Ear Tubes & Adenoides

Today was Leah's Surgery Day. Even though it wasn't the most pleasant experience, I wanted to write about it, because I think one day we'll look back on this story and laugh at the craziness. So here's how it goes, sorry there are no pictures :)

I had a hard time sleeping. I woke up at 3:30 am and never did go back to sleep. Leah's surgery was scheduled for 7:30 am, and we had to arrive at the hospital an hour early. I showered, got dressed and watched a little TV. I wanted to wait until the very last possible minute to wake up Sassy because if she doesn't wake up on her own, she usually acts like a monster. On this particular morning, she didn't do too bad. She just seemed more like she was in a fog, or still half asleep vs. extremely pissed off. Once we arrived at the hospital things changed. If you spend a lot of time with Leah you know, that she tends to be a little fraidy-cat. She is very Leary of people she doesn't know. It takes her a long time to warm up to someone she doesn't know. As you can imagine, this quality makes taking her to the MD hard because they touch her with their stethoscope and look inside her ears. And even though Leah has no sense of Mommy or Daddy's personal space, she does not like strangers being up in her personal space. Same was true this morning. She clung to me, when the nurse tried to put her hospital band on. One nurse, however, did come prepared with a box of small toys and told her that she could choose one to play with while she checked her vital signs. Leah actually allowed me to put her down on the bed, so she could see what was in the box, and she let the nurse check her oxygen, but the second she put that blood pressure cuff on her leg. She was stuck to her Momma, like a koala bear. I should probably mention too, that Jed couldn't get out of work to be here for the surgery. But since we now live in St. George, my Daddy was able to come to my rescue. And boy was I glad he was there. Even when it was just the three of us, Leah was very anxious and crying. It was obvious she was scared, who wouldn't be. So a nurse came in and said that they wanted to give her some medicine to help calm her down so that they could prep her for the surgery and also so that she wouldn't freak out when she was wheeled off to surgery and away from me. Of course I said yes, and asked it they provided the same meds for the mom. But the meds came with a warning from the nurse, anesthesiologist and the MD. That warning was that this medicine will calm her down now, but as the anesthesia wears off, it tends to make kids "extremely irritable." I said "OK, yeah, whatever, just give her something now!"It took a while to get the medicine. And she was hard to distract, but Papa was smart enough to blow up a glove and pass it around like a balloon, which Leah enjoyed. Then the nurse came in with her meds. I had to force them down her throat, and I wasn't sure she even got enough in her mouth to be effective, but she did. After about 15 minutes Leah's eyes were glazed over and she was babbling to Papa and me. When the anesthesiologist came in to wheel her to the OR she was mesmerized by the TV remote and we had to unplug it and send it down to the OR with her because she wouldn't let it go. It was pretty funny. She was so snowed that when they moved the bed, she fell over and bonked her head, and she laughed. They wheeled her down the hall and she didn't even notice that I wasn't by her side. She was too busy playing with the remote and talking to the anesthesiologist. Papa and I went to the waiting room and after only about a half hour, the MD came out and said that everything went great. We had to wait a little while longer, before we could see her. But after fifteen more anxious minutes a CNA came and called my name. We started walking back and I asked him how she was doing. The CNA gave me a nervous smile and said "She's kind of sad." He showed us to her room and before we even got through the door, I could hear the screaming. Not good. We walked in the door and a poor little nurse was trying, unsuccessfully, to calm my daughter, who was thrashing around like a wild beast. I'd never seen anything like it. It was like she was possessed. She was so out of control, that I couldn't even hold her. Papa had to bear hug her just to keep her from hurting herself. She was trying to rip out her IV. It was a total nightmare. And just when it seemed like she had calmed down, out of no where she would start up again. The hospital discharged us pretty quickly, and we headed home. It's almost as if Leah was half asleep because when we walked outside to the car, it was kind of cool out and the fresh air seemed to clear away some of that fogginess. She still cried the whole way home, which luckily isn't far. When we got inside, we put on Leah's favorite show and opened her princess couch up into a bed, hoping she would lay down, watch her show and sleep it off. NOPE! She continued to scream, cry, and thrash around. She even managed to give herself a bloody nose. It was sad. I sent Papa to Target to get Leah's Rx filled and I grabbed Leah's favorite blanket and wrapped her up in it. Then I laid down in her princess couch/bed and held her until she fell asleep. I waited a good 15 minutes then put her in her crib. She slept for 2 hours and when she woke up she was totally back to normal. It was one heck of an experience...