Saturday, October 8, 2011

The day the Tonsils came out

We've been a bit overwhelmed by having to do a second surgery with Danya. I've been scared of seeing her panic and not be her usual charming self. That morning she woke up in a great mood. I got quite hopeful. We packed a bag with some of her favorite things. When Nana arrived from Maui she brought another birthday gift of her Skipper Doll she's been asking for. Once opened she named them Courteney and Marlena. These are her 2 friends she calls her sisters. They live very close to us and their Mom and I are very good friends so the girls see each other quite a bit, infact Courteney is old enough she is Danya's babysitter thus she is Skipper. For her surgery naturally she had to bring her sisters with.
In front of her here you will see the ipod and speakers. Due to a major oops on my part this is the last time you will see this ipod. All moms do it, and on most days it's okay. When I went to buckle Danya into the car I placed the ipod and speakers on top of the car. Then as I was answering some questions I totally forgot it was there. The magnets int he speakers must have kept it from shifting too much as we drove the side seats and even quite a ways on the freeway. BUT when we had to make a sudden slowdown, thunk thunk thunk and off the front of the car it went. Only to be crunched by at least one car. Yes I stopped the car and went and rescued it. I now know what is inside an ipod. Thankfully we still have another ipod we can use for her movies and such as well as different speakers although none as nice. Oh well. It is the price we pay for stressful mornings. 

 When we got to the hospital we were early. Even with our little H1 misshap we still made it into town in 20 minutes, which for a Thursday morning is virtually unheard of. We went to the registration office and the little charmer that she is, saw a box wrapped like a gift with stuffed animals inside it. So naturally she asks "Auntie, can I have a snowman?" yes there was a snowman toy right on top. Auntie said yes and that she could keep it. She was thrilled and it helped to distract her as we waited for the surgery pager to go off.
 Once down stairs she was still a charmer. We had arrainged for someone from child life to come down and help us distract her and get make sure that things went well. unfortunately she did get stuck in traffic, but Danya was so amazing we didn't need her. She came in right before we went in and it was still great to have her come. She brought Danya a tucker the therapy dog stuffed toy. Yep if you are keeping track that is 2 more stuffed animals in the house. At this point Momma got into her paper gown and got ready to go with Danya into the OR. I carried her down there and she was still talking to the nurses and anestesiologist the whole way down the hall. Once we were in the OR she seemed to remember what was really going on. She clung to me and it was very hard to hold her as they put the gas mask over her face. She kicked and cried until she went out. I had a much harder time holding the tears back this time.
 The hospital staff is amazing and our Surgeon is very good at what she does.  The procedure was quick and when she came to she was a bit whiney, but just wanted to stay in the bed this time. She asked to go back to the play room right away. Naturally we couldn't do that but the popcicle feast began right away.  She was a bit like a baby bird waiting for Daddy to put the popcicle in her mouth.
 Notice that Tucker moved up in the ranks right next to her bear she's had since she was a baby.
When the child life specialist came down before surgery she left part of the sleeping beauty tea cart for Danya to play with when she woke up. Everytime we go to the hospital for a Danya's gift drop off she finds this tea cart and plays, so we had them bring it down.

Soo cute the Tucker dog. And then it was time to go home. She still had a great deal of pain meds in her system still and felt pretty invincable. She was very animated on the way home.

The rest of the day went pretty well until it was time to give her some more meds. Danya has a pain tolerance that is amazing. She would rather endure the pain than take the meds.  We remembered the meltaways that worked so well last time and ran out to the store yesterday to get those. Plus she wouldn't trust any of the slushies I made at home because she figured I had hidden medicine in it, so we went a bought her a Icee. It's been an amazing adventure. To look at Danya you would never know she had surgery 3 days ago. She is rebeling against the liquid diet at the moment. She really wants a hot dog on a stick. When offered icecream she whines for real food. In another day or so we can start more real type foods.

Well that's our Tonsil adventure. I'm working on the last batch of custom order costumes whenever I have a moment.

2 comments:

Connie said...

Laura, Brian had to have two surgeries for his tonsils and adnoids. Two different doctors, two different hospitals, one year apart. Both doctors said that they were the largest they had ever removed. Rough on a five year old and harder on mom so I know what you have been going through. Hugs all around. Love you.

Kjersten said...

She is such a sweet girl. I hope her recovery is fast and good. Blessings to you all.

Mommy, Daddy, and Me

Mommy, Daddy, and Me
These photos are from roughly the same age for each of us.