<p>My child needs to have his tonsils taken out. ENT in town does it with traditional surgery. A friend took her child down to a larger city two hours away and had it done by laser. Any opinions?</p>
<p>Talk to your kid’s pediatrician and ask his advice. Based on my very limited knowledge, I think you’ll be fine with traditional surgery as long as you feel comfortable with it and feel comfortable with the doctor. It’s the kind of surgery that’s been common for a long time. I’m definitely not a doctor, but I don’t think there’s a need for you to go two hours away for laser surgery.</p>
<p>Recovery time is much shorter and less painful with laser. I would call every gp, ent and allergist in and around your town and see if they can recommend any ents that are closer that can do the laser surgery. Not sure I would take him two hours away if that’s the closest one though. He’ll be pretty miserable on the ride home, although he might just sleep through the ride. How did your friend find the trip back to be?</p>
<p>My daughter had tonsils and adenoids out w/ laser at age 11. It was an outpatient procedure done at a University Medical Center’s clinic; this went smoothly. However, we were warned because of her age there might be complications. They were right–hemorraged at 11 p.m. 6 days after surgery (that was a fun ride to the emergency room!). More surgery at 3:00 a.m., then she was discharged the next day.</p>
<p>It’s best to get them done as early as possible. The longer your wait, the more likely there will be complications.</p>
<p>Mom60, how old is your child? My son had his out with coblation technique (not sure if this is what people refer to as “laser”) in Oct. At 20, it was a tough recovery for him and they were terribly infected and abscessed at the time which also makes recovery a little longer. His ENT said that the coblation surgery does shorten recovery time by a few days–but of course end result is going to be the same. I’m somewhat surprised that there isn’t someone closer trained in the coblation technique as it seems to be the upcoming standard—we don’t live in a large town and most of the ENTs here use the technique. Here is a link to a video I watched prior to son having his done <a href=“http://www.or-live.com/georgetownhospital/1149/[/url]”>http://www.or-live.com/georgetownhospital/1149/</a></p>
<p>I have a call into his regular Dr to see what she recommends. The ENT we went to was recommended by her.
Strangely we have only a couple of ENT in our city. Though we are a small city the residents consider it sophisticated. I was ready to schedule the surgery with the Dr in town when a friend recommended someone in Los Angeles who did laser surgery on her childs tonsils.
I am concerned about a two hour drive after surgery. Plus if there are complications it would be another two hours back to LA.
The ENT said my son should be prepared to be out of school 7-10 days. I just don’t know when we can schedule the time. His school is on block so missing a week is equivalent to missing 2 weeks.
mkm he is 17, I am hoping we can wait till summer to do it. Did your son have Mono before his tonsils got so infected?</p>
<p>No, my son became ill the end of Aug. with mild sore throat, upper resp. symptoms, low grade fever. Had mono spot done (neg), strep done (neg)–was told viral. He got worse, high fever, swollen glands, huge tonsils and even though strep neg, they felt might be another strain or bacteria so went on antibiotics. He would improve for 3 or 4 days and then relapse even worse. After 4 courses of different antibiotics and steroids (all mono test negative) I brought him home to an ENT who did a CAT scan and he said he had multiple “hidden” abscesses and the infection had spread throughout the throat and soft palate. By now it was mid Oct, but the Dr. said he couldn’t wait as son would risk becoming septic if tonsils didn’t come out. So middle of Oct we had surgery done. He had surgery on Tues–missed the rest of that week and all the next. It was about 3 weeks before he was eating very well.</p>
<p>I questioned Dr. about sending him back to school as sometimes the worst bleeding problems happen when the scabs come off (12-14 days out). He said that you should always go to local emergency room–any hospital could deal with it. In your case, for emergency you could go local–you could just go back to original Dr. for the follow up visit.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if I can help in any way.</p>
<p>mkm: Scary stuff! And expensive, too! A CAT scan for tonsils :eek:</p>