribed morphine as well as paracetamol/ibuprofen so we gave her painkillers and I checked her throat, which she found very painful. Thank god I insisted - she wasn’t happy about it.

There was quite a bit of blood - I need to be honest and say I couldn’t tell if it was trickling or pooling but I called the ward and they said ambulance to a&e or take her ourselves. It was very painful for her to open wide enough for me to properly see, but I think it’s primarily at one side.

DH has taken her as we are about 25 mins to the hospital when no traffic, therefore we thought might be quicker. I’ve stayed home with our older dd. Now regret staying! But he flung his clothes on while I got her organised with a hoodie/water etc. I’ve just tracked them and they are about 5 mins away from the hospital building and I called the ward at 4.10 so hoping we made the right decision about taking her ourselves rather than by ambulance.

Any experience?

My health anxiety isn’t helping me at the moment - going through a bit of a blip with that after a few years of being great.

Im thinking worse case scenarios here.

The were of course emphatic about seeking medical help if her throat was to bleed at any time - we’ve been checking her throat daily due to this (we were told to). I checked it before bed late last night about 10pm and it was ok then I think - I noticed some little raw red bits but absolutely no blood.

I had my tonsils out 54 years ago, when I was 8. Recovery was straightforward, no bleeds although I was very sore.

My daughter was blue lighted to hospital with a post tonsillectomy bleed, it was a bad one and she was admitted and had to go back to theatre. At the time it felt very frightening. She was very unlucky as it happened again a week later. That time we were both more relaxed as we knew what was happening. I have to say that we do tend to be bleeders in our family. She was 18 at the time.
I hope all goes well with your daughter. She is the best possible place with people who are experienced at dealing with this.

Just a hand hold OP. It will be fine.

I'm glad they've gone in. I bled a few days after having my tonsils out. In my case it was an haemorrhage and I needed a blood transfusion. It sounds like a simple thing for your daughter so hopefully they can sort it quickly but she's in the best place to deal with it.

I had a post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage when I was 24. With hindsight I don't think I was warned sufficiently of the probability of a haemorrhage occurring.

Just to say little bleeds really common at this point! I had my tonsils out (as an adult) and basically they cauterise the area in surgery. At this point in recovery the cauterised material kind of peels off like a scab. There is a risk that, like with many scabs, part peels off and could pull off a little bit more when it comes away that wasn't ready yet. Hence a little bleed from that 'not ready' area. Just like when you pick at a scab on your hand that's partially peeled off and make it bleed.

That's why they advise you to try eat rough foods to pull the little bits off gradually, as the risk of pulling more off increases as the partially peeled away bit gets bigger. I also found that bit the most painful in terms of pain when talking as it dries out a lot right when scab comes off!

So 100000% right thing to get her to A&E ASAP to get checked isn't a haemorrhage, but please don't panic as small bleeds are super common, more so than the big.

I do hope you get some good news soon OP. Try to comfort yourself with the thought that now she has had them out she won’t be prone to tonsil infections every winter, she will breathe more easily, sleep better and her breath will smell better.

Parisianprincess It's crazy .my DD was 22 when they finally operated! It's a worrying time for you.she is in the best place though. NhS are very good .sending love ❤ xx

This also happened to me in my late teens, I had too giant blood clots where my tonsils used to be, they where actually bigger than my old manky tonsils!!

apparently it’s normal, the pain was horrific! Rather than anything freezing cold, try luke warm drinks to sooth it, it was tea for me, but hot chocolate cooled to just above room temp might work. Anything freezing I would of fainted!

I can’t google as it will send me in to a spiral - I have a strict rule about that when I am feeling this way. But I assume this happens and isn’t hugely unusual? I keep imagining her bleeding so much that she passes out.

Very sensible to keep away from google.

Your DD is with her father in the best place for her. You are doing a fabulous job as a parent.

Sounds like this has been handled perfectly. Sensible DH keeps calm and quickly gets clothes on and gets her to the hospital. You don't waste an ambulance which could be used for someone with an immediate threat to life. Your daughter gets medical attention quickly. Older child does not have to needlessly spend hours sat in a hospital and can still rest and get to school the next day.
Hope DD gets well soon.

Happened to me in my thirties , I was kept in one night for observation and given antibiotics.

Hope she’s ok, and I hope you managed to get some rest too. 💐

Hope you’re all doing ok. If it helps, I had my tonsils removed in my 20s. I bled quite badly about a week later. It was scary at the time but was admitted to hospital and all was fine in the end. I’m still so glad I had them removed even though that happened. Recurrent tonsillitis is no fun! It is scary but she’ll be glad of it in the long run 😊

This is not the case anymore. It is now recommended that you drink sips of still water right up to surgery. It stops post surgery headache. The guidance changed quite a few years ago.
My child has had 5 surgeries in recent years and has been told to drink water.

Came here to sympathize OP. I am exactly like that and spiral when one of my DC's has a medical issue. In my case I believe it's a form of PTSD (first DS was a preemie, 2nd DS was in hospital for over a week with RSV as a baby). Whenever one of them has had to go to A&E in the past and I stay at home I go in to full Monica Geller mode and start a cleaning frenzy 😂. I am prescribed a benzo to deal with moments like this which luckily only happen every so often, maybe a few times a year (I refused antidepressants bc I am fine the rest of the time, its just when something like this triggers my health anxiety and I need to be there for my kids.)

I am sure most moms would panic over this, even the ones without health anxiety so don't beat yourself up about being scared. You are doing a great job trying to be strong when your dc is around.

Your dd is in good hands.

My 5 year old is due his out any day now and I struggle with anxiety at the best of times. Don't even know why I read this post but I do hope your little one recovers fast. Hospital is definitely the best place. Do update us when you can ❤️

Bleeding at this stage after a tonsillectomy is quite common as it's when the scabs start to fall off and sometimes the bleeding from that is a bit more than you'd expect.

If the bleeding is really excessive and needs emergency treatment - she's in exactly the right place to manage it. The hospital will have treated that problem thousands of times before and know exactly what to do. All parents are bound to worry when their child goes through something like this so it's understandable that you're anxious but your daughter a) will be fine and b) has her dad with her and is safe with him.

So why is it recommended to do so on the patient information leaflets?

Hospitals give you water to sip right up until you have surgery now. It's fine.

I've had two surgeries in the past six months (one of which was a partial tonsillectomy, coincidentally) and they brought me cups of water and encouraged me to sip it while I was waiting to go down to theatre. You're scaremongering unnecessarily and it's not helpful.

Agree. The OP has said she is anxious and struggling, so this poster coming along with what is very outdated information really isnt helping.

Sounds like an infection.

I had severe step throat and couldn't open my mouth or swallow at all due to swelling in my throat/tonsil area. No one believed me for weeks and I was eventually admitted for emergency anorexia as I lost so much weight they where convinced I was on hunger strike (I was barely managing to get even a sip of water per day).

At the hospital nurse then tried to force my mouth open to force feed me and it burst the swelling... LOTS of blood pouring down my throat and out of my mouth. Looked scary but the bleeding reduced the swelling which was the immediate issue (really I'm lucky it didn't completely block the airway at any point).

A week later the infection came back (because they didn't treat it just sent me home one I ate/drank something) but 2nd time the cultured it and prescribed antibiotics and it fixed it quite quick and easy after that.

I would take the bleeding as horrible as it looks as a good sign, the bleeding release so much pressure in my throat when it happened to me that all the immediate throat/airway dangers stopped for a few days until it came back.

When I had my tonsils out I had a handy stash of ice cubes in the freezer to suck on when they bled- helps reduce the bleeding...

Two of my friends bled badly afterwards, one needed a transfusion and they are still here and hale and hearty. The girl that needed a transfusion was with her grandfather anc he made her suck an ice lolly which helped to reduce blood flow. So maybe if you are anxious make sure you have ice lollies or ice cubes.

My son had bleeding a few days after his tonsillectomy when he was 5. We took him to hospital, they observed him for a few hours and we were just about to be sent home when it started again. They rushed him straight into surgery - the scariest 2 hours ever as my anxiety was in overdrive! They struggled to stop the bleeding and had to stitch parts of the back of his mouth together but luckily they succeeded and he recovered well. If it helps you feel any better he's hardly been ill since (now 16) so it was the right decision even though it was terrifying! Hope your DD is ok