We were told several months ago by Bean's pediatrician that her tonsils were enormous and that she needed to get in to see an ENT. He, too, confirmed they were too big and said they would need to be removed. It should have been as easy as setting up a date, showing up, and letting the doctors do their work. But on 3 occasions after that we received calls from the office saying that the doctors (now 3 of them) either had 'forgotten' they had a conference that week or completely scheduled us for the wrong day, S threw in the towel and found a totally new office and doctor. It ended up being such a blessing in disguise because the original doctor was kind of an arrogant jerk and the one who ended up doing her surgery was very kind and soft-spoken. PLUS they made the appointment for surgery with less than 2 weeks notice. We were on kind of a time crunch because we'd already had this trip to Vegas planned and her tonsillectomy had to be done with enough time for her to recover while she was off-track from school. Everything worked out perfectly though and we prepared for what I was concerned might be 2 of the hardest weeks Bean has had in her short life.
Her surgery was exactly one week after her Valentine's party at school. In that week we celebrated Valentines twice, took a 3 day 12-hour drive-time trip, and I worked an extra shift. It was a crazy week, but Bean woke up ready to go early Friday morning.
In preparation of her surgery, I told her my experiences, one of which was I remembered they let me choose the flavor of gas I would fall asleep to. I also told her that I had as much slush and Popsicles and ice cream as I asked for. I think this made the procedure a little more enticing. I also told her how clearly I remembered the blessing that my dad had given me and how much better it made me feel. I told her that, if she wanted to, I was sure her Gpa H would give her a blessing the night before when we went to drop Boy off so he could spend the following day with Gma. She kind of started getting worked up so I dropped the issue, but as we were leaving (like, buckling up in the car) she blurted out, 'I want a blessing from Grandpa please!' He blessed her that she would heal well and not be scared. I think it immediately put her mind at ease.
We had to be to the hospital (which is thankfully 15 minutes from our house) by 6:30 that morning. We literally woke Bean up and loaded her in the car, pajamas and all. This girl loves art so I wasn't surprised when, at 6:35 in the morning, she was breaking out markers and paper!
The pre-op exam was next and you should have seen Bean's eyes light up when the nurse asked her which flavor of anesthesia she wanted. Initially she chose strawberry but, when the child social worker came to talk to her about what to expect, she smelled the root-beer and decided on that (which I guess was a good thing because supposedly the root-beer flavor hides the scent of anesthesia better than the other flavors. Interesting!)
The waiting room was loaded with toys. Bean was the oldest kid there, and the only one interested in playing, so she had her pick of what to play with. She chose to take her Sparkle Purple Princess Unicorn she had received for Valentine's Day to surgery with her. So of course Sparkle Purple Princess Unicorn needed the full pre-op exam. She was having so much fun!
It was time to go and they asked if she wanted to play games on the iPad while they wheeled her back in her own wagon. Again, her eyes absolutely lit up! I'm telling you, the physicians and nurses at Primary Children's are geniuses! The anesthesiologist even admitted to me as they were prepping her that the invention of iPads has made his job so easy!
We told Bean goodbye and, less than an hour later, her doctor was meeting with us to tell us that the surgery had gone perfectly and that we could go in a few minutes to see her in recovery. I wasn't there, but the nurses told me that her first words were, "I want my tonsils. I want to see them." This sounded like Bean, but the nurses thought it was so adorable! I guess kids coming out of anesthesia more frequently request to see their parents!
She was pretty mad at first and wouldn't drink anything. But as they took her out of PACU they brought us to a private room where they had the Disney channel playing. Bean was so distracted (and the pain meds started kicking in) that eventually I got her to start eating slush and drinking water. An hour later they discharged her--she was alert and feeling relatively good and, best of all, she didn't get nauseous at all. The first thing I remember when I woke up from my surgery 25 years ago was the sound of sick kids all around me. I'm glad that Bean's experience was more like mine and not theirs!
One of my biggest concerns was how Bean would react to the pain. This kid gets tiny little scrapes and you would think we needed to go to the emergency room. I've decided after this experience that Bean is reacting more to the sight of her being hurt than she is to the actual pain. There have been several days that I have forgotten to give her pain medication because she simply doesn't complain that she is in pain! She's a tough little girl!
My biggest problem has been keeping her sedentary. The first day she was pretty content to lay on the couch and watch movies all day. But even by that evening she was starting to get bored! So by day two I ran to the store to buy her some fun quiet activities. Here you can see the puzzle she built in about 5 minutes (notice she's still in a little bit of an altered state!)
By day 4 she decided that she would heal faster if she built herself a healing tent. This allowed her the opportunity (in her mind) to not only get better more quickly so she could play again, but she put all of her fun new books and games inside so she could play somewhere without Boy distracting her.
On the outside she put the card my cute visiting teacher and her family made for Bean the day of her surgery. (They brought her Popsicles too. Bean was so overwhelmed by all of the love and support her grandparents and friends showed! I was too!)
We made it through the initial 7 days and celebrated by taking Bean and Boy to the aquarium. Even poor Boy was suffering by Bean being home-bound. I think they both really enjoyed the outing.
I am writing this post on her 9th day post-op so she is still under light restriction, but I am just so impressed by how well the surgery went and how much better Bean handled it than I thought she would. The night of her surgery, as we were going to bed, she looked up at me and said, 'Mommy? I think the blessing helped. The doctors were so nice and I wasn't even scared at all.' If I had to pick my favorite part of this whole event it would be that moment. Even little Bean at 5 years old knows what faith is. Sometimes her little reminders are huge examples to me!
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