Questions about daughter's tonsil surgery?
I’m just curious…
I know very little about the procedure, and I was just wondering a few things about it.
1) Do they stitch a child’s throat closed (at the area of removal) afterwards?
2) I’ve heard something about "burning" the throat? What is that and what does it do?
3) Are things like coughing and sneezing dangerous? Could they "tear" the tissue that was operated on?
The thing is…I’ve heard so many different things about it and I just want to know what the truth of the matter is…medically. Not what everyone thinks might happen. All of these "opinions" are killing me…and her doctor is one of those that they ask you to contact in case of an emergency only. *sigh* Help please!
Filed under: Tonsil Surgery
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i think they cauterise the wound to stop the bleeding. i had my tonsils out when i was young and no stitches even in those days. they usually encourage u to eat ice cream and toast after to help it heal quickly. if the child is young then there should be little problem and she will be over it quickly. when u get to adult it can be more dangerous and take longer to recover from, my ex hubbie had it done age 29 an dhe had a lot of prob after however the benefits outweigh the few difficult days/weeks even in an adult. good luck to yr daughter.
I think it’s great that you want to know everything about the surgery.
The wikipedia article tells you all about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsillectomy
Coughing is an occasional post-operative complication, but it won’t hurt the tissue that was operated on.
Here’s a site for doctors that has some pretty explicit pictures of the operation. Fascinating, but not for the faint of heart:
http://www.entusa.com/tonsils_adenoid_surgery.htm
The tonsils are rather "peeled" out, and there is some cauterization in areas with bleeding. The younger the kids is, the easier. Had mine out at 28, was no fun. As well, they found a cyst, so that was removed, and stitched. The recovery was draining in energy… it was easily two weeks before I could go back to work.
There are issues with this surgery.. mainly because that tissue is part of the immune system. Usually it is now only removed when it interferes with breathing. Most docs would prefer to treat the infections that tonsils get rather than remove them. There was a study done 20 or more years ago that some leukemias in aged adults was more common in those who had had their tonsils removed that those who had not. You might try to google that to find that study.
At the time, I had no choice. The docs had all tried every antibiotic then available to end the pus pockets I regularly had on my tonsils, and the constant swelling and infections I had in my throat. For me, those infections were incapacitating. Every single time I was exposed to a virus, not only did I get it, but was truly sick enough to not go to work. This went on for three years, and we all finally just gave up, and I had the surgery. Pretty much ended the problem.