Tonsillectomy Gone Bad

My daughter had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy last July. Minus the extreme, rare tongue pain she had afterwards and the fact that she got strep throat on top of her recovery, things went well. It was a normal T & A.

So, we used the same doctor. We liked him a lot. All things considered, we still like him....

Despite the fact that our son ended up like THIS after his surgery...in a NECK BRACE:

A mother couldn't be more mad than I am.

Seriously. A child goes through enough pain after having their tonsils and adenoids removed. I have had TWO kids who've had their tonsils out and I will be the first to tell you it is challenging for all parties involved - for the parents and the child. And, we put our total trust in the doctors who operated on them. Because we have to. But, to be injured during surgery is just unbelievable. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

Have I mentioned how mad I am?

He is only four-years-old. FOUR. And, in a lot of pain....more than we anticipated.

It is not fair to him at all. We are on week two and he should be feeling better by now, but has this horrible neck pain where he wakes up screaming every morning. The pain is immediately and horrible. And, we can't get pain meds into him and get the rice sock heated up and on his neck fast enough to ease his pain.

Immediately after he came out of surgery we knew something was wrong. The nurse came into the hall and said to me, "Mrs. D, he is crying for you. You need to come now."

I had to climb into bed with him to get him to calm down.

Even then, it did not help. His neck/head hurt bad. He was not crying from the pain of having his tonsils removed. He was screaming from the pain in his neck and the back of his head. 

I paged the doctor several times after the surgery and he was confident that the pain JJ was having was from having his adenoids scraped. And, from nothing else. He told me our son was confused about his pain.

But, moms know when doctors are wrong. They know!

Fast forward to day six of neck and head pain....

He woke up several times during the night just beside himself...begging for us to take him to the emergency room. There was nothing we could do to make it better but to pray.

We made it to the morning and I paged the doctor-on-call who told us to bring him to the ER where his team would meet our son and my husband there (I was due to take my daughter to her dance recital that day and could not come).

My husband took JJ to the emergency room that day. They did x-rays and CT Scan on JJ's neck and head. At first they thought the pain he was having was because his bones had been misaligned during surgery. But, what had really happened was they were way too rough with him and caused muscle inflammation to the back of his neck. They admitted him, two minutes before I walked out the door to take our daughter to dress rehearsal for her spring recital. I got the text from my husband and was crushed. I had to put on a "happy face" and be there for our daughter as she danced her heart out on stage, but my the other half of my heart was with my son as he laid there in agony in the hospital.

Big Sister encouraging and praying for Little Brother who's in the hospital

But, when everything came back "clear," and there was no damage done to his spine and for us to see the rheumatologist, my husband told the doctors he was taking our son home so he could sleep and he'd bring him back in the morning. So, they gave him pain meds in his IV and sent him home. The ENT brought JJ's rheumatologist up to speed on everything and told her he'd be in to see her in the morning.

So, basically, everything was passed off to his rheumatologist (because ENTs don't deal with inflammation). The next day, we all made a trip back to the hospital to see his rheum. She told us, "I am so very sorry this happened to your son. This injury to his neck can take up to at least a month to heal."

End result: he starts physical therapy tomorrow for his neck and back of his head. And, has to wear a neck brace throughout the day to get him to lift his head up instead of walking around with his chin to his chest.

Luckily, we have a good therapist who we have been with since Mia was 22 months old. Unfortunately, we have three kids in physical therapy right now. And, that is three kids too many.

This should not have happened to our son. It sucks. Big time. But, there is nothing we can do about it. We have to pray and encourage him (daily) and hope there is no long-term damage to his neck.

What should have been a simple procedure had turned into a prolonged recovery. And, it is not fair to a four-year-old boy who already has had so much to deal with.

We ask that you stand with us and pray for a complete recovery for our son. He needs your prayers. Thank you.