Recovery after removing tonsils and adenoids

I did a couple of posts after Kamdyn's surgery, but I never updated after that on how recovery went.  Wednesday was two weeks post surgery, and I can pretty safely say that she is fully recovered.

The hospital that Kamdyn had her surgery has a general policy of staying one night after a T&A, so we knew that going into the surgery.  It was actually comforting, because I was afraid that she wouldn't drink or have a complication, and I felt better being there.



After our one night stay, Kamdyn was doing pretty well.  We were managing pain with alternating Tylenol and Motrin.  We didn't even give her an opportunity to be in pain, because we made sure she took her meds.  The only problem was that she WOULD NOT drink, hardly anything at least.  Maybe a small sip here and there.  Her IV was her only source of hydration.  And despite loving Popsicles prior to surgery, she did not want to eat any.

Exhibit A:  evidence that she ate Popsicles prior to surgery:
This picture was taken two days prior to surgery.

 She refused jello, applesauce, pudding, juice, water, Popsicles, and a slushy that they brought her on the children's floor. You may think she was just in too much pain, but like I said, we were religious about pain management, and she happily ate a whole plate of spaghetti that they brought her, as well as some other foods that have no water content, like scrambled eggs.  Sure, we wanted her to eat, but we weren't going anywhere if she didn't drink, and drinking is pretty essential.  So that won us a second nights stay.


You can tell she wasn't all that happy to be there.  She hates nurses, doctors, or anyone with a stethoscope.

We ended up in the main hospital's surgical recovery unit.  Too much time in a small hospital room, and you start to feel like the walls are caving in, and we weren't even there that long.  The only things there were to do was play on the iPad and watch the teeny TV that was way up high on the wall.  Kamdyn's IV was in her foot, so she couldn't walk or play. 

Exhibit B, the shirt:  evidence that Kamdyn hates medicine, no matter what it tastes like.

We were actually offered a job, because we have such a good system for administering meds to a fighting, screaming patient and still getting them to ingest the medicine. 


We came to a point where we were comfortable with how she was doing, and we thought we could do a better job at coercing her to drink at home.  By the skin of our teeth, they agreed to send her home.  I may have eaten half of a container of jello and said yes when they asked me if she ate it too.  But I'm not going to say.

 
This was right before we got to go home.  I wasn't the only happy to be leaving.

When we got home, she was the same about drinking and eating watery foods.  I had to force feed her liquids a few times, but we were able to get her to take enough that she stayed hydrated.  The first few days at home were rough, but it did get better.  One day, we went to Royal Farms, I got her a blue slushy that she loved.  Another day, I made a smoothie with orange juice, bananas, and strawberries, and she really liked that too. 

During her entire recovery, she was very congested.  The first couple of days, there was a lot of build up in the back of her throat, and they had to suction it out at the hospital.  Eventually she was just congested in her nose. She was on an antibiotic 3 times a day, so I hoped that would ward off any illness.  We were told that congestion was a common side affect of the surgery.  I started to worry, when the congestion was no longer clear.  She would wake up in the morning with goo all over her face and hand from where she sucks her thumb.  She also started coughing and didn't sleep at night.  I decided to take her in to the pediatrician after it had been a week since surgery, and she seemed to be getting more sick.  The doctor put her on a stronger antibiotic (Cefdinir) for pneumonia and an oral steroid, because he could hear wheezing in her lungs, as well as her other symptoms. After a couple of days on the meds, and she was completely better. 

Now, we're over two weeks out, and she's doing great.  When we go back to the ENT for our follow-up, I'm going to request that they redo the sleep study some time over the summer, just to see if her sleep apnea is cured.  Other than that, things are all good.  Her tubes are clear, I can already a notice a difference in her speech, the audiologist gave her a good report on her hearing test, and she's healthy.

So glad it's behind us.