please calm me down! son has tonsilectomy in 3 weeks

[SeasonalVag]

Ds is having his tonsils out soon. I had mine out, also at 6, and I still get very upset when I think about it. I'm dreading him being in pain, possibly seeing me cry , worried about complications etc. I hated the lack of dignity, control, being unable to talk etc.

Can anybody share experiences? Is it as painful as it was 30 years ago or are they better with painkillers etc?

Is there a child's mouthwash I can train him to use now so he keeps his mouth clean?

Can I just dose him up with oramorph after? I'd rather he more or less slept through the immediate couple of days after.

He's a sensitive child, physically and emotionally, and I'm dreading the fallout. For example, he won't listen to anything related to Frozen as he was watching that while recovering from his worst ever bout of tonsilitis....three Years ago. I'm scared that he feels betrayed. And I know I'm projecting massively too.

I'm planning on taking him shopping for new pjs before the op, know what to do after the op, but am losing sleep over it.

I'm so glad it's going well for him! He is so lucky he will not have to suffer those awful bouts of tonsillitis. I only had my tonsils out when I was 40- and my goodness it changed my life!!! No more awful sore throats like swallowing glass!!! So, brilliant news, hope he recovers soon-and if it does get painful at the end of the first week, just remind him that without the operation he would have lots more sore throats to look forward to - but hopefully this will be the last

My son had his out at four and it was the making of him. He was sickly and underweight before and really suffered with his tonsils and adenoids. The op was fine but he woke up screaming like a banshee which was a shock as he is super placid! Within half an hour he was back to normal and was home the same day.
He is now a strapping six footer and 15. His hearing improved and he eats well. No more bouts of ear pain or tonsils playing up. Glad it went well for you too and your son op...

Feeling anxious is normal. I let DD choose a much wanted toy that she could have when she woke up after surgery.

She had hers out at 6 also. That was 25 years ago. Things have changed a lot in terms of GAs and surgical techniques. DD had a very sore throat after as well as ear pain but no worse than the dreadful bouts of tonsilitis and the scarlet fever she'd had up till then.

She was very distressed on waking up (trying to climb off the trolley and shouting for me when I was stood with her) but went back to sleep again very quickly and woke up much calmer. The second she woke up properly she asked for her toy. By the time i'd got it out the caae, she'd fallen back to sleep :)

It changed her life. She put on weight, slept better and didn't snore loudly, her asthma improved and she had more energy. It was so so worth it. I asked her if she wanted to make a little book about her experience and she enjoyed drawing pics of herself in bed and of her new toy. It was interesting that in all the pics up to the op the bed got bigger and bigger!

DD has never mentioned the experience growing up. The only hospital thing she really remembers was having stitches in her forehead after a bad fall. So I don't think the tonsil removal really can have bothered her.

I hope all goes really well for DS. The staff on kids wards are just so amazing and even better at handling the emotional side of things than they were back in your day. I don't think play therapy was a thing back then, so there is a lot of awareness as to how to make the experience as positive as possible.

We had the opposite dd was extremely excited, so I kept stressing that she would be sore afterwards for a little while. I wanted to prepare her as much as possible without worrying her, but I also didn't want her to think it was a little jolly to the hospital and then be upset afterwards.

Well we're almost two weeks post op now. First week was hard, trying to ensure dd ate and was comfortable. After the op and the following day dd ate like a horse, I thought it this might be easy. Come the third day she slowed down a lot and needed a lot of encouragement (and chocolate and ice cream). We kept up with the pain relief for a week - even during the night dd suffered a lot with earache from about day 5 and woke in pain once or twice before she was due some pain relief

For dd one of the most difficult parts is being off school for so long, particularly as we were told by the consultant try and keep away from big groups of people for two weeks afterwards. DD is extremely social so has been quite upset being at home by herself, despite having plenty of visitors.

Good luck to everyone on their upcoming ops and recovering!

Death metal, I'm glad your op went ok. We're battling earache in the morning, four days lost ok. Am going to try and get him to sleep banked on pillows tonight I think.

I keep hearing/reading that it gets worse again after about a week....did you find this?

Daily mail, did the op stop the scarlet fever? My son had it 6 times last year. Somebody from my other son's nursery died from it...at that point I just pushed for the op. Gp explained that scarlet fever is systemic strep, and that kids with a lot of tonsil problems can then end up getting repeated boots of SF.

We found it got worse again. Something warm like a towel or wheatie bag can help with ear pain, and keep giving the pain relief regularly.

I thought you could only get scarlet fever once. Dd used to get awful tonsillitis and ear infections all the time but then got SF with the rash, peeling skin etc and it was after that that we had her tonsils and adenoids out because they were in such a state after that.

Yes the earache did get worse, dd had the op on the Monday and the following weekend particularly the Saturday night suffered quite a bit with earache. While dd was awake and downstairs with us all I gave her a hot water bottle to lye on wich helped a little bit. Lasted til about day 10 after the op.

I'm not sure dd ever had scarlet fever. Just 6 bouts of tonsillitis in under a year. With the last few bouts returning within a few days of finishing the course of antibiotics.