Tonsils out or not?

[OhForkItThen]

I had a first ent appt today for dad, it was about 60 seconds of looking in throat and watching a video of sleeping and we were offered surgery.

I was expecting from others tbh a wait and see/ dismissal as apparently that’s what they do so I’ve done no reading up.

He basically said the amount of tissue was basically blocking her breathing and causing sleep apnea.

What are people’s experiences of haven’t it done or not?

My DS is autistic OP, it is a harder recovery for them, not gonna sugar coat it

She’s not autistic, her sister is, but I see a lot of similarities. She’s more verbal and bright, but no more able to deal with change or be reasoned with. Her sister had glue ear and I had earring aids instead of grommets (no regrets).

My daughter had hers out aged 10 and it was life changing for her.

I’m not sure why no sleep study - I don’t think a video is usually a good substitute as it’s not the snoring per se but the oxygen levels that they worry about. But I haven’t seen the video, and it could be that there are long apnoea periods in it. For my DS, his apnoea was worst around 2-3, and has reduced significantly over the last year. For us now it’s the infection that we are concerned about

Yes go for it, mine came out at 33 after years of tonsils problems, best thing I ever did

The video isn’t snoring so much, it’s pauses ranging from 5 to 10 seconds in a flat back sleep. Kinda snore... silence....... gurgle, snore

Ok so quite conclusive of apnoea episodes then. The pause and gurgle is what they will be most interested in.

My (then) 2yo had very obvious apnoea, and even at almost 5 he still doesn't reliably sleep through the night. But I was trying to film his apnoea recently and I couldn't. There are still episodes, but they are few and far between. So growing out of it is definitely something that can happen.

It's up to you whether you want to go ahead with surgery or watch and wait. Plenty of people swear by it, but other people choose not to for perfectly valid reasons. Maybe it's worth having a chat with her consultant if you can?