Audrey's Adenoidectomy and Tonsillectomy

I started to write this post a couple of weeks ago, before the surgery. I decided to keep it here so I could remember/document our thoughts leading up to it..

 Audrey has her surgery in less than two weeks. We can't wait!! I am so ready! We've been talking about it and she seems OK with it but of course she doesn't really know what to expect or what it all means. I am just excited to see the end result - her feeling better, sleeping better, being able to breathe, smell, and taste her food. She's had a sinus infection since December and has been on antibiotics that haven't been able to even make a dent in the infection so I'm curious about what that means for surgery. I hope it doesn't mean they have to delay it, since surgery is actually what's going to clear the infection. **Ok, so that paragraph was obviously written previously...now we are 5 days post-op and here are my thoughts: Overall, the procedure went great. She wasn't scared at all going in, and it wasn't until we actually entered the operating room that she got spooked. I can see why. Its bright, white, cold, and they had us lay her on the table while they strapped her down and put a mask on her face. So while it was scary for her, I really think they did an awesome job of being gentle and easy with her. They let us hold on to her until she was out (they used the general anesthesia through the mask thing). The procedure took about 40 minutes and then the doc came out and said she's all set! He said her tonsils were big but her adenoids were HUGE...so no question about it - in a couple of weeks she'll be feeling like a different child. He took us back to the recovery room where she was just beginning to stir and wake up. She was NOT HAPPY. They had told us that some kids wake up "confused" or "upset". That meant nothing to me...until I saw her waking up. She was in this half awake state, hardly able to hold her eyes open, and was kind of thrashing around and kicking and punching. She was crying and started to get loud, so the nurse gave her something in her IV to calm her down and put her back to sleep a little bit (not so much because she was disturbing anyone, but because it was hard to hold her and we didn't want her straining her voice). We stayed at the hospital for a couple of hours while she woke and then headed home. She was feeling better within hours, and the next day she was seemingly back to her happy, energetic self. This was great (we thought) because it felt like "that's it!" and we could resume normal life quickly. I stupidly allowed her to go outside and play for an hour or so that day...not realizing that she felt great because she was still experiencing pain relief to some extent, from the anesthesia and drugs from the day before. We paid the price that night and the next day. Apparently night terrors are a side effect of the anesthesia and narcotics, so she kept crying out in her sleep and when we'd try to soothe her, she started kicking and thrashing again. It was a little scary, and had us exhausted the next day. PLUS having allowed her to run around outside, she was so tired and in a TON of pain. She also wasn't letting us give her pain meds because it burns when she swallows, AND she wasn't drinking or eating anything. I think she peed twice all day Friday, which was super worrisome - if she becomes dehydrated it can cause nosebleeds and we'd be back at the hospital. We started having to force the tylenol down by sitting on her and prying her mouth open; not ideal but necessary.

 So now that we're nearly a week past, I can say that I think she is getting better day by day. At this point the pain isn't the biggest obstacle, but the boredom. We've all got cabin fever BAD. She can't be in a lot of public places due to risk of infection (a cold can be a serious concern while recovering from this), and I don't want to let her run around outside because she's still healing. And Audrey's a screamer - so when she's playing, she yells - and this is bad for her throat as well. I am really enforcing the "rest rule" all day today (sooooo much TV) and I'm hoping another day will have her really better and the scabs will have fallen off and we can go enjoy our spring break OUTSIDE in this  gorgeous weather.

cranky! Despite tons of ice cream.

The doctor told me the full recovery period is about 6 weeks. But she should be back to playing and eating normally by two weeks. By 6 weeks we should see her really feeling better, sleeping better, no snoring, no mouth breathing, no sleep apnea, etc. I can't wait for week 6. She's got a lot of drainage from her nose still, partially because she had a sinus infection going in to the surgery, and also because drainage is just a part of the recovery. She's on antibiotics to try to ward off any new infections, but I think she's actually resistant to amoxicillan since she's been on it so often in her short 4 years.

I will **Try** to keep updating as she gets better..Can't wait to see the changes in our little girl!