My 2yo son is booked in to get his adenoids and tonsils removed in about 2 weeks. He will be staying in overnight. Any advice on what do expect post surgery and during recovery?
Many thanks

From the looks of it your son is 2 days younger than mine.

Sorry, no suggestions though, because I dont know how I would cope if my DS had to have surgery.

Good luck with it all and I hope it isnt too traumatic for you all.

nope but i think you should try to get some books to read to DS to get him used to the idea. my DD LOVES "Dr Miaow's big emergency" by sam lloyd which is about hospitals and drs.

when my DD1 was in hospital at 18mths she was really good but didnt like dr's touching/checking her at all (she got very frightended after seeing so many - she had never had a problem before with gp etc) also when she started to get better and was really bored in hospital it was challenging.

Hi there. I hope I can help some. My 2 year old (3 in July) had his tonsils and adenoids out 1 month ago. We had our follow up appointment this morning and everything is completely healed.

My husband decided he wanted to stay overnight as my DS is a bit of a daddy's boy at the moment. He also was the one who went in with him when he got anesthetised and when he woke up post-op.

We had a very old copy of a picture story book called 'Good-bye Tonsils!' that we read repeatedly before the operation to prepare him. He became obsessed with it. We used it to talk about what was going to happen to him so he would have a little bit of understanding. There are newer versions out though as ours was nothing like what happened. The link here is for a 2001 copy and is a lot more acurate (from what I read there). Good-bye Tonsils!

We also bought him a toy Doctors kit to give him after surgery. (All our family bought his a small gift for being brave). He has used that many times to check our tonsils.

I'm trying to find the words to explain properly what happens without making you stress or worry more. I'm just going to list what happened with us (nothing bad) so you know what to expect. All kids are different though, so your son may have a totally different experience.

When he woke up from surgery, which only took 20mins , he screamed. And I mean screamed. All the people in the waiting room looked at me and said "That must be your boy." That was really hard as I couldn't be with him. My husband just had to try and calm him down. He was a bit swollen in the face/lips but there was no blood anywhere that we could see. Screaming didn't help and he basically screamed and cried all the way down to his room.

He sobbed/cried between sleeping on and off for most of the afternoon and night. They kept the pain killers up to him but don't give them much more than panadol and codeine. I think the most he slept was for 3-4 hours straight.

They encourage them to eat pretty much straight away and will offer them dinner and/or lunch depending on when the surgery was. We tried a few things but he wouldn't touch much until dinner when the painkillers had kicked in. Then the first thing he ate was an Anzac biscuit.

The next morning he tried some food but wasn't really interested. They like to make sure they are at least eating something before they send them home. He was still upset on and off the next morning, but had some ok time in between the crying and sleeping. We asked for custard before we left and he ate the whole thing as it was soft, cool (but not too cold like ice-cream) and soothed his throat. Make sure the painkillers have kicked in before you offer food otherwise it will hurt his throat too much.

Sorry, this is a long post so feel free to skip the mumble jumble in-between.

When he got home, he slept on and off for the first 1-2 days. Wasn't interested in food but did try custard now and then. The only thing he ate for nearly 2 weeks were Calipo mini icy-poles. The Dr said to let him eat what he wanted so that is what he had. With the occasional custard.

His recovery took 2 weeks as they took a lot out. They say 10 days - 2 weeks is normal. He didn't eat properly until pretty much the end of the 2 weeks. He didn't cry much during the days, just got really sooky. We were told to keep the panadol up to him every 4-6 hours, even if he seemed ok. When it was wearing off, he would start to get upset so we would dose him up. Usually he had a sleep when it kicked in.

Nights were a nightmare. We ended up holding him to sleep for the first 4 days. He also ended up in our bed as he woke every 2 hours in pain. We would just calm him down and cuddle him until we were able to give more panadol.

They mention about referred ear pain, but his was extremely bad. He would bang his head and ears with his hands at night and scream every 2 hours. I even took him to the GP to get them checked for infection but it was all from the surgery. Be prepared for that, as we had no idea the ear pain would be so bad. It started after a few days and lasted about a week. We rang about stronger pain killers and the Dr suggested Painstop. They may tell you about it in the hospital.

Then all of a sudden, just before the 2 weeks were up, the pain stopped, he started eating small amounts of food and was much better. Now you wouldn't even know that he'd had them removed. Oh, apart from not having tonsilitis every 2-3 weeks!

I think that is all I can remember. I'm don't know your son, but ours gets angry/cranky when he is sick. He was a bit painful during those 2 weeks but back to normal after that. If there is anthing else you want to know, please PM me. I'd be happy to help.

I wish I'd have know some of these things before we went in so I knew what to expect. We were lucky as there were no complications, recovery went well with no post-op bleeding, and no other 'extra' problems other than the post surgery pain.

Good luck with it all. It will be horrible for 2 weeks and then it should all be like it never happened.


Oh, and last thing I just remembered. He may throw up after surgery and it will probably be a big clot (though our son had been sick the week previous) and may do it a couple more times. It will likely be blood and then nothing. Just make sure you give him lots of kisses and cuddles, which I'm sure you would do anyway.

Hi

We had a good experience really. The worst part was putting DD(who was 2.4yrs at the time) to sleep and the waiting. Then in recovery it wasn't very pleasant (crying and vomiting blood).

When we got back to the ward she slept for quite a while. Her surgery was at lunchtime. So about 9pm she had about 2 tubs of jelly then slept again to the morning. She had toast for brekkie and we got discharged.

She had pizza for tea that night as we were staying in red cross rooms so it was something easy.

Honestly it was like she had nothing done. I know there are children out there who react differently as previous op.

Hope it all goes well.

Charlotte (3y4m) had hers removed a month ago.
She did fine, and had not one single dose of Panadol once we left the hospital (her choice)
She also was eating normal food the day she got out of hospital.
She never mentioned any pain
She seems to have a pretty high tolerance for pain.
My own anxiety about the op was sky high, though.
My husband stayed in hospital with her, as I needed to be at home with a breastfed baby.

Oh, her voice is still slightly squeaky. Sounds weird.

Good Luck. Lots of cuddles and (not sure why he is having them done, but if it is for snoring/apnea thing, then I hope you also see the magic improvement that we have )

my twins also had them out when they were 3ish.

I was able to go in and hold them as they were put under anaesthetic. I am a recovery RN but actually found that really traumatic for myself.......

They both woke up screaming - very hoarse crying. They had IVs in for the first 24 hours.

Sleepy for most of the surgery day post op.

Half hourly observations post op and also all through the night - not a lot of sleep.

Didn't complain of a lot of pain - only had liquid panadol semi regularly.

Both started vomiting in middle of night. Finally got onto the Dr to order anti-emetic and was fine after that.

Woke up the next day as if nothing had happened. Had breakfast (toast i think), IVs out and were basically running around full on from then on.

Discharged home and you wouldn't have known they had had anything done

Geez, I must have got the dud one!! I'm glad there were other stories out there. I hadn't heard any so I thought his recovery was normal. Perhaps it wasn't...

Here's hoping that your little boy will improve quickly like all the others and his problems will be solved.

Hi my son had his op last year and here's abit of a post that I 'd posted.

his recovery was bad to say the least, but I would do it again just so he didnt have to suffer getting sick every week.

hi hope it goes well, my DD had hers out last year when she was 5. Our experience wasn't very good at all. She woke up crying refused to eat or drink the first day so they kept her in longer on the IV then in the end she started drinking but still refused to eat (took her 3 weeks to eat!) was quite a long painful recovery for her, some kids do fine others are like my DD and take a while longer. she lived on painstop day time for the first few days. before the op was ok she is used to ops (shes had 5 grommet ops and eye surgery) big thing is take a comfort toy!