Yesterday we had to drive about an hour down to Rady's Childrens Hospital in San Diego for two appointments. First we met with the otolaryngology doctor. This is an ear nose throat doctor who will be doing Alex's tonsil removal surgery. The interesting thing we learned is that the doctor had heard about some trial studies done that show children with Psoriatic Arthritis do better after they have their tonsils removed. I explained to him that she has needed them out for over a year due to constantly getting tonsilitis/strep throat and that it had nothing to do with her PA. I will have to look into the research though.
Her surgery is scheduled for September 28th. She is excited about it because she is looking forward to no school and all the ice cream she wants! I don't have the heart to tell her that I read in her prep paper work that ice cream is not that good for her because of the dairy and it sticking around her throat. She loves smoothies and jello so we will try and go with those! I don't really know what her recovery will be like. The doctor said it will feel like a bad case of strep without the fever making your body hurt too. She can go back to school as soon as she is off the pain meds at which point she will probably feel better anyway. Best guess in 5-10 days.
We got out of there at 1:30 just in time to rush home to get Kiersten and Ryan (her sister and brother) from school. But guess what...I got lost! I have gps on my phone but my phone died (and hubby had the charger). Needless to say I had to call the school and they had to wait in the office for about 15 minutes for me. Major Fail!
So here is what is next:
MRI results in 3 days
Tonsils out on the 28th
Eye doctor 10/4
Rheumatologist 10/5
Have you or your child had tonsils removed...if so please leave me a commnent on how it went, recovery time and what foods you suggest! Thanks!
Hi Pattie, wow Alex and Dutch have a lot in common. He went through his tonsillectomy at this time last year, same similarities, constantly living with strep everyday. His was related to his disease, all within the autoimmune family. Since the surgery he has had strep once in the last year....a HUGE improvement. I often wonder if the autoimmune diseases are brought on by something in our environment. I would also look beyond the PA and pay close attention to other symptoms that Alex may have had in the past several years. Also consider your options when it comes to getting her started on some therapy for the PA. We started Dutch's therapy for JRA only to learn that it caused worse issues, a lot of internal bleeding, etc. Only afterward to discover that his diagnosis wasn't JRA but that JRA was just a symptom of a bigger disease. Sometimes you have to look ahead and decide whether the benefits of the medicine far outweigh the damage of the disease or vice versa. Sometimes the treatment can be more debilitating and damaging than the actual disease itself. We now deal with liver damage with Dutch which is a result of meds. :(
ReplyDeleteAs for the tonsil recovery. People will tell you that kids bounce back quickly, don't let that fool you. It was hard for Dutch. When children have an underlying illness its more challenging and often times something as simple as a minor surgery can wreak havoc on their body's and cause other issues to surface. Not to say Alex wont do well, but just want to prepare you that your estimate for recovery is right on target. It took Dutch about 11 days, first few days he wanted nothing to eat, I had to force him to take sips of water. after a few days it was on to Jello and then on to soft foods such as noodles or mashed potato's, etc.. Their may be a period where she will seem to be getting better and then go downhill quickly including a fever and more soar throat, (around 7th day) this is normal but will still warrant a call to the doc. All different flavors of gum was useful, because it promotes saliva which helps in the healing.
I hope all goes well. She was such a trooper on her MRI!
Call me if you need anything!
Michelle