ASD and grommits

[StartingAfresh]

DS has been referred for grommits in both ears. They want to do them both together because of the cost and risks of a GA but I got the impression I could choose to have them done at different times.

I have a dim view of NHS flexibility and adaptability but have actually be very pleasantly surprised about how helpful staff have been with my ds (not with the 'therapy' stuff, - more the medical stuff).

Is there anything I should ask them to do to accomodate ds and make the experience more comfortable for us all. Ideally I would like a run down of what will happen and in what order so that I can make sure ds is never surprised. He will very rarely refuse to do anything if he is given advanced warning.

Many tia

My ds has ASD and had grommits when he was 4 or 5. The staff were lovely and really good with him. I mentioned he wasn't good about waiting around and we were given an early surgery. He played in the playroom until it was time to go down, they didn't even bother changing him into PJs as he had loose clothes on. He peed during surgery and they cleaned him up, said it was no big deal (I should have thought and put a pull-up or something). Afterwards wasn't great as we were in a day room with other people recovering from minor surgery and there was nothing really to take his mind off things. (Take snacks) Our only real problem was when the nurse took the tube thingy out of his hand and tried to put a plaster on - that was when we found out ds doesn't like plasters!

That's as much as I can remember, but it wasn't as hellish as I was expecting!

Thank you Mrs. That is really helpful.

I was very surprised that the ENT Consultant referred him to be honest. I was expecting a huge fight on my hands.

It's what I want. If he was developing normally I would consider the 'wait and see' approach but obviously I want all of his senses working well during his early years.

Hi - DD#1 had them though she was only 2.5yr when done. We didn't have too much waiting around and she just happily played in their playroom at that stage, then I went down with her and held her while they gave the anaesthetic. She had gas rather than any needles as she was quite young and it was no stress for her that I could detect. She was down about half an hour (had adenoids done too) and then came up to me in the ward again. She was crying a lot when she came up, but I think because she was sleepy and disorientated, not from pain. That lasted about 20minutes but I was able to get her out of bed and cuddle her straight away which helped us both! After that she woke up a bit more and decided to eat every snack I had brought for the both of us and then wandered back to the playroom and had the most lovely afternoon while we waited the required 4 hours (after adenoids) before she could go. Apart from that 20mins when she first came back she was totally chilled about everything.
(DD is suspected AS and had recurrent glue ear with speech issues - never regretted getting grommets done.)

No regrets about getting it done here either. It didn't make an amazing difference to his speech but getting rid of the glue ear ruled out one more factor. Have they mentioned removing the adenoids? That was something I wasn't expecting, they said on the day that they would have a look and it's probably something they would do while he was under anesthetic - no-one had mentioned it until this point.

DS was a disorientated straight after too, but soon came around - that's when it would have been good if we could have gone back to the playroom.