Ear, nose, and throat doctors categorize tonsil size as 1 through 4. Size 1 is the smallest and size 4 is the largest. Size 4 tonsils are so large that they are touching each other or very close to it. At three years old our youngest son managed to have size 4 tonsils. The overly large tonsils generally led to difficulties with eating and drinking and were also more suceptible to infection. Our ENT doctor recommended that we have his tonsils removed. So that's what we did.

The big surgery started very early in the morning and took less than an hour. Once it was over we joined our son in the recovery room and helped him come to. We spent this time in the recovery room for all surgery patients who where coming to. Patients tend to be very disoriented and need a lot of supervision when waking. In some cases the patients need to be restrained or they'll end up hurting themselves or the staff. Since this would be distressing on family members they are usually not allowed in the recovery room until the patient is awake. Fortunately for us the policy with small children is different. We were able to be with our son from the moment he started to wake up until he was stable.

Our doctor said recovery takes anywhere from 4 to 10 days. We were hoping for the four day version but ended up with the ten day. For the week and a half following the surgery our son was not very happy. It was quite a chore to get him to eat or drink anything. Even the old standby, ice cream, wasn't working for him. Eventually we made it through the ordeal and life is better for us and our son.

One of the most surprising changes we noticed was in our son's voice. At the initial doctor's visit the doctor told us, before even looking at our son's throat, that he would need to have his tonsils removed. We looked perplexed at this doctor's incredible foresight until he explained that he could tell by our son's "muffled" voice that the tonsils were too big. We had been hearing him since he started to talk so there didn't seem to be anything unusual about his voice. After the surgery the difference in his voice was amazing. I wish now that we had recordings of him talking before and after. The difference is hard to describe. The previous voice was low and not really something I would have described as muffled. The new voice, though, is much higher in pitch and is a lot clearer.

The picture shown here is a picture of our son's throat after the surgery and full recovery. Now that the tonsils are gone he has a lot of room in there. Again, I wish I had taken a picture before the fact so the comparison would be interesting. The whole event was difficult for the family but we made it through. It is with a little bit of dread we are beginning to realize that our six year old son is probably going to need his tonsils removed too.

Comments

Add New Search RSS