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Saturday, January 17, 2009

It's Not Over 'til the Tonsilectomy Patient Screams

Things were going really well with my younger son's (YS) recovery. In fact they were going so well I even called the ENT to get his opinion on switching YS from Tylenol with codeine to regular Tylenol. I was advised not to do this at all. If I chose to do this, I was strongly advised to at least keep him on the narcotic at night since the nightime pain tends to be particularly intense for this surgery. Phiff! I also asked the ENT if it is normal to be completely unable to understand your child's speech after losing tonsils. He confirmed that incomprehensibility is a common side effect of this surgery.

Late the next afternoon, YS just lost it. Everything was making him cry. Then he started waking up in the middle of the night crying too. He said nothing hurt, so we thought that the series of meltdowns was just a fluke. Until the next night when it happened over and over and over again. I called the ENT who said that this was normal. Um, hello, in our conversation two days ago we talked about pulling him off the narcotic because he acted like he never had surgery. Turns out that this is also typical with younger kids who have this surgery. They act fine but then around day 7 they start to feel "referred ear pain" particulary at night. I was reminded that the recovery for this is a full ten to fourteen days and to expect this on each of the remaining nights. Except that YS is not waking up screaming in pain; he's waking up screaming that he can't find his toy beluga whale or that his nightime pullup is wet. Apparently that's part of the healing too, and regardless of what bothers him after he wakes up, the actual awakening probably probably results from ear pain.

All I know is that at midnight last night the Big Giraffe and I were searching for a two inch dinosaur that a hysterical YS just had to have. Nothing would calm him down. Then an hour later I was up soothing an hysterical YS who was upset that that two inch dinosaur had miracously appeared and was looking at him funny. Of course all the while I could barely understand YS so he was getting more and more frustrated. Then a couple hours later he was up again. Of course the bigger mystery is how and when our older son (OS) not only appeared in our bed but completely sprawled out all over our bed.

I feel just like I have a newborn again. Except that this time both of my kids appear totally fine in the morning and have way too much energy. You would never know that one of them had surgery. Hmmm...probably if you saw the Big Giraffe or me, you would guess that there had been a surgery in the family except that you would think that we were the ones who had undergone it!

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Parents should not expect the behavior of their two year-olds to make sense after they have undergone surgery. Parents should also not expect the behavior of their two year-olds to make sense when they have not undergone surgery. Parents believe they should expect the behavior of the older siblings of their two year-olds to make sense, but they are mistaken.

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 8:20 PM   4 comments
4 Comments:

  • At 1/17/2009 9:44 PM, Blogger Kami said…

    Oh boy! Poor little guy and poor you! But I had to laugh a bit when you said the dinosaur was looking at him funny... At least he still has his sense of humour ;)

     

  • At 1/18/2009 12:36 PM, Blogger Goofball said…

    wow sounds like they didn't brief you well....just afterwards they claim that all is "to be expected after surgery"

     

  • At 1/18/2009 4:21 PM, Blogger jodifur said…

    poor kid, probably just the trauma of surgery.

     

  • At 1/18/2009 11:22 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    Oh great! Now I'm scared about M's tonsillectomy even more! ;)

    I guess it's a good thing I'm already up during the night with the baby then. I'll just plan on NO sleep for those 2 weeks then.

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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