Tubes, Adenoids and Tonsils??? What Should I Do?

My son had the same issues and had two sets of tubes along with tonsils and adenoids removed. He never has had any problems with it and I think he has been healthier because of it. He has asthma and had chronic brochitis and when they took them out, his bronchitis stopped. He is 16 now and besides the asthma, he is perfectly healthy. Don't worry about he pain issue. Tylenol or Motrin can take care of that.

Well...I had my tonsils and adenoids out at the same time in high school because I was constantly getting sick....It wasn't all that painful, they put you out ..the only thing is you really cant talk much for a few weeks...I honestly since high school have now only maybe been sick a few times, but never ever like I was in high school, with strep throat and high fevers occurring every few weeks. I would go ahead and get them out now. There's something about the tonsils the doc said about bacteria and holding infection...but it's your choice and I think you should do whatever you most feel comfortable with...but honestly I can say I've had piercings that hurt worse than that surgery.

I agree with you, V..
I would seek other opinions. First and foremost, I would go to a really good chiropractor (get a referral from a friend or family member). Chiropractic literally handles the inner ear problems. Her eustacian (sp?) tubes aren't draining properly because of pinched nerves in her neck and the chiro will unblock those tubes so they can drain. Then..no need for tubes.
As for the tonsils and adenoids, here again, I would consult with a natural health practitioner. It is very common for western medical to want to cut things out, instead of getting to the source of the problem.
Good luck to you. I think if you do some searching in this regard you will find that there are natural solutions to her problem.

Updated

I agree with you, V..
I would seek other opinions. First and foremost, I would go to a really good chiropractor (get a referral from a friend or family member). Chiropractic literally handles the inner ear problems. Her eustacian (sp?) tubes aren't draining properly because of pinched nerves in her neck and the chiro will unblock those tubes so they can drain. Then..no need for tubes.
As for the tonsils and adenoids, here again, I would consult with a natural health practitioner. It is very common for western medical to want to cut things out, instead of getting to the source of the problem.
Good luck to you. I think if you do some searching in this regard you will find that there are natural solutions to her problem.

My daughter like yours had tubes and after they came out started getting infections again right away. The doctor recommended had tonsil and adenoids out. She had the surgery when she was 4. The doctor said he was glad that we had because althought they were not causing her pain they were full of pus and infection. She came home from the surgery and ate a gaint bowl of plain pasta(one of her favorite foods) and was fine after that. The only problem she had was that we discovered she is allergic to codiene. Luckly we figured that out quickly and switched her to motrin. She is now 12 and has had NO more ear infections. She remembers nothing negative about the experience. The only thing she remembers was the balloons and cards she recieved from her preschool class.
On the other hand, I had numerous ear/throat infections. They took only my adenoids and placed tubes when I was 4. I went on to have numerous ear/throat infections until they finally took my tonsils out at 12. I have lots of memory of how painful it was and how long it took to recover. That is part of the reason I decided to not wait with my daughter.

I would ask more questions first, and even try to get a second opinion. Tonsils and adenoids were routinely removed years ago, but that doesn't seem as common now. I had mine removed when I was five or six (and we won't talk about how many years ago that was!) I remember it mostly from the sensation of having been put under the anesthesia. In those days they put everyone out using ether, and it caused such a deep state of unconsciousness that I had the sensation of coming back from the dead when they woke me up. I'm sure that they use much better forms of anesthesia now, and perhaps the child doesn't even have to be totally put out. But, those adenoids and tonsils aren't in our bodies for no reason at all, or just so they can give us infections and need to be removed. I'd be sure there is a good medical reason before putting my child through that surgery. Having said that, I disagree with the Drs' assessment of the amount of pain she will go through. I was in the hospital overnight with my surgery, because that was how such things were handled back then. For your daughter, it will likely be more of an in office type of surgery and she'll be sent home within a couple of hours at most. I remember sitting in the living room singing at the top of my lungs after we got home and my poor mother - who had spent the night before sleeping in a chair next to my hospital bed and was trying to get some rest - begging me to stop singing and telling me that it hurt her throat just to hear it and she couldn't imagine how it wasn't hurting my throat to be singing like that. I don't recall having had any pain after coming home from the hospital. I'm sure it's different for each person, but am also sure that the Dr. has overstated the pain and recovery factor.

Hello V.,
I have beenapart of this a few times. My youngest had to have tubes put in 7 times because I keep avoiding the adnoids removed- - but once it was done he never had another problem, another child was tested only to find that he had a deformity in the ustation tubes and once that was resolved along with his adnoids being removed he has never had a problem. We finally weighed the pain our sons were in and the stress and decided that we had to do it. We learned from the one child that even after afew days of healing his body rejected the tubes. They are so tiny its hard to know. The only reason we didn't have their tonsils removed was that each time we went to doit something came up and we cancelled the surgery after awhile it became a non issue. But 2 out of children aren't bad odds for ear problems. Good Luck, Nana Glenda

Hi,
I know you probably already have answers BUT just my two cents......
I never had the surgery,and I am 45 yrs old. I just spent most of the month of January with strep throat/tonsilitis ! This is VERY,VERY painful(at my age) and very difficult to get over because I have had it So many times...they needed to give me 1,000 miligrams of antibiotic!! And when that didn't work they had to change the antibiotic until they could find one that would....
My 25 yr old son had his adnoids & tonsils removed & rarely (if ever) gets sick. He has NEVER had strep, or atleast since the surgery at 8 yrs old. The only thing he remembers from the surgery was getting up at 4am(to take him to the out patient hospital) and the week of ice cream he got to eat at any time of the day....even for breakfast!!
If he had alot of pain he doen't remember it at all. They did give him some pain killers for the first day, then just tylenol & ice cream. He was back to school within the week...
I say go for it!!! It may be a little pain now(and she is three she won't remember it).....
Good Luck, I hope you got the info you were looking for.....

My daughter had her 2nd set of tubes in at 3 years, and had her adenoids removed during surgery #2. The ENT said the adenoids were FULL of puss and swollen, which may have been a reason for repeat infections in her ears. She had the surgery at 8am and was running around playing by 5pm. She was not on a limited diet and was allowed to eat whatever she wanted. My 3 year old niece JUST had the same surgery and had the same easy recovery!

If she is in there anyway, you may as well at least have the adenoids removed while she is at it!

We faced the same dilemma when they removed the tubes on my daughter when she was five. They could prove to me that the adenoids needed attention because they had x-rays that showed inflammation, but there was nothing wrong with her tonsils. I could tell the doctor thought it was strange to leave them in, but I felt like we only wanted to do what was medically necessary.

I'm happy to report that she has hardly been sick at all since her adenoids came out--and she hasn't had any ear infections, just some congestion. However, my daughter did snore and she didn't have the cough that you mentioned, so their cases could be different.

The recovery after adenoid surgery was very quick. She was only "down" for one day--and even then it was hard to keep her quiet. She was talking and playing and laughing just hours after the surgery.

Just wanted to let you know that another mom chose to keep the tonsils in and it turned out fine! Hope you can come to a decision you feel good about. That is the most important thing.

If you are going to have her adenoids taken out, I would do the tonsils at the same time. I'm not sure why he told you it would be so bad. My friend's son had his tonsils/adenoids taken out and he was raring to go after 2 or 3 days. I've also had people tell me that once they had that surgery, the ear problem went away with it.

V., both of my daughters have tubes in their ears and both have had their adenoids removed, they are 3 and 6. The ENT suggested that I got their tonsils removed but I didnt see a reason to they hardly ever had sore throats. And with the removal of the adneiods and the tubes put back in the recovery time was 2 or 3 days..I had theirs done on a Friday morning (the kids had surgery in diff months) and they were fine to fo back to school Monday but I kept them out another day just to be on the safe side.

And FYI both of my daughters still snore with the adenoids removed.

Hope this helps!!

My nephew had his adenoids out when he was 8. It was a long healing time, I do remember that...what he remembers was it being summer time and he was most upset about not being able to swim for @10 days and all the soft food/jell-O/pudding he got to eat afterward :) He did well with the surgery, the anesthesia was a lil' scary for him...but he was okay.

He had his out because he was always stuffed up and his breathing/snoring was being effected and was also astoundingly loud...you could hear him breathe from across the room.

All in all, it was best that he had his taken out.

My daughter never had strep throat or even a viral throat infection or anything at all ever. Didn't snore either. But, she had ear infections.........ALOT. So, we wound up in the ENT's office and he recommended removing her tonsils and adenoids. She had just turned 3. V....it was the BEST THING WE EVER DID! I'm telling you. She was so young that the recovery wasn't bad at all. She was very responsive to books, so I ordered one called "Goodbye Tonsils" and read it everyday for a week before. We took her shopping the day before for all her own jello, popsicles, ice cream, soups, puddings, etc. We did the surgery and the worst part was having to wait until she could go home. She was so loopy from the anestheia. She had a squeaky, nasal voice for a few days afterwards, but was in great spirits. I'm here to tell you that she is 6yrs old and never had another ear infection EVER again. Still no strep or throat issues either. You know what we noticed (besides the lack of antibiotics in our fridge and the extra money from not paying dr visits anymore)...she commented on smells for the first time ever! We went through the drive thru at a dairy queen (which we did often) and she said, "mama...that smells GOOD!!!" We realized that she was smelling that yummy DQ smell for the first time! She would smell things before she ate them. It almost makes me teary just thinking about it. It was precious! The surgery is so much easier the younger they are. Just keep on their pain medicine and you will get through the recovery JUST FINE! Please keep me posted on your decision and your progress. I promise it will be the best thing you ever did for your little one, too. =0)

Quite frankly, I'm surprised the Dr said "it's quite a painful surgery"!!!!!! This is a VERY routine surgery, that doesn't even take 30 minutes to do for any ENT surgeon.

Young patients have been "bouncing off the walls" within a day or two ofter the surgery, of course there are always the exceptions to the rule.

My sister had this done when she was in her 20's............she played in a Volley Ball game within 48hrs, and didn't show any signs of the surgery!

I support the surgery. This will eliminate all kinds of things later in your daughter's life. It's better to get it done now while she's so young.

If you're concerned........get a second opinion.Perhaps you dn't have the "right" Dr. for your daughter for him to sound so .........well so discouraging about it.

Unless she has complications.......she won't be missing 7-10 days of anything :o)

~N.

My son is 33 months old and after 6 months of constant ear infections and antibiotics he had tubes put in and adnoids removed. ENT said leaving the adnoinds would not fix the problem with all the ear infections. The anasthesia (sp?) was the worst part of the whole thing as it took him about half hour to open his eyes and realize where he was. After about four hours and some crackers, he was back to himself. He took his normal nap and woke up as if nothing had happened. I think with tonsils being removed, you might have a longer recovery time. This only happened a week ago, so I am hoping the tubes have solved the ear infection issues.

I've had tubes 2x and my adnoids removed. I still have my tonsils. I still get sick. The general feeling is that the adnoids and the ear infections are connected.

I have found that my kids ear infections were mostly related to allergies. My son would get an ear infection every 3 weeks, like clockwork. I finally got him tested, found out that he was allergic to a fruit that he was eating at school, every 3 weeks. We stopped giving him that food and his ear infections went down dramatically!

If this was my decision, I would check out the allergies first. Then, if there was still a problem, I would probably go ahead with the adnoids removal, but leave the tonsils.

Just my two cents.
M.

.

Our ENT removed my daughter's adenoids when he did the second set of tubes, and I am guessing it helped. Apparently it gives the eustachian tube more room? It took a LONG time for her second set of tubes to fall out, so it could be she grew up and out of her eustachian tube problems.

But he didn't touch her tonsils.

And she bounced right back from the surgery.

so.... if you have the luxury of a second opinion, you could have a second ENT look at her tonsils. We go to http://www.earandsinus.com but that would be quite a drive for you!

Or ask your pediatrician for suggestions?

Hi, I would def get a second opinion. We were rushed in to getting our daughters tonsils and adenoids out when she was 3, and it was very traumatic and painful. I really wish that our ent had gone over some of the options with us. We have a new ent that is really fantastic, he listens to your concerns as a parent, and wants to support you in making the best decisions for your child. I feel like some drs are so pushy and don't explain what is going on, but he is very personable, patient, and knowledgeable. Dr. Jacob Johnson in SF ###-###-####-even if you don't see him, I think that you should get a second opinion! good luck!