A couple of years ago, my oldest child had his tonsils and adenoids removed. The decision was not taken lightly… noone wants to put their kid under general anaesthetic unless it’s really necessary. After seeing two ENTs, doing a sleep study, and trying night-time nasal spray, we’d reached the end of the non-surgical road. After years of poor sleep, snoring and exhaustingly slow recovery from illness (amongst other issues), we agreed with our ENT that it was time for a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.
A few months later, a close friend’s son was facing the same situation, and so I decided to jot down a few notes on our experience. She found it super helpful (and has since passed it on to others) and – if you’re looking down the barrel of tonsil and/or adenoid removal for your child – I hope you do too.
I’ve kept my notes pretty much as I sent them to her, so please feel free to drop a comment below if you’ve got any further questions. And please note, we are not medical professionals, so everything here should be taken only as our experience; medical questions should be directed towards your doctor.
Pre surgery
I explained to A that we were going to the hospital, where he would go to sleep for a bit and they would take his tonsils out, which would help him with x,y,z (fill in the blanks for your child!). He’s had a general anaesthetic before and isn’t overly phased by medical procedures so we didn’t need to go into any more detail. I also set expectations by telling him he would be off school for a couple of weeks afterwards. FYI the first stage of putting him under included putting a breathing mask over his face – A had practice with this from earlier experiences so wasn’t phased, but if your child hasn’t experienced the feeling it might be worth explaining to them or even practicing, if you can.
Surgery itself
So as mentioned, they put a mask on first to make him sleepy. Apparently this does cause some kids to start flailing about a lot, which can be upsetting for a parent to see right before they’re wheeled off. Alfie was a little agitated but not too bad and it’s literally a few seconds. The surgery took about 30-45 minutes (I barely had time for a coffee!) and then I went to meet him in recovery. I have heard that some kids are disorientated and/or distraught when they come out of a general anaesthetic; Alfie was ok so it’s not every kid, but be prepared.
Post surgery (in hospital)
They administered all medication, and emphasised the importance of taking it. If your child isn’t a fan of medicine it’s probably worth chatting to your surgeon about options in advance. The child in the room next to us refused his medicine, and honestly, it was awful to hear… I guess once they’re in that much pain it’s hard to bring them back down. The surgeon wanted A to eat as normally as possible and he did so with no issues. We were given a script for endone that we had filled at the hospital pharmacy (apparently it’s hard to get outside of hospitals).
First week at home:
I continued to cycle medicines, including waking him at night for them (well actually not really waking him, just stirring him a little and he’d take it like a baby bird and go back to sleep). I had prepped jelly, ice blocks, custards etc. but in the first few days he ate everything crunchy and salty, which they say is good as it helps with the scabbing and healing. A was definitely more subdued than usual but it wasn’t horrible. I slept next to him – partly because I always like to be close when my kids are unwell, and partly so he didn’t have to strain his voice calling out. Also, he sounded a bit like a mouse for the first couple of weeks – totally normal, so don’t be surprised!
Second week at home
I think it was around day six or seven that his more severe pain started. This apparently happens when the scabs begin to harden and break away (yep, gross). I continued to cycle medicines, trying to catch it before the pain broke through, but I actually found that whether I woke him overnight or not the result was the same (he had lots of pain swallowing the meds and so didn’t want to take them). At this stage I was just letting him watch stuff on my phone while the pain settled down, so he was up at all hours of the night watching Octonauts (at least it wasn’t Peppa Pig?!). I used endone for 2 or 3 nights and then things started to settle, so we didn’t need it any more. Also, randomly, salty pretzels seemed to be the food that helped him the most during this phase?! I started to stretch out the medicine schedule a bit after that, since it didn’t seem to be making a huge difference. Some kids apparently get really bad breath around this time too – I didn’t notice it.
From two weeks
He was back at school from here, but did still wake kind of panicking a bit for a few nights. My guess is that his throat was drying out while he slept, so when he woke and swallowed it was still tender. But otherwise he was fine (and the mouse voice started to get better).
Overall
The worst of it for us was probably days 7-12, which was annoying because I thought we were out of the woods and then it hit hard. But honestly, I’ve heard much worse (and some better!) stories so I think it does vary significantly child to child.
Positive impacts
We noticed improvements immediately – he stopped snoring, was able to swallow more foods and began eating more. He also gets sick far less often, and when it happens he recovers much faster. He also had a big growth spurt not long after the surgery – probably age-related, but I can’t help thinking it was linked. He hadn’t ever eaten this much before his tonsils were removed.
For us, it was absolutely worth doing.