Have I made the wrong choice, going ahead with son's surgery. [Title edited by MNHQ]

[hugsarealwaysneededhere1]

Sorry for the attention grabbing subject line - but this is truly how I'm feeling at the moment!

My 8 year old went into hospital for grommets in, adonoids out, before Christmas. It went well but it was stressful due to a few issues. He had 2 weeks off school which he enjoyed, although it was difficult to get him to do any school work. To be honest I thought, it's end of term, he's had surgery etc don't worry.

Had Christmas all was fine however I was starting to notice some real attitude issues and he hadn't slept well since the op.

Since returning to school his focus and attention is shockingly non existent. His school work is terrible. His teacher has been quite positive though so wasn't too worried until I saw his books this week. They were terrible. Partly to do with the school, a lot to do with his terrible focus!! We are now bringing his books home every week to go over what he's done.....

I'm massively worried. He is rude, cross and so gobby! He's a totally different child to the boy with hearing aids post op. 😢😢😢😢

Any thoughts gratefully received.

He can hear clearly, he feels well and he had a month off school!!! He is fine, your lovely boy can hear clearly for the first time in a long while and he's making up for that alongside the normal boundary pushing.
Reinforce those boundaries, work with the school and continue to enjoy your son.

Oh, and I was also told that a correction of a hearing problem can actually lead to a listening problem in some children. They're so used to concentrating on hearing properly that they're 'overloaded' once they can hear properly, which leads to them not actually talking much in at all. One of the docs at the hospital was actually doing a study on this - can't remember why Dd wasn't eligible to take part, but sounded interesting.

Thank you Penfold007 😍

SignoraStronza
That makes so much sense!!

I had this done as a child and then redone as an older child. Apparently I was twitchy for a bit because I could actually hear. HTH

Wow I think you got some harsh responses OP.

It does sound like he's adjusting to the changes this has made and he will settle. Not sleeping well (maybe because things sound loud to him) could make him grumpy and difficult in itself. Plus he missed school, it was Christmas, 2 weeks in hospital will have caused him anxiety even if that wasn't obvious at the time, and now he's back at school it may be challenging to get back up to speed.

But I wanted to say I'm a bit of a worrier and "has the hospital damaged my son" would have been what crossed my mind too. I can just see myself worrying they'd done something to his brain during the op and DP would have to reassure me. I think you have a bunch of more likely explanations here and hope you feel better, but I can understand the worry.

I can imagine its like a new school for him. Perhaps he was happy sat in the classroom deep in his own thoughts before and now he realises he has to keep up with work. Perhaps the teacher (understandably) indulged him before and he had more 1-1 attention and was allowed more time to do his work? So now he has to rus it and its not as neat or as comprehensive. Has he not really heard alot of the constant chatter from his friends before? Perhaps he finds them difficult to be with or thinks they've changed and are more boisterous.

Id keep a note of your concerns and things that seem different from before, but poor little chap, give him time to adjust.

MadamCroquette and Sunny thank you so much for your response. I have felt like what have we done! He could have continued wearing aids etc.....hence my subject line....
So much of what you say rings true. I guess I thought his hearing would be similar to wearing aids, but I guess it's much, much, different.