Saying good-bye to tonsils is very different now than it was 30 or 50 years ago! I think the, Good-bye Tonsils Vintage Little Golden Book is responsible for making the experience to most people, seem like it’s all about jelly and ice-cream!
These days the biggest change is probably having to eat most things, other than spicy or acidic foods, after the operation, and not just jelly and ice-cream!! My daughter was told she could have twisties (cheese flovoured chips/snacks) for breakfast, the morning after, having her tonsils out and she had to eat toast before we could leave the hospital!
On the way home from hospital I also bought Emma a hash brown and a bacon and egg burger and she ate the lot! I was very impressed, but more impressed and relieved when I heard stories about what happened when children refused to eat and ended up back in hospital. The eating is essential for the healing process and to avoid drying-up and bleeding.
We watched a cartoon which showed and explained how the tonsils and adenoids were removed. We watched this after my daughter’s tonsils and adenoids were out. She is 11-years-old and sometimes the less you know about something, the better!
This was the first time Emma had stayed in hospital and the first time she was put to sleep by an anaesthetist. It all went text-book like and with lots of pain relief, the home recovery is going quite normal too I think! Today is day 11. Everyone is different, and recover at their own pace, but overall things are progressing. Our Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist told us Emma would need 2 weeks off school. At first we thought this was a lot and a lot of people responded thinking that was too generous. However, after experiencing the process, of saying good-bye to tonsils, it makes sense. The area needs time to heal and this goes through stages, days 4-5 and 7-9 can be more painful due to the healing progress. The mornings were definitely the worst time because the pain relief had normally worn off in the night, but we had a morning routine of painkillers, food and rest.
During the second week, Emma did school work and we got her hair cut and we even squeezed in a visit to the dentist and orthodontist! I thought it was best to make use of the time we had! Overall, this experience has been very positive for us. I think it is a good thing Emma has now been in hospital so it doesn’t seem like such a scary ordeal to her. Emma was an intermediate patient which means we had our own doctor, but in a public hospital. This is possible in Australia, but I am sure every country has different schemes. Emma’s tonsils were removed due to children’s sleep apnea which is different to adult sleep apnea. Sleep apnea in children means a child may snore and be restless and this can effect the quality of sleep that they are having. Tonsils are also removed when a child has many infections in this area. Ironically, the first few nights when Emma was tonsil free, she snored quite loudly, but this was due to the area being inflamed and this settled down by night 4.
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