Child tonsillectomy - extreme pain

[Februaryschild2023]

Has anyones child a tonsillectomy and if so can you tell me when the worst pain in the recovery period is over? My 4yo is on agony - had op on Monday. Keeping up with calpol/ibuprofen but he's really struggling. Were on day 4- might it start to get better?

Hi, my dd (3.10yo) had tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy on sat so we're day 5 (or 6 if count op day) and unfortunately i had to give her oxynorm 4 times now as she would complain on ear ache after taking paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Feeling so bad for giving her strong meds ( and scared) but not sure what else can be done when LO is in so much pain :(

*I think the worst is day 5 or even 5-7 from what read, after that the pain ease's apparently

May be infection present? I had this after my tonsils were taken out, couldn’t under why I wasn’t feeling better. Hope your little one is feeling better soon.

It hurts when it scabs. My 3yr old needed suppositories as she wouldn't take calpol

Can they give you something stronger than the usual capol/ibuprofen?

My daughter was fine after the second day after adenoids removal but my goodness she cried for 10 days straight with the tonsillectomy. It hurt her until the scabs came loose and then it was just normal sore throat pain. It was awful at the time so hang in there!

BTW, no fruit or fruit juices as they are like battery acid afterwards, wait until its healed.

Ooh please keep me updated on when she looks brighter! It's absolutely tortuous at the moment, non stop crying night and day. Think I will ask the doctors for some stronger pain relief, all we got is calpol and ibuprofen and he is maxed out atm, even overnight

@Februaryschild2023 thank you ❤️

if I was you I'd be calling doctors for stronger stuff asap ( so glad they gave us prescription at discharge) but be super careful with dosing. I started reading on poss side effects and it is a bit scary...

My dd woke up today and had to give her paracetamol and ibu at the same time as she was crying about the ear ache :( dont think I'll give her the strong stuff again unless really necessary. They also cause constipation so get some laxative too if you go down that route.

Then again I would not be leaving her to cry with pain for longer than 20-30 mins after taking normal painkillers.

Hope your LO feels better soon 🤗

Just an update- turns out he did have an infection, which we discovered when he had a massive haemorrhage in the middle of the night... Horrific stuff.
Thankfully he's back home and on the mend again, but was definitely a bit of a shocker for us

Oh goodness! Sorry to hear about that. I was going to say it sounded extreme, my DD didn't have anything like that level of pain, she was off painkillers totally by day 5. Poor thing, hope the infection clears quickly and the rest of the recovery goes smoothly.

@Februaryschild2023 yeah my DD ended up having 2nd procedure as the bleeding occurred on night 7 , she had to have cauterisation (under general anaesthetic again). I could not believe it was happening, so scary. Apparently it happens to 1% post tonsillectomy patients. What was the treatment for your LO?

Turns out tonsillectomy is not as straightforward procedure...

Oh god that sounds awful @Dominikaa . I really thought he was dying the first time. It happened three times! Luckily didn't have to go back to theatre, but did have some difficult nights in a and e. FINALLY feel like he's on the mend now, day 12...

@Februaryschild2023 must have been so scary for you...sorry for you (& me) that we had to go through this. I knew there is nothing I can do when they took her to the theatre 2nd time ( I thought I'll faint when I had to leave her in theatre for the 2nd time- thats how stressful the whole situation was) they said there was quite a bit of blood in her tummy as she was swallowing it.

I am wondering if the doctors make it out that the procedure is so straightforward...I mean if we chatting on here and complications happened to our kids...what is the real % with the post op complications...

Oh the poor thing. Hope he's feeling better.