Out they came

A week ago, my sweet little KK had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She has been needing this done for quite some time and we finally gathered up the strength to go ahead with the procedure.

Here she is in the surgery center, waiting to be called back to be prepped for her surgery. She is all nervous smiles at this point.

Here she looking cute in her gown.

Here she is getting all of her vitals checked by the nurse.

Before they took her back for the surgery, the got her nice and drugged up. They loaded her up with Tylenol and then gave her a sedative to calm her nerves and make her feel nice and relaxed. Let me just say that that stuff worked. One minute she was making nice little conversation with us and the next her eyes are glazed over, her head is bobbing around and her speech became totally slurred. It really was so cute. She kept trying to tell us things, but her mouth couldn't form the words. She also kept saying that everything was blurry and spinney and she would try to reach out to touch things that were obviously not touchable. She would not make a good drunk. It was extra humorous when the anaesthesiologist came in to talk to her. He was telling her step by step what was going to happen and she could barely keep her head up and her eyes open. Here is a picture of her as the drugs started to take affect.


When they wheeled her back, Doug and I went back to the waiting room and I could not stop myself from crying. I just felt so sad and scared for my little girl and I just wanted to be with her. Fortunately she didn't see me crying and I was able to pull myself together in no time. It was really crazy how quickly the procedure is done. I feel like we just got settled in the waiting room when we were called back to talk to the doctor. Seriously, it was maybe 20 minutes. I have to say that is a pretty sweet gig for that ENT surgeon. He told us that everything went well and that she was doing great. I was reminded once again that this was the right decision because he said that her tonsils were enormous and basically blocking her throat and that her adenoids were blocking 50% of her nasal passage. It's a wonder the girl could breathe at all.

When it was time, we went back to where she was recovering and she just looked so small and precious. She was awake and just kept saying that she wanted to go home so she drank her water, took her little walk around to make sure that she wasn't going to get sick and then we were out of there. When we got home I was looking forward to a nice long nap. However, Kelsey had other ideas. I then spent the next three hours bringing her popsicle after ice cream after slushy. Little did I know that this was going to be about all she would eat for the next 6 days. It turns out that Kelsey is my daughter after all and is a horrible patient. After the second day she refused to take her Lortab and would only take Tylenol and drink water. Then she refused to take her Tylenol and so she kept getting sick and couldn't keep her water down. So, we had to move to a pleasant suppository system of Tylenol. So, for the past 5 days she has been living on water (with me in a constant state of nagging and begging) and suppositories. It has been an absolutely exhausting week for she and I, however, here we are a week later and her scabs have or are falling off and her spirits are up a bit and she even ate some fruit today and drank lots of juice. This is huge and we are all so happy. We may just make it through this after all. Now, I look forward to the color coming back into her face and her eyes becoming bright once again.

So, what have we learned from this experience?

1. Kelsey really does have a good dose of me in her (sorry ladybug I am not a hearty girl).

2. You can't force a 6 year old to eat or drink regardless of how much you beg/yell/threaten/plead.

3. Sometimes I have thought to myself that Kelsey could stand to loose a few pounds. Well, she has definitely lost more than a few and I don't like it at all. She doesn't look right. It turns out that she was perfect just the way she was.

4. My boys (especially Tyler) DO NOT like to be cooped up in the house for a week. Although Tyler has been rather entertaining as he has learned to yell and to try to boss everyone around. My personal favorite was when he wanted to play with Dillon and Dillon wasn't cooperating with him and so he looked at him and yelled "Dillon, come here! One, two, three!" I couldn't stop laughing it was so cute. I then told Dillon that he had to listen to Tyler because Tyler said "One, two, three). Dillon was not amused.

5. This mothering stuff is exhausting!

P.S. Thanks to my mom and to Amber for bringing balloons. They made for a very cheerful Balloon Garden and she loved them. And thanks to Katie and Chad for the cheerful sunflowers and movies. They really brightened my little girl's spirits.