Under the Knife

Man I can't believe it's been over a month since Em had surgery.  I started writing this post on May 13th (her surgery was on May 10th) and now it's June 11th.  Huge slacker over here!!!!  So let's pick up where I left off......

Everyone knows that we've been facing some challenges with Em's health.  Friday was the big day.  Em's adenoids were finally coming out and we could get back on our journey to normalcy.  I was in full on nurse mode for most of the morning.  Surgery wasn't scheduled until 1:45pm, which I was not thrilled about.  She couldn't eat after midnight but could drink clear liquids and have popsicles until 10:45am.  Well let me tell you...she woke up demanding food.  I've never felt so bad for anyone in my life.  She had no idea why she couldn't eat breakfast like any other day.  It was so bad that I made the Hubs got to Publix and buy popsicles for her.  She ate about 3 for breakfast, which she thought was pretty cool.  But then the hard part came when she couldn't have anything else.  That was the longest few hours of my life. She just cried and would get mad and not understand.  But we all stuck it out and survived!  We loaded the car and headed to Brandon to have her surgery.

Not happy to be going to surgery

Google Maps gave me the most ridiculous directions to the surgery center but we found it no problem.  She was all excited to go in and play.  We waited for her name to be called and finally we headed back to meet up with the doc and anesthesia.  Let me tell you, Dr Vaughn was awesome!  Not only was he great with Em, he was very knowledgeable and very nice on the eyes!!! I know that shouldn't make a difference but it helped.  Plus a good friend of mine used to work with him and spoke so highly of him.  I was blessed that he would be the one managing our sweet girl. Both he and Dr Andrews (our surgeon) explained the procedure, we signed the consents and Em walked off to the OR hand in hand with Dr Vaughn and never looked back.  I kid you not, about 5 minutes later, Dr Andrews came out and was finished!  He said to prepare for about 15-20 minutes and it might have been 10 tops.  He said it was HUGE and that she'll finally be able to breathe out of her nose.  My poor baby hadn't been able to breathe normally for years!!!  I felt like the worst mom on the planet.  He said she'd be as good as new in a few days but she'd have a cough and runny nose for a few weeks.  He headed back to the OR while we waited to be called back to Recovery.

Hanging out, waiting to go to the OR....she dressed herself for the occasion

When we got the call to come back, the minute I opened the door, I recognized the screams.  Em was not a happy camper.  She and anesthesia don't mix too well.  She was sooooo mad that the nurse took her IV out and put tape on it instead of a bandaid.  She constantly asked us to take her "out of this place" and to take her home.  She refused to drink a thing and when it came time for vitals, you would have thought we were killing her. I think they discharged us from PACU because they couldn't handle her screams anymore!!!  So off we went on our journey home.

She got hungry and thirsty about 15 minutes later so we stopped to get her whatever she wanted.  She didn't have her tonsils removed so she didn't have a diet restriction. What did she pick? Chips and Coke. And of course her Daddy got it for her!  She ate like there was no tomorrow!  She took it easy the rest of the day but really, you wouldn't have been able to tell anything was wrong with her.

Left: leaving the surgery center
Right: about 30 minutes later, enjoying her chips

She did an amazing job and was so brave!  I'm so thankful for the amazing work her surgeons and surgical team did.  We are truly blessed to have such amazing doctors in our area!

Our road to recovery definitely doesn't end here but it's a very long and emotional one for me that's best left for another post......

She's a brave one!!!

I apologize now if this turns into a week of posts all about Em. It's what's on the forefront of my mind so I need to get it out somehow.

My daughter is so brave.  I have subjected her to doctors appointments, xrays, and blood draws and she's proved that it's all no big deal.  I have yet to explain to her what is going to happen on Friday but she knows the doctors are going to make her better.

We went to the ENT on 4/24.  We saw the nurse practioner, who was just wonderful.  She was blown away by how nasally she sounds when she talks.  Em has always had a weird, cartoony voice.  It does sound like she's always stuffed up even if she's not.  According to the ARNP, she was shocked by the way she sounds since there is no evidence of nasal drainage or anything.  She suspected that her adenoids would need to come out. She asked the normal questions like does she get sick a lot (yes...like every month) and is she hard to wake up in the mornings (yes....she's always been our late sleeper and hardest one to get moving).  We walked out of there with a prescription for xrays and a diagnosis of "Chronic Nasopharyngitis, Hypertropy of Adenoids, Other Disease Nasal Cavity/Sinuses, Obstruction/perforation, and Sleep Anpea, NOS."  Quite a few diagnoses for such a small kiddo.  We headed back to All Children's to get the scans done.  She did an amazing job.  She held still and in the same position for all of her pictures.  The tech was nice enough to show her what her head, teeth, nose, and mouth looked like on xray.  In that moment I wish I knew what I was looking at.  Give me a chest film or KUB and I can tell what's going on.  But I have no idea what is weird on a head xray so I had to wait it out like any other parent.

I got a call the next day saying that her sinus film was normal (I am still shocked by this) and that the rest showed that her adenoids were enlarged and needed to be removed (thank you Jesus!!!)  They also wanted us to get some allergy testing done just to see if that could be an issue.  I called up my in-laws who agreed to drop everything and drive her down to All Children's to get her labs drawn that day.
{Side note....I can't begin to express how thankful I am for my in-laws.  The Hubs's dad and step mom have not only given up their retirement time to watch my kids, but they routinely bend over backwards trying to help us.  They have been such a blessing to us over the past 5 years and especially right now.}

Em did such an amazing job getting her labs drawn.  She's never had blood work done before so I had no idea what to expect. When we were in the draw room, she was asking what things were and I was honest.  I said we needed to fill up tubes with her blood.  She asked to go sit in the chair and we played with some of the things.  We tested out freezy spray.  We played with the tourniquet.  I explained it needed to give her arm a tight hug.  She even wrapped it around her arm.  Then the phleb came in, who was absolutely amazing.  Em held her arm out (she has a great vein) and was super still.  I was ready to pin her arm down (nurse mode came out) but I never had to.  She sat still through the poke and only started to cry when she saw the blood.  She kept yelling "I can't stop looking at it!" I couldn't help but laugh.  It was over before we knew it and she instantly calmed down.  I am beyond impressed by her.  I bragged about it for the rest of the week at work.  You don't see a 3 year old who will hold still for labs like she did.  She is truly my brave girl.

She did yell at me later that night.  Hands on her hips, stomping her foot, telling me "This was the worst day ever!  The only way I will ever do that again is if I get a cuddle bear."  I have no idea what a cuddle bear is.  But I guess I can figure out what it is for Friday!  Nice thing about the surgery center...they'll gas her to sleep before putting in her IV.

She's definitely one tough cookie!  I think she takes after her Momma!!!  But for now, I guess I should just start calling her Merida!!!!

Ya know...from the movie Brave!!!!

  

Going under the knife

I've been alluding to some health stuff that we're dealing with for Emmy.  It's really nothing life threatening but it's surely messing with our life.  We're gearing up for surgery on Friday to remove Em's adenoids.  I really hope this will begin to solve all of her problems.

My sweet girl has always had a rough time when it comes to congestion.  She spikes really high fevers and then a few days later, she'll get congested beyond belief.  This lingers for about 2 weeks then we're fighting with her to go back to sleeping in her room by herself.  This cycle happens about every month.  I attribute most of it to preschool germs but it's progressively getting worse.  Now she's getting so congested that she becomes apneic at night (meaning she stops breathing) and then startles herself awake in order to breathe.  It's a scary thing to witness as a parent.  The panic in her face is horrible.  And there's been nothing the Hubs or I can do to prevent it.  She's been sleeping between my legs, propped up on my hips.  This has been the only way I can get her to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. She's tossing and turning all night long which means I have not gotten sleep in 5 weeks or so.  The Hubs has been sleeping in her room so at least someone is getting some sleep.  Oh and she snores.  Like a man.  If I knew how to upload a video from my phone to the blog, I would totally post it. She gives the Hubs a run for his money when it comes to snoring.  A 3 yr old should never be snoring like she is.  It's unreal.

Propped up on my stomach trying to get to sleep (with an ice pack for her pink eye)

If you read my post yesterday, you know that I have fallen off the working out wagon big time.  The extreme exhaustion has totally caught up to me.  I've adapted to functioning on no sleep and tons of coffee, which we all know is a recipe for disaster.  It's all come crashing down on me this week.  I feel my patience wearing thin.  I'm on the verge of tears all the time, not because I'm scared or emotional, just because I'm that tired.  The Hubs slept with her one night and woke up telling me he has no idea how I'm still functioning.  He was up almost all night making sure she was still breathing, much like I do.  He's been sweet enough to let me sleep in her room a few nights now just so I can try to recharge.  It's not really working but my body is thankful I am getting more than 2 hours of sleep at a time.

I think it's all just starting to hit me.  On Friday, my poor girl will go under anesthesia and someone will be cutting things out of her.  This is something I've definitely asked for because it will make things so much easier for her (and for us).  But it doesn't make it less scary.  I know she'll be fine.  We have a great surgeon and she's a tough cookie.  The nurse in me knows it's no big deal.  But the mom in me is starting to freak out a little.