Ari FINALLY got her tonsils and adenoids out!!!!!
She's had a perpetually runny nose for, oh, about the last four and a half years, so I've been so, so excited for her enlarged tonsils and adenoids to come out.
Her surgery was this past Monday, March 2nd. I was really honest in preparing her for the surgery and told her that when she woke up her throat was going to hurt a lot. Which made her cry. :( Understandably, she was really nervous going into the surgery.
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| Ready! |
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| Such a sweet girl. |
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| Watching cartoons helped distract her. |
When they wheeled her away, Shane and I could just see her being so brave and trying so hard not to cry. Broke my heart. The surgery took about 30 minutes, then another 15 until the doctor came to talk to us. He said that her tonsils were huge (which we knew), but that her adenoid was even bigger (which surprised him, but it makes sense with causing a constantly running nose). When the nurse took us back to see her as she was coming out of the anesthesia, we heard her crying from down the hall. :( When we got back there, one of the nurses just picked Ari up, then told me to sit on the bed, then plopped her right into my arms. She kept crying and I finally got her to tell me that her throat hurt (of course) and that she wanted the IV out of her arm. The nurse told me that they'd given her some morphine, but it hadn't seemed to affect her 30 minutes later, so they gave her some Lortab as well. About 20 minutes after that, she finally calmed down enough to stop crying. I talked and sang to her and one of the nurses turned on the TV. Shane found the Disney channel, which helped distract her.
Ari kept complaining about the IV. A nurse told me that as soon as she was drinking on her own, they would take the IV out. I told Ari that if she stopped crying (so she didn't throw up) and took a drink, they would take the IV out. I've never seen a kid stop crying faster (when they weren't fake crying, anyway). The nurses loved Ari (even with all the crying) and brought her every type of drink available to give her options. About an hour and a half after surgery, we were finally able to take her home.
Fast forward to today (six days post surgery) and she's doing a lot better. The first three days were rough and she barely ate or drank anything. She's still only eating maybe 300 calories a day, but it's slowly picking back up. Glad to have this behind us and a healthier little girl from now on!
