5yo ds having tonsils removed - feeling anxious and guilty. Experiences please.

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Ds has suffered with huge tonsils since birth, he has regular throat infections, coughs a lot, snores like a pig and recently his uvula has stuck to one of his tonsils. Took him to drs who referred him straight to ENT. When we saw the dr at the hospital he said he needs his tonsils out and will do a fast track referral so i know he needs them out and he's booked in for next tuesday but now i'm feeling terribly anxious about it and so guilty knowing he's going to have to go through the operation and then the pain after. Can someone share some positive experiences please?

Changed my DS’s life op. His were removed at age 3 mainly because of sleep apnoea. But he went from very regular throat and chest infections to being in really good health.

The recovery is fairly hard, you’ll need to stay on top of the pain relief for him, but absolutely no doubts from me.

Positive experience here too - post op ate more than he ever had before - first week after can be sore but it can make a huge difference to sleep, illness, eating etc -

The first couple of weeks were hard (give painkillers routinely/don't wait for the pain to return) but after that dd was so much healthier. For both me and dd it was such a worthwhile procedure.
She only ate cold food for the first few days (I could only tolerate warm foods when i had mine done) so it's trial and error with what they may manage.

just thought i'd update, he had his surgery this morning. he was really teary and scared when he went to sleep and was the same when he woke. took him a while to come round and all he's said all day is i want to go home. they discharged him around 4 ish so we've been home a little over a hour. he's had a bit of icecream and some chicken bites, and he's now dozing on the sofa. it was awful seeing him so distresssed but he seems much more relaxed being at home.

How is your little boy doing now? My 4.5 year old is having his out Sunday and we are so nervous! He is nonverbal which adds a level of complication!

Glad he's feeling better

Paediatric nurse on an ENT ward here. They bounce back very quickly. And as PP's have said, it can make a huge difference to their quality of live and improved sleep. Is he having a co-ablation? Or a full tonsillectomy? The former is a really easy recovery and we dos aged them after about 3 hours. Make sure you go home with Oramorph.

Missed the last update. Glad it went well.

Our son was 3 when he had his tonsils out. He'd had constant ear infections which seemed to morph into bouts of tonsillitis. Best thing we could have done for him. He woke from the anaesthetic feeling rather confused and tearful. Had a cuddle and then ate a couple of slices of unbuttered toast! Recovered really quickly and his health really improved after it. Our older daughter also had her tonsils out for the same reason. I really wish our youngest had also had her tonsils out as she's an adult now but still has bouts of tonsillitis.

I had mine out for same reasons, I think I was five. It was quite exciting, there were other children. The ward were very good at jollying us along. It was painful afterwards I remember it still. But analgesia is much better today. I had it for bad throats and constant ear infections , these infections just get worse and amplify as the kiddy gets older if it’s not done. The paediatric teams are great and the wards are very welcoming, I’m sure you’ll both be ok. Good luck with it all.

Ive had mine removed quite young, maybe 7 or 8. All i remember from it is eating lots of ice cream afterwards. I dont have any bad memories.

So glad the op is done . I hope he recovers quickly . My DD had hers out and her adenoids at 6 and had the same problems your DS had but the last straw was scarlet fever which pretty much finished her tonsils off. No more throat or ear infections, no more snoring like a hog, more energy and no ridiculous amount of pain, misery and school absences. So glad they were taken out. My DM had severe anxiety and wouldn’t let me have mine removed. My childhood was wrecked by back to back agonising tonsillitis, ear infections, high temps that made me hallucinate. I missed so much school I never caught up. These days they don’t like to remove them but if they say the need to come out it’s the best thing you can do for them. When my DD started along the same track as I did as a child, there was no way I could have put her through what I went through.

he's been up and down @khamps. he slept till 3:30am last night then couldn't get back to sleep because of the pain. he's been reluctant to take the pain relief so i've had to really push for him to take it. he's managing to eat bits and he's mostly just been laid on the sofa.

Aw, this was literally us 2 weeks ago! Glad to hear you are home and he is recovering.

Reading your op was exactly the same as us! It had to be done and it is the right thing but it's bloody awful!

We struggled the first week with pain relief, completely refusing at times and a few trips to the hospital.

In the end I made up small amounts of strawberry nesquick (so it was super strong in flavour) and popped the calpol in for him to drink.

It took longer than I expected for him to feel better, but he will get there. Lots of rest if possible and eat and drink whatever he wants.