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.

Don't worry my sister and our tonsils out at about 11 years of age and I remember my sister had problems. I seemed to heal pretty well . The blood is caused by constant throat clearing and coughing because her throat hurts its not a big deal they will sort her out . My sister took nearly 2 weeks to heal .

Try not to panic. My daughter had to go back in twice after her tonsillectomy as the wounds didn’t heal and she was coughing up masses of blood (including clots). It looked scary and I was told that though not ideal, but it’s not uncommon. They will likely pop her in for a top up procedure (I can’t truthfully remember what they did for mine, maybe re-sutured?) but she was fine 2-3 weeks after the initial operation.

I had my tonsils out quite late age 19 when i had already got my own child to care for
The op went ok, but i was not warned that they could rupture
A few days later i was running my 1 year old a bath lent over the tub and my mouth just gushed , i honestly thought i was dying as we had no warning to expect this, other half called an ambulance i was admitted back into hospital and kept overnight and told its quite common

Aw bless you. It’s perfectly normal to worry like this when it’s your kids. Us mums would do anything to take the pain away. I don’t know anything about tonsillectomies but it sounds like you’ve done the right thing getting her seen. And you were absolutely right to stay with your older child. No point dragging them out of bed. Hope dd is feeling better soon.

Hope she's OK now!

This is nothing like what the OP has described. Her daughter is experiencing a post tonsillectomy bleed - a known complication of the surgery. There's nothing to suggest she has an infection.

It sounds like you had a quinsy. I'm assuming your story is exaggerated as you wouldn't have survived for weeks on barely a sip of water per day!

Hello everyone! I am so sorry I took so long to come back. What a day. Thank you so much for your replies.

She is fine. Lying next to me just now on the ward.

She was seen by an a&e doctor, then an ENT doctor all within half an hour. Small bleed seen and admitted to ward within 1.5hours. ENT consultant came to see her during his rounds. He reported no bleeding, site of tonsillectomy described as clean and exactly how he would want it to look. Kept in overnight for observation.

When I arrived I had a nosey in her throat and sure enough no evidence of the bleeding! It had been there of course and the two doctors saw it when she first arrived. But when I saw her throat this afternoon it looked so much better!! I couldn’t believe it.

Im still nervous in case it happens again. But so far all seems ok. She was nervous going to sleep after what happened last night, but she was so exhausted that she fell asleep while cuddling me.

Annoyingly the hospital have been hopeless with pain relief and I ended up having to moan at a nurse which I hate doing. But dh requested pain relief 3 times before I arrived - so dd went 10 hours without anything which isn’t great. It had a huge impact on dd would was so upset by the pain. Since then she has had more but it wasn’t ok.

Praying for a settled night…sounds like this is fairly common. Doesn’t make it any less scary though!

re water before surgery - pre op she was fine to sip water or juice and was also given ice lollies.

I had a tonsillectomy early last week and on Day 7 had a bleed. I was also sleeping when it started. I was admitted to hospital for 24hrs. It is a fairly normal complication, although unpleasant. Days 7-10 are the most likely for bleeding as the scbs begin to fall off.
There was a visible clot in my throat after the bleed, but that had gone 10hrs later. I was instructed to be nil by mouth, given medication to prevent further bleeding (IV and then sent home with tablets) as well as being given a hydrogen peroxide mouthwash which helps prevent infection and further bleeding. I was told the big test was eating. They let me eat the next day and were happy to send me home in the afternoon once it was clear that eating didn't trigger more bleeding.
Really hope her pain improves. I am on Day 9 and the pain has dramatically reduced. Keep pushing for meds in hospital if she needs them.

Thanks for this - it’s maybe more common than I realised.

She had hers last Thursday morning.

They encouraged her to eat today and she managed small amounts at points during the day.

No meds given. Consultant said he could see clots and they were a normal part of recovery. I can’t see them when I look though.

Im scared to sleep. I wonder now if it was the scabs because her throat looked a bit better today compared to yesterday.

Today will be day 8 for her.

Hope you are doing ok

My DD had her tonsils out and had a few episodes of massive bleeding, starting about one week after the surgery. For her, it went on for several days until they figured out it was a torn blood vessel that would pop through the muscle layer and start heavily bleeding. They were finally able to cauterize it, but she ended up back in the hospital needing a blood transfusion that same night. (It truly was massive bleeding, not the normal amount one can expect or a bit more).

It was scary, but the hospital/doctors finally figured it out and in the end, all was okay.

Glad she is OK OP.

But, also importantly, how are you? How is your DH?

We are tired! I stayed with dd last night and it was a noisy ward. Someone snored ALL night - they clearly find the camp bed more comfortable than me!!

But we are ok thank you - I need to calm down probably.

Not exaggerated at all and actually not all that uncommon either to be able to survive weeks on small amounts of water. As I said I was an emergency admission for starvation so not exactly fucking healthy.

I'm not basing it on the 'bleeding' (I'm saying bleeding reduces swelling/hematoma which can cause blockage risk so not as scary as it looks) but basing the 'possible infection' on new in ability to open her mouth wide enough for access which is a sudden change OP didn't mention her suffering before not a 'standard tonsillectomy' issue combined with sudden pain.

If it was just the normal tonsillectomy recovery symptoms then pain and complications wouldn't have take 7 days to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

We were told day 5-7 can be particularly difficult even after a good start to recovery.

Complication such as bleeding can occur right in to the second week of recovery.

What does DD mean? or Ds etc. Please don't abbreviate, its hard to understand

It’s used across this whole site. DD = Dear Daughter / DS = Dear Son / DC = Dear Children.

It’s normal to abbreviate here .. there’s a list of mn acronyms somewhere on the site - you should probably go and look them up as they’re used on every thread.