10 Things I Wish I Knew Before my Son’s Tonsillectomy

When I found out my son needed to have a tonsillectomy, I was pretty nervous but knew that God is in control. As hindsight is usually 20/20, I wanted to share the ten things I wish I knew before my son’s tonsillectomy. I pray that this will help you prepare for your toddler’s tonsillectomy. Make sure to check out the full story in part 1 here, and for part 2 here. Now onto the good stuff!

1. The length of the surgery doesn’t allow you (mom) enough time to process what happened. The surgery itself only lasted about 30 minutes, and the total time we were at the surgery center was two hours. It may have felt like an eternity while I was waiting to go back and see him, but before I knew it I was taking my baby home and not sure what the next couple of weeks would be like. It seemed like he should have been there longer to make sure he was recovering well. It felt similar to when we had our son and then went home from the hospital wondering, “What we are supposed to do now?”
2. Still a major surgery. An adult that gets a tonsillectomy can take up to a month to recover. Because kids are so young, they tend to bounce back after two weeks. I was expecting this to be similar to when he had his adenoids out. (Then he was ready to play and back to his normal self the next day.) The tonsillectomy was much harder on him and very painful. He was not himself at all for about five days.
3. You and your child may lose weight. It was so painful for our son to swallow that he just didn’t want to eat much at all. After a few days he would feel better and take a bit of jello, but it would still hurt, making him not want to eat for a long time. I decided to focus on getting him to drink fluids instead. I was in complete mom mode and would only eat when I wasn’t holding him, which was not very often, so I ended up losing weight as well.
4. Freezer meals would have been great. When you have to hold your child on the couch for three days straight, not much energy can go into making meals. I am so thankful that I have a husband who helped out in the kitchen when I need it! Now I know to have freezer meals on hand if our daughter ever needs to have her tonsils out.
5. Pain management is key. It is so hard to wake your sleeping child to give them medicine, but you will pay for it if you don’t. DO NOT get behind on medicine. It is extremely difficult to give a toddler medicine when their throat is in excruciating pain. (Let’s be honest, it’s extremely difficult to give toddlers medicine period.)
6. Have someone watch other children. I have a daughter as well, and the first day after the surgery my husband stayed home to watch her. That was a huge help and allowed me to focus all of my attention on my son. If you can line up someone to watch other siblings for the first 3-5 days, that would be very helpful.
7. Have popsicles on hand. Popsicles were the only thing he would eat for the first couple of days. When he wouldn’t drink water, he would still eat a popsicle. (The first time he tried one right after surgery it was too cold for him, so it might take a couple tries for your child to take one.)
8. They will need you A LOT. This is an understatement! I’m talking about wanting hold-them-on-the-couch-for-three-days-straight type of needing you! In our case it was around the clock. Daddy would still give him medicine in the middle of the night, but he almost always wanted Mommy. I mean I don’t blame him, sometimes I still want my mom when I’m sick.
9. Dehydration is your enemy. This was a scary one for me. I was so afraid we would have to go to the ER because he wouldn’t drink anything. I would check him for dehydration signs often. Finally he drank water with a 1 ml dropper. It took forever to get him what he needed but I was glad he started drinking liquids! We also got some strawberry Pedialite, and he would drink that as well.
10. Rely on God. This was the most important one for me. I did not have the strength on my own to get through the around-the-clock pain management, the kicking fights while trying to give him medicine, the sleepless nights because of pain, the nonstop of him needing me. I had to pray and ask God to give me the energy to get through each day.

Take heart, Momma. I can say that it does get better. We are at two weeks post op and he is back to playing like normal. Eating still isn’t back to normal, but I’m sure it will be with time.

Here are some foods that helped us after his surgery. From other moms I have talked to, this varies for each kid. Some foods would work great one day and then would hurt the next. I am not a medical professional and I’m not saying this is how your experience will go. My prayer is that my experience can help you be better prepared.

Check out my recent children’s book on finding hope in grief.

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