Kayley's Surgery

Kayley was scheduled to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out on Monday because she has obstructive sleep apnea.  She was in a great mood that morning and was almost excited for surgery (clearly we didn't do an adequate job explaining what was going to happen).

Kayley and Baby getting ready to leave
for the hospital to have their tonsils
and adenoids out

Like my cool hospital shirt, shorts and socks?

Right before she and Baby went back

The surgery went great.  Her surgeon said her tonsils were each the size of a ping pong ball and her adenoids were half that size.  Andy and I couldn't believe it.  We knew she had large tonsils, but how do two ping pong balls fit in the back of her tiny mouth?!  No wonder she had trouble breathing at night and no wonder she chewed her food forever!  The surgeon said we should notice a huge improvement in her breathing.

Recovery has not gone as smoothly.  The nurse in the recovery room gave her a lot of pain medication that knocked Kayley out for hours.  Kids who had surgery after her were going home before she was even awake!  We kept trying to wake her because she needed fluids in order to go home, but eventually a nurse checked her chart and explained that Kayley had a lot of pain medication and she would probably be out for another hour or two.  Great.  When she finally woke up, she refused to take even a sip of water.  We tried EVERYTHING.  Water, ice chips, juices, popsicles, ice cream, jello, milk, chocolate milk, pudding, etc.  Fail, fail, fail.  Eventually they had to move us from the pediatric recovery area to the adult recovery area because all of the other pediatric patients were home.  The nurse wanted to admit her and called the surgeon several times, but the surgeon kept telling the nurse to "keep working with her" rather than admit her because kids do better at home.  I totally understand his logic, but it is during times like this that you would like the surgeon to come into the recovery room and try to "work with her" himself!  It would be one thing if she had taken even 1 or 2 of the 4 ounces she needed to take, but she refused even a sip for hours.

Right after she came out of surgery

Sleeping off all of her pain medication in Daddy's arms

After sitting in a recliner holding her for over 7 hours after her surgery, we got word that they were going to admit her.  That was bittersweet.  It was a relief because we knew she would get enough fluids, but I can't tell you how disappointed Andy and I were at the same time that it came to this. 

Not happy to have to stay at the hospital

Tuesday was a day of working on getting Kayley to take her fluids (and her meds).  She refused anything we offered.  Then a hospital staff member who works with kids to take their meds and fluids asked if we would like her to try.  Yes, please!  She asked if Kayley liked stickers and tea parties.  I said yes.  She came back in with a purple cup, a small medicine cup and a ton of stickers.  She talked Kayley and Baby into having a tea party with her.  She had Kayley drink from a straw out of the small medicine cup and when she got to the bottom she got to make the noise you make when you are still sucking out of the straw but there is very little liquid left (you know, the super annoying noise you hear and you want to tell the person doing it that their drink is gone and to stop it!).  Anyway, Kayley loved it of course and loved her sticker rewards.  She got Kayley to drink a little over 6 ounces!  We asked her if she would be willing to move in with us for 2 weeks!  It was great that she got Kayley to drink, but the fact that we had to go to such great lengths wasn't good enough for the doctors.  She needed to be able to drink with minimal bribing!

In all, we got her to drink a little over 11 ounces on Tuesday. But, it was all through tea parties with her and Baby. I have to admit, after a 1.5 hour tea party with Kayley and Baby that resulted in Kayley drinking 3 ounces, I was having serious flashbacks to Kayley's feeding aversion days. I realize other kids refuse liquids too after this surgery, but this hits a little too close to home for me and I just wonder if part of her reaction is related to her prior bottle aversion.

Right after we told it was time for her medicine

craft time...with her water and milk of course!

Stop taking my picture!

So happy Drew came to visit!

Getting ready to watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse

She was even crabbier and less cooperative this morning than yesterday if that is possible, but they decided to discharge her anyway.  The hope is that she will do better at home.  She has had a little bit of ice cream with sprinkles and some water since we have been home.  She is not cooperative at all when it comes to her ear drops, antibiotics and tylenol.  We haven't had a problem with her taking medicine since she was a baby so this is a new fun twist for us.  She certainly keeps it interesting!

She found this toy today before she was
discharged.  That made leaving a little harder!