My 14 year-old son had strep @4 times every year from age @5-10. I was told he’d grow out of it. We then went for 3 years with no strep and I thought we had. This past January, strep came back with a vengeance. He had it 3 times in 5 months. The dr said that step occurrence can increase in the teen years. Already on the adult dosage for antibiotics to fight strep, I was worried his strep would become ever more complicated and difficult to cure. I decided it was time for a tonsillectomy. I know there is still a chance for strep, but thought it was a way to at least reduce the occurrence rates. Of course, my hope is that strep will never be his diagnosis again. My son had his tonsils removed 11 days ago. This has been a particularly long and painful ordeal. I sure hope it was worth it.
He has a very high tolerance for pain. He has endured multiple in-office nose cauterizations and an open (compound) arm break requiring 2 surgeries and rods with 3 months of PT. But those were nothing compared to tonsillectomy recovery.
I want to share some of our experiences to help others. I want to make special note that having a humidifier is very helpful. I just got a small inexpensive travel one and that worked well. Ice water and ice chips were also a great source of hydration and pain management. A few soft foods that were not mentioned that were great for us were ripe avocados and baked flounder. We are trying to help him regain the 7 pounds he lost over the past week. I have learned that Wendy’s has frosty’s that are 500+ calories and Cold Spring Creamery has milkshakes that are 1,000. And I didn’t see it mentioned much on these boards, but Ensure is high in protein and calories!!
Day 1 was tough but not awful. He had painkillers in his system. He was nauseous from anesthesia, but never vomited. He started on his Hydrocodone once we got home. No bleeding. Ice chips were all he could tolerate. Gatorade and everything else burned. Artificial ice pops are the best as the fruit based ones also burn. Alternated hydrocodone and Tylenol. Nausea increased.
Day 2 was similar to Day 1
Day 3 the pain intensified and the ear pain was the worst. Nausea increased and he vomited. Tried to get him to eat applesauce etc. so the hydrocodone wouldn’t make him so sick. Didn’t work so I decided to switch to alternating Advil and Tylenol regimen instead of hydrocodone and Tylenol. The Advil worked well. Continued the Advil/Tylenol regime. (I saw some posts on here that dr had prescribed Advil – ibuprophen – so I figured we were out of the woods with the bleeding, so it would probably be ok.) I did that for 2 ½ days. Then he started spitting out blood. Small at first. Then he start puking blood. He was sent to ER and he vomited up a big blood clot as well as some more blood. A pretty scary amount, although I didn’t measure it. One doctor and one nurse yelled at me for giving him the Advil. Another doctor and nurse said it wasn’t the Advil that caused the bleeding. Either way, I was a mess and felt like a stupid idiot for giving him the Advil.
The ENT on call is my least favorite ENT at our practice, in fact, he is my least favorite doctor ever. He loves surgery and his bed-side manner is appalling. He, of course, suggested he cauterize my son – under general anesthesia. When I heard he was the ‘on call’, I knew this would be the case. My son’s bleeding self-limited and for hours he was fine so I wasn’t comfortable with the cauterization. If it was bed-side, I would be, but more general anesthesia for something that the dr was unsure if he really needed, seemed a bit much. If my regular dr would have suggested it, I would have done it, but this other dr is surgery happy and a bit of a quack. I was nervous about my decision, but thought it was the right one. The on call ENT told me that it takes 5 days for Advil to leave the system so my son had to be on a liquid diet for 4 more days. That didn’t make sense to me but I was so grateful we weren’t have surgery, I agreed.
My son was getting weaker and weaker. I knew he needed food to heal. ENSURE!! Of course, why hadn’t I thought of that earlier in the week! He drank it but he needed real food.
Since my regular dr was on vacation, I called the office to schedule an earlier follow up apt because of the hemorrhaging. The woman I spoke with asked me how my son was feeling. I told her how weak he was and about the all liquid diet…..she put me on hold and spoke to another dr in the practice. He said to get him on soft solids stat. She also agreed the Advil hadn’t been his cause of hemorrhaging.
I called Advil customer service and the woman I spoke with looked up the information on how long Advil stays in the system. She said that 70%-90% of Advil is out of the system within 24 hours. If that’s the case then 100% must be gone by 48 hours, right? Dr. Quacks 5 day theory was way off.
We had many low points. He said for the first 3 days that he regretted it. I finally agreed on day 4. Exhausted and discouraged, we cried together.
We are on day 11 and his energy is about 70% and he is beginning to talk a lot more. His voice still sounds muffled, but it doesn’t hurt to talk. Hemorrhaging again is still in the back of my mind, but it’s been 4 days so I’m feeling more confident that it won’t happen. He is eating more – although it’s all still soft. We see our regular dr in 2 days. That will be day 13.
I never thought it would happen, but we made it to the end of the dark tunnel and the light is within reach. Day 10 was a big turning point. Hang in there to all who are going thru this. This too shall pass.