Tonsillectomy recovery time - travel

[Tangofantastic]

For those of you who have had a child who had their tonsils
removed - Would you say they would have been able to travel 2 hours by car on day 6 post op? I’ve got a friend who lives in the countryside and has kindly invited us (me, dd7 who is having them out and her brother with additional needs) to recuperate there post-op for a weekend which would be day 6 after the op. is this too ambitious? Also will be 1.5 hours from a hospital if needed, tho I understand risk of post -op bleeding will be less by
then? Or should we just stay put at home? Thank you for reading 💞

My brother had his tonsils out age 12. A week after he had them done, my mum went in hospital for a hysterectomy, he was first in at visiting time every afternoon. As long as they are fairly pain free & not having any bleeds, I would think they would be fine for a few days away.

Thank you so much 💞wow that’s amazing he was in visiting every day so soon!

@Tangofantastic i think we actually confirmed the method on the morning of surgery with the surgeon. Or at the very least we re-confirmed. It’s totally fine for you to ask what procedure they will be doing and why, and what the recurrence rate is etc.

It is very hard to advise because many people who have the procedure have no complications and regrowth (though my mother, who is in her 60s has tonsils that have come back after a paediatric tonsillectomy).

the extra capsular method does increase the likelihood of complications such as bleeding, and the recovery appears to be much worse.

but put it this way - I am a lifelong tonsillitis sufferer myself (not as frequent as the kids and I get it far less now theirs have been removed). I am unwilling to have mine removed based on their experiences. But I am also so glad they are no longer experiencing issues from infected tonsils.

Funnily enough mine have grown back enough too to still let me have awful tonsillitis about once every 3 years which I never knew was possible!

Don’t do it! Post op risk of bleeding is at its highest at that point (around day 5-10). The middle of the countryside, far from the nearest hospital is the last place you want your child to be. He’d be well enough to travel but it’s not worth the risk.

I don’t mean to scaremonger but my DD had a post tonsillectomy bleed - it was very scary and safe to say we were glad to live 5 mins down the road from a major hospital! Although tonsillectomy is incredibly common the risk of a bleed is relatively high (1 in 10) and something you need to take more seriously

It’s slightly different to my original question (and thanks to you your wise advice all we won’t be going!) but there’s so many examples here of post op bleeds and being glad you were 5-10 mins from hospital- I’m a single mum with no adult help and also have a son with additional Needs and we live 45-50 min drive from the hospital in good traffic, more like 1 hour 20 in traffic and I’m now worrying what that means if she does have a bleed as time seems so key with a bleed? The horror stories of ambulances not coming for hours make me think I’d just have to scoop her and her brother (not easy) into the car and drive as fast and safely as I can in the case of a bleed, but it’s still a minimum of 45 mins ☹️

That's a scary thought OP could you ask the surgeon what to do if there is a bleed and your circumstances? They may be able to give you some 'first aid' type tips for if it happens as it's stressful enough when it does. PS remember these stories are rare. With my DC the doctor had never seen anything like it in all her years.

You're bound to get more of us commenting on this happening to gentle nudge you to stay in your familiar surroundings.

I've just had a thought though..
Is your friends home closer to a hosptial than yours?!

thank you for replying 💞
unfortunately she’s no nearer, she’s just further along the coast than me so further from the hospital 🤦‍♀️
i did mention to the surgeon when he saw her and mentioned she might get home that day that I wasn’t sure I’d manage driving home as it’s 45-1 hour 20 from hospital, dark windy roads and with her in the back feeling sick and sore just felt frankly horrendous. He didn’t seem fazed and just said he’ll see how she goes on the day and may keep her in, and he also mentioned post-op bleeding but said I just need to get her back in and they’ll take her back into surgery.
i know chances are she won’t bleed, and I know most people probably don’t live within 10 mins of a hospital (when I lived in uist I was an hour’s flight from a hospital!)
So I know i probably just have to take a deep breath and drive like jenson button if she bleeds at home but it feels really
scary. Also know they can’t exactly keep her in hospital for 2 weeks in case she bleeds ☹️Urgh it’s stressful☹️

It's up to the surgeon to say if you can go home that day. But it's the nurses you need to speak to about staying. As they manage the beds. Just tell the nurse looking after you, that you'd rather stay. We would have absolutely no issue with this. Even if we were desperate for the bed. We'd make it work. We would not discharge if a parent wasn't comfortable.

Ok that’s so helpful, thank you, I’ll definitely speak to the nurses and explain the situation if it looks like she might get discharged later the same
day

When I had mine removed I developed a mild post op infection and spent 2-3 days being violently sick around day 4/5. In le olden days we had 2 weeks off school by day 8 I was able to do all normal activities and on one day even managed to pop into town for half an hour to grab some school supplies.

I had my tonsils removed 20 years ago and have only had tonsillitis twice since then. It was 9+ times a year prior to removal.

Do not go. DD was 11, days 6/7 were worse for pain. She had hers done by same method, diathermy etc and still ended up being blue lighted to St Georges on day 14 for bleed. Her's was oozing (she was complaining of metal taste so looked, no blood coming out her mouth) , took her to local a&e, Nurse overhead us telling reception reason for visit, immediately admitted to majors before transfer. Poor DH was traumatised. Hers was due to infection so was in for 3 nights on iv antibiotics and round the clock gargles.

Making them travel for that long on worst pain day would be really cruel, and knowingly going that far from hospital far too risky.

I world day 0 was fine for pain as think they drug them up in surgery, so if all ok think you'd be best heading home that day, it's after about 24 hours it ramps up.

Despite this totally worth it

If I were you I’d definitely prefer to stay the night OP. DD was lucky to have a more old fashioned consultant who preferred to keep them in for 24 hrs observation afterwards in case of a bleed, even though we were only 5 mins from the hospital! Also better pain relief in hospital, she was really sore for the first night and the only thing that sorted it was IV paracetamol, much better than liquid/tablet form

@MaloneMeadow I've been a paediatric nurse for 20 years and I would also rather stay overnight if a child of mine was having a tonsillectomy!

Some of us live 1.5 hours from a hospital.

Hi OP. My son is having his tonsils removed this Sunday by intracapsular method. I wanted to ask and find out how your LO is doing with this method of removal. Do they still get infections or did this method help. Thanks - I know this is an old thread!

Just posting here as I was looking through these boards a few weeks ago in advance of my DS's surgery (adenoid and tonsil removal). He is 3. He had the coblation surgery, which can minimise risk of bleeding and speed up recovery.

I would stay close to a hospital/ED for the first 14 days, though thankfully, we didn't need it.

His admission was at 745AM, so he fasted from the night before, water until 730AM. He was taken up to theatre around 930, so we played and coloured and sang until then.

I sat him on my knee while he was put to sleep (mask) and sang in his ear. He stayed completely calm. I was able to be with him in the recovery ward when he woke up. A few minutes later he became quite upset and the nurse recommended trying to get him back to sleep, which he did quickly. He then slept another 90 minutes, and woke up ready for his tuna sandwich which he favoured over ice cream! He ate a muffin, some watermelon, apple, crisps and yoghurt pouches as well.

We were discharged and home in time for a big bowl of pesto pasta and a water fight with big brother.

We kept on top of pain killers, alternating Nurofen and Calpol. We also kept on top of offering drinks and food so that his throat didn't dry out and the scabs came off more easily. He loved pesto pasta, Frubes, and crisps. Wasn't that interested in ice lollies or ice cream, but did offer regularly. He ate most of us his usual meals as well, maybe being a little more picky than normal for the first few days.

He woke once per night for the first few, and seemed to be in the most pain then, but cuddles and meds sorted him out. From night 5 he slept through again.

On day 4 (counting surgery as day 0), he had a hard few minutes, running around holding his mouth and asking for medicine when he wasn't due any. I gave him some pizza a few minutes later, which he GULPED down, and when I looked into his throat later, I noticed a lot of scabbing had come off. This happened a few times over the next few days - short bursts of pain followed by really clear progress in terms of his healing.

By day 8, we were reducing meds and by day 12 he wasn't taking anything. It's now day 15 and you'd never know anything had happened, bar the fact that:

his sleep apnea (which was severe) is now completely done - he slept silently and deeply from the first night post-op!

he is currently having a growth spurt and eating us out of house and home!

Totally worth it, and the recovery was easier than I had anticipated. Hope whoever is reading this experiences the same.