shaleywhale
LIF Adolescent
Member since 12/09 537 total posts
Name:
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Re: Tubes and adnoids removed-some questions
My son (3 yo) had his tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes placed in June. This was *our* experience:
It has been the best thing ever! The coolest thing was, when we got him home the next day, we were out in the backyard and he looks at me and says, "Mama. Mama! What's that sound???" (or, his garbled version of that - he didn't wake up speaking full sentences clearly lol) I got all teary eyed and responded, "That's the birdies. You can hear the birdies singing now!" And he just sat there smiling for a few minutes, listening to the birdies singing.
Now, he is right up there with all of his daycare classmates in the speech department. He sleeps so much better now - no more sleep deprived black eyes. He doesn't keep my daughter up in the next room with his snoring anymore. In fact, when he fell asleep in the car about two weeks after the surgery, we didn't even realize it because he was so quiet.
DS never had ear infections, at least not that we knew of. Only one documented infection in his chart, and the only way I knew is that he woke up with his hair by his ear all crunchy and a little bit of blood in the canal. I knew then that his eardrum had ruptured while he was sleeping, and brought him to the doctor. That is the one and only documented ear infection that he has had - and he gave no signs of pain prior to the rupture. The cruddy part is that since he didn't have an extensive history of infections like my DD did at that age, he had to go through a sleep study. THAT was horrible (for me)... he didn't really sleep well to begin with, and then they covered him up with leads and gauze and expected me to get him to sleep in a bed by himself at the study center. It was a long night, lol. Then, we learned that he had really severe sleep apnea and would stop breathing a lot throughout the night. I didn't sleep well all the way up until the surgery because it made me a nervous wreck to have it confirmed that he would actually stop breathing a gazillion times a night (ok, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but it was a lot!)
Anyway, the day of the surgery wasn't so terrible. We had done this before with DD, and even thought that was about seven years ago, we still kind of knew what to expect. We brought him in his pajamas with his blankie early in the morning. He was squirming all over the hospital bed in the presurgical area and being silly and making everyone laugh. Then...they gave him "the liquid".  Once they gave him the Versed, he suddenly became all stoned acting. Looking around slowly, sort of staring and giggling at us as if he had just noticed we were there and had three heads each. Just being all loopy and floppy and calm and relaxed. I (jokingly) asked the anesthesiologist if I could have extra to bring home for him. He said "ALL the moms ask for extra!!"
My husband brought him into the surgical suite and gave him a kiss. Then we met up in the waiting room. We waited what felt like forever, but it really wasn't that long at all... a couple of hours, maybe? Then the doc came in to see us, said everything went great - that his adenoids may as well have been baseballs. He said they were way bigger than they even thought. So, we were brought to the recovery area. That was tough. It is very very very common for kids to wake up hysterical. They hit, they cry, they squirm, they scream, they kind of look through you and not at you... it can be unnerving. Not all kids, obviously, but it is very common. Me, personally, I offer to step back and let the nurses do what they need to do in order to calm them down. Sometimes it's easier when panicked hysterical parents aren't laying right there in the bed with them. But the nurses are great, and they can usually roll with whatever you are comfortable with. Once they got DS calmed down a little (he nearly pushed me off the bed up over the rails, he was so worked up lol) I got back into the hospital bed with him and rubbed his back. They wheeled both of us on the bed up to his room where he would spend the night. I guess not all kids need to stay the night, but since DS had very severe sleep apnea, they wanted him to spend the night so they could monitor his breathing while sleeping and give him fluids through the IV. I stayed with him all night and DH came back to bring us home early in the a.m. He could have stayed over too, I guess, but I have a DD at home that needed him. The nurses were all really great with him. He slept kind of a lot that night; I was surprised. I guess the meds were still in his system and he would just randomly nod off. I, on the other hand, did not lol.
We brought him home, and sat him on the couch with some videos. Recovery wasn't too bad. He was on oral antibiotics for the tonsils and adenoids and Ciprodex ear drops for the tubes, which is a combo of a steroid and an antibiotic. They didn't write us anything for pain - just said to give tylenol. I did tylenol every 4 hours the first like three or four days, and then I moved on to tylenol in the morning and at night before bed for a few more days. He honestly did fine with that. The hardest part was getting him to drink enough fluids. You want to make sure they have lots to drink - it makes the recovery go more smoothly. I also put a humidifier in his room and made sure it was pretty humid in there to help keep the tissues from drying out - they do tend to sleep with their mouths open for a little while after the surgery. The doc said this is because the swelling from the surgery site by the adenoids can make it hard to nose-breathe. The tonsil scabs can be a little uncomfortable in the morning if they get dried out overnight. For us, mornings and nights were the witching hour, and he was generally fine during the day.
Once he seemed healed, he still had to not get involved in any crazy antics. That was hard during the summer - he wanted to play and jump and climb and do all the things kids want to do. But I think it was like 14 days he had to stay calm and eat softer, smoother foods. I'm a little fuzzy on that exact timeline - my memory is terrible to begin with, plus we were dealing with another family medical crisis at the time and that whole time period for me is kind of hazy now. I do remember that we had to monitor for bleeding in the throat for a while even after that, which is a possible post surgical complication. Happily, that didn't happen (with either of my kids). The doctor told me that this is generally more of an issue with kids that are running an active infection when they remove the tonsils (my DS wound up having a throat infection that wasn't there at pre-op testing, so he was at higher risk for this). If you do notice bleeding, you have to bring them back right away as they need to put them back under to cauterize it.
The recovery, for us, was not all THAT bad. I remember it feeling a little overwhelming for a day or two, but really... once he started healing up, it was great. And now, it's barely a memory.
I know I wrote a lot, but we just did this not that long ago lol. If you have any other questions, or just want to talk about it, feel free to message me. For us, it was a wonderful thing and really has helped him so much.
Good luck!!!!
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