Please Explain Tonsillectomy & Adenoidectomy to Me: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Child for Surgery, 3rd Edition

Laurie Zelinger · Perry Zelinger

Jan 2019 · Please Explain to Me! Book 2 · Loving Healing Press

About this ebook

Nearly 500,000 adenotonsillectomies will be performed on children this year. Will you be ready?

The new 3rd Edition of this bestselling book helps parents understand and organize the necessary medical and emotional components that accompany their child’s surgery. In an easy to follow timeline for events prior to and following a tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy, the authors provide reassuring and accurate guidance that eases the process for the patient and family. As caregivers, you will:Get the facts about tonsils and adenoids in simple terms.Reduce your own anxiety about surgery and recovery.Learn how to best support your child through the medical and emotional events surrounding the procedure.Have scripts available to guide your conversations with all of your children.Discover the sequence of events leading up to surgery and how to prepare for them.Find out what you need to have at home while your child recuperates.Understand and respond to any unforeseen complications.Become confident that you have maximized your child’s comfort and adjustment during the weeks surrounding surgery."A handy and valuable guide for parents who face the ultimate decision to have their child undergo a surgery, this book unravels the fear, answers the questions and makes it understandable and reassuring. It is much needed in the field and its joyful illustrations make it easy to follow and comprehend."
-- Donna Geffner, Ph.D., Ed.D (Hon.), CCC-SP/A, Past president of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA)

"When reading the book, you feel as if Dr. Laurie is right in front of you and leading you through the whole process. This book provides a useful, simple and straight forward approach for parents and children to deal with the anxiety that precedes any surgery."
-- Zev Ash, M.D., F.A.A.P. (pediatrician)

"As owners and directors of a nursery school and summer camp for the past 27 years, we are often asked how to prepare a child for a medical procedure. This book is an excellent roadmap for parents on preparing not only your child, but also yourself, for a scary and often intimidating experience."
Adam & Amy Langbart, owners of /Merrick Woods Country Day School and Camp, Merrick, NY 

"The use of actual possible scripts to use with your child to help explain procedures and ease a child’s anxiety, well organized helpful to-do lists and timelines serve to make this a required read and practical guide for parents or any caregiver with a child about to undergo a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy."
Steven H. Blaustein Ph.D, CCC, BCS-CL, Speech-Language Pathologist, Board Certified Specialist - Child Language

"This book spells out in clear and concise language what parents need to know and how to prepare children for the surgery. Suggestions on how to talk to children in developmentally appropriate language will be especially helpful to parents. I enthusiastically recommend this book to parents of children facing this medical procedure."
David A. Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP, Board Certified Clinical Psychologist, Author, Clinical Director of the Children's Home of Poughkeepsie

Learn more at www.DrZelinger.com

From Loving Healing Press www.LHPress.com 

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoyed Zelinger's previous "Please Explain" books and found this one to be on par with the others. It was jammed pack with information for parents and from start to finish the book walks you through the procedure with ease. She breaks the process of explaining to your child into four phases - Introducing the topic to your child (1 -2 months before surgery), Tacking the subject - which covers what to tell them 3/4 weeks before and 2/3 weeks before surgery, Getting ready for surgery and the day of the surgery. There is also a preparation list and possible complications that can arise from the surgery towards the ends. This is a much more parental book as opposed to the other, with lots of medical terminology, but there are child friendly explanations throughout to help guide you. I would suggest you read through it first, then tackle the subject with your child. Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy aren't as common here in the UK as they used to be, but this will definitely be a handy book for me to have in case the need ever arises with any of my kids.

This book is so cleverly written to not only calm parent and patient about the named operation procedures, I believe it can be applied to a number of hospital or difficult procedures. It takes you through the explanation of the operations for the above conditions, what to expect, how to carefully plan and prepare, how to explain what is going to happen, when it is going to and why it is necessary. The book includes excellent graphics and simple text explanations to ease any parent or child who is about to undergo that operation and some great ideas to make your child feel special. Taking each step of the procedure one at a time gently preparing and reassuring your child all through the process building up their confidence and alleviating their fears as they rise, especially around the surgery and recovery. Written by experts in their field, using their knowledge, the book is in simple format which makes total sense to a parent, with the addition of the graphic illustrations and large text is very visible it makes it appealing for the child to share with the parent. I would highly recommend this book to any parent whose child is going to experience a hospital procedure as it will help keep you calm as you see your child relaxing about the procedure as they know exactly what is going to happen and when.

Very cute little book that has a TON of information in it. Perfect for kids and parents because it gives the parents some very good advice on what to do, how to handle the situation, how to allay their fears and how to help them after the surgery. I had a tonsillectomy when I was about 11 years old, I struggled for years with tonsillitis before having the surgery and I don't remember much about it except that I was happy I got to eat ice cream, pudding and jello all day long :) But naturally, kids are terrified of going into a surgery and even more terrified when they come out and are in pain. This book gives every explanation for parents about reasons for needing a tonsillectomy such as of course tonsillitis, but also because there may be obstructed airways or snoring - things that may NOT require surgery to fix. So it's not just a book to help you talk to your kids, it's also a great book to keep around for the extra information. It speaks about ENT doctors, Otolaryngologists and much more. I also love that it gives you the time frame in which you have to talk to your child about the surgery. Starting with about 1 month before surgery all the way up to going into the doctor for the surgery. It even gives parents dialogue to use to help their child better understand what the tonsils are and what will happen. We all know that our children would be scared of something like this. My daughter is now 12 and she has luckily NOT had these problems yet like I did. My younger brother never had them either, just me. I also however was the one who got the asthma and allergies, so that is also a factor in needing your tonsils removed. Perhaps the best part of the book is the "Ultimate Preparation List" - which gives parents a full list of everything they will need for this experience - starting with clearance letters, medical insurance info and pre-approval, things that will be needed before and after the surgery. One thing I love about this is that they suggest getting the game "Operation", which is one that I played so often as a child but have never gotten one for my daughter. Of course if you were one kid who played Operation, you might remember that you get to take out all of the body parts and it helps teach children how to identify parts of the body as well :) Overall this is a great book for parents, I would HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy and reading it - and I plan on getting the other books as well because I think the anxiety and terrorism books would be priceless for me! ***I received a free book to read***

About the author

Dr. Laurie Zelinger, a Board Certified Psychologist, was born and raised in New York, and is a successful product of the New York City public school system. She earned her Master’s degree and Professional Diploma from Queens College over 40 years ago and later went on to earn a Doc­toral degree from Hofstra University. Dr. Laurie has held elected positions on the Board of Directors of the New York State Association for Play Therapy, and at the national level, she served on the prestigious American Board of Professional Psychology for two years. Her interest in children dates back to her days as a babysitter and became the foundation of her later pursuit of school psychology and play therapy. During the course of her professional career, Dr. Laurie Zelinger and her psychologist husband, Dr. Fred Zelinger, raised four sons. As parents, they learned firsthand the difference between reading about children and living with them.

This book represents the author’s actual experience with her son Jordan’s tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, as well as her hope that others will benefit from this information. Her concept of preparing a child for surgery is based upon the premise that information and preparation will reduce anxiety and help families to better manage the experience. The suggested time lines may also be used as a guide for children undergoing other hospital procedures.

Dr. Laurie’s ongoing devotion to children continues beyond her retirement as a school psycholo­gist in the public school system, as she is now in full time private practice as a child psychologist and credentialed play therapist. She works and lives on Long Island, New York with her husband, Fred.