A few months back I had one of the worst cases of mum guilt I’ve ever had. I mean really awful. You may recall me mentioning on numerous occasions that Molly was the world’s fussiest eater. And not just fussy, downright annoying at meal times with gagging and crying galore. It had got better over the last 6 months but that was mainly as I only fed her what she liked and accepted she was going to take 40 minutes to eat a sandwich. It was painful to watch. Turns out it was pretty painful for her too.

Back at the end of July I was away for a couple of days at our annual RMLtd company meeting so my mum had the girls for me. When I left Molly had a bit of a cold but nothing major. My mum called in a bit of a panic as she’d decided to look in Molly’s throat and her tonsils were huge. She hadn’t been complaining of a sore throat and she had no spots so I didn’t think it was tonsillitis. When I got home I looked at them and realised they were indeed pretty giant so took her off to the doctors. She was a little bit shocked at the size but asked me to come back in two weeks when she would hopefully be over the virus and we could see what size they were normally.

I’m ashamed to admit I’d never really looked in Molly’s mouth before. I’d had no need to so was unaware of whether they were always this large. Over the next few weeks I did exactly what you’re not meant to do and googled ‘large tonsils in children’. What I read made me realise that by the sounds of things poor Molly could have had these giant tonsils for some time and they could in fact be causing her eating issues. Our second trip to the doctors confirmed that they hadn’t changed at all and so she decided to refer us to an ENT (Ears, nose and throat) Consultant. Luckily we have private health care though Edd’s work and so a couple of day’s later we headed off to see the consultant. He was fantastic. Before he even looked in Molly’s mouth he commented on things like her breathing and the fact she constantly cleared her throat. In his own words ‘In over 15 years of doing this and some 600 tonsillectomies those are the biggest tonsils I have ever seen’. Bam, and there was the mum guilt. Full force.

He concluded it was likely that they had always been like this, at least since she was a toddler. Large tonsils on their own are not a reason to remove them but he asked me about her eating and guessed she didn’t eat much. Correct. That she was a very slow eater. Correct. And that she probably liked pasta. Correct. Everything started to fall in to place. Turns out all those times I’m got stressed with her not eating or shouted at her for gagging the poor kid couldn’t actually eat. There just wasn’t space in her throat for anything to go down. I felt awful and that’s putting it mildly.

We decided that without a doubt she would benefit from having them removed and quite possibly her adenoids too as she has always been the most horrific snorer and, although a good sleeper, quite a restless one.

Imagine my shock when he said he’d do the operation the next day! I wasn’t quite prepared for that and luckily he ended up leaving it till the next week. I wasn’t worried and didn’t really ask many questions in truth. I trusted the consultant fully. Edd and I both had our tonsils out as a child and have always been fine and I just wanted to know that Molly would be able to eat again. The quicker the better in my books. She was also starting school in two weeks so we wanted her to be all better for that. I was assured that one weeks recovery would be fine.

The Operation

On the morning of the operation we headed off up to the hospital bright and early. We’d been telling Molly what was going to happen so that she was aware and sort of understood. She knew her tonsils were coming out and that she’d be asleep when she had it done.

We spent the morning in the room which Molly thought was fun as she got to watch tv in bed and had her new cuddly toys with her. When talking to the Anaesthetist Molly was her usual shy self and clung to Daddy so he decided that rather than trying to put the drip in her hand he would give her a sedative to relax her and then give her gas to put her to sleep before putting the drip in.

The nurses came round with the sedative and I’m ashamed to admit I found it quite funny. One minute Molly was sat up talking and the next she couldn’t get her words out. It gave me an insight in to what she will be like as a drunk teenager!

By this point Molly was pretty out of it so we walked with her down to theatre. Watching her have the gas wasn’t very nice as she struggled against it but that’s just the bodies natural reaction.

And then she was gone. It’s a strange feeling walking away and leaving her but I knew she was in the best possible care.

We’d been told it would take around 45 minutes so we went back and sat in her room. We both actually did work (me writing a few posts for you lovely lot!). A little while later we were able to go down and see her but everything had been a success. They had removed her adenoids as well as they too had been huge.

Our poor little Molly was as white as a sheet but due to the sedative she was still sleeping and continued to do so for the next two hours. This was actually a good thing as where as I could hear the other children who had had the operation that day crying as they came round, Molly stayed nice and calm. She eventually woke up and immediately wanted to eat. Poor thing had had nothing since tea time the day before. She wolfed down more than I’ve ever seen her eat, and so fast. It was amazing.

After a check from the consultant we were allowed home and so by 4 30pm that afternoon Molly was tucked up on the sofa watching her favourite Disney Princesses.

Aftercare

I’d been concerned that Molly would really struggle with the pain afterwards as I’d heard bad things but she was amazing. She was quiet and sleepy but generally pretty good. We had a couple of intense screaming sessions where she became uncontrollable and nothing we could do would calm her but luckily the hospital had sent us home with liquid morphine which, coupled with a lot of Calpol, worked wonders. We kept her dosed up for the first four or five days and then slowly reduced it. In retrospect I think the Morphine was keeping her drowsy as as soon as we stopped it she was back to normal.

That first week she didn’t eat much but my god she’s making up for it now. It’s a joy, and also hilarious, to watch her. It’s like the child has never eaten before. She eats and eats and eats. The other day she came home from school and ate two rounds of sandwiches, a packet of crisps, a banana, some raisins and two digestive biscuits and that was all before her dinner.

She is also unbelievably happy. Not that she wasn’t before but there is just something about her. She loves school and is constantly full of energy. Most likely because she is now getting good quality sleep.

Part of it may be her growing up, part of it starting school and new experiences, but I can without a shadow of a doubt say that I’m so glad we had it done. And along with her tonsils my mum guilt has disappeared. Hoorah.
 
Have any of your little one’s had their tonsils out or had to go under the surgeons knife? And did you cope ok? It’s a pretty stressful time for us mamas too.

Image of Alice by Anna at We Are The Clarkes.