10 Days ago my little Megan had her tonsillectomy/ adenoidectomy preformed. The decision to have it done wasn't the easiest, but we thought long and hard and had several people recommend it. Knowing that her chronic throat infections, snoring and sleep apnea would be greatly reduced still didn't make having her go under the knife easier.
Thankfully, my parents postponed their annual late summer/early fall trip to coincide with her surgery. I needed a familiar person to take care of Ian. Paul and I took her in at 8am for her scheduled 10 am surgery. Megan, not usually eating too early in the morning worked out in our favor...she gladly got dressed in her red tutu. What?!? Don't you dress up for your surgeries?
Once we got into the actual surgery wing, there was a goody bag waiting for her and a large screen TV with tons of movies to watch, so we settled down and watched "Tangled" while we waited for her turn at surgery. The staff was fantastic at Parker Adventist Hospital, (it was also nice that they had a moment of prayer for all the patients in the hospital. I also liked the painting of Jesus with His hands guiding the surgeon)
One of us was allowed to escort her back to the operating room, Paul really wanted to be the one, but we allowed Megan to choose, so she picked her mommy, she was also allowed to bring in her favorite toy and blanket. Despite her being allowed to choose flavored gas (she chose grape) she freaked and had to be physically restrained why the anesthesiologist cranked up the gas and put her under. The sight of that brought me to tears, they allowed me to kiss her goodbye, the nursing staff were all giving me hugs and telling me it was okay to cry but she was in good hands. Duh, as a nurse I knew that, but as a mommy...it was the hardest thing to watch.
I rejoined Paul and we headed out to the waiting area, thinking we had oodles of time, we went downstairs for coffee (for Paul) and a run through the gift shop. I found her a ballerina necklace...gotta ease my guilt some how.
By the time we got back to the waiting area, it was all done...we even missed the surgeon. They wanted to get us back to her prior to her waking up, well that didn't happen. She woke up terrified, (more guilt) her heart rate was nearing 175bpm, and O2 satting at 95 from crying so hard.
She was pretty much still asleep from the anesthesia. The nurse moved the bed away and got a chair for me to hold her, once I held her, her rates normalized. Poor baby, just wanted to go home, we were there for about 2 hrs, she had to be able to keep liquids down and to keep her oxygen level up while sleeping.
At first she didn't want to drink but I told her once she drank the juice she could go home, sure enough that worked.
Once home, she threw up once, that scared me more than it phased her...I think once she slept off the anesthesia she was fine.
During the next week, the main hurdles we had to deal with was, pain, fever, getting her to drink, and choking on saliva when she slept.
Every day she improves, her voice was a bit off at first, but it's getting back to her normal as time goes on. Her appetite is improving as well, she wouldn't eat ice cream or popsicle, she would eat jello. But as the nurse I talked to, said, drinking was more important than anything else.
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| Wearing her red tutu for surgery |
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| this is a copy of the picture outside the surgery center, I didn't get a chance to take one with my own camera. |
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| all gowned up |
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| Cobbler even got a hat |
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| mommy in her bunny suit ready with Megan and Cobbler |
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| Megan, right after surgery, very swollen and groggy |
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| resting at home, she wanted to go downstairs to be with the family so we made a little couch bed |
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| after surgery, the nurses made cobbler look like megan |
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| getting her color back |
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| guilt gift, aka get well gift from mommy and daddy |
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All the thoughts, prayers and well wishes were truly felt, she is doing much better, and we pray that this will help her immensely. Our biggest reassurance came from the surgeon, she said, "we were here for the right reason, her tonsils were big and her adenoids were HUGE"
