Hannah’s Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy

Holy cow everyone. Tonsil and adenoid recovery is no joke. I was warned.

Thankfully our routine was pretty regular Monday AM, we were able to drop off Nora just a bit early at Extended Day. 

Checked in at 8am, got Hannah’s vitals... waited a good hour for anesthesia to come and see us. We were headed to the OR at 10am. I hate seeing my daughter go under, even though I think it’s better she see our faces. She really fought this time which sucked. I almost cried leaving even though this procedure was small beans. 

*April 30 is also Hannah’s heartiversary! Last year her tubes were April 25th -
funny how everything lands on this week with us!

They were done in about 40 minutes, barely enough time to get a bagel scarfed down!

I also hate walking back to recovery - seeing Hannah being held by a stranger, then she starts crying because she’s confused and scared... I sat on the bed holding her and they wheeled us up at 11am to the PICU to her room for the night. 

Tim and I took turns holding her on the bed while she slept for four hours - !! 11am - 3pm! I thought for sure my night was screwed. 

Tim left at 4pm to get Nora from school and keep her on routine. I made the mistake of letting Hannah eat Goldfish which she scarfed down... then later was crying off and on for a good half hour which I assume was because it irritated her throat. Doh. Not making that mistake again : (

During Goldfish

After Goldfish

Crawling up me in anger.

We mostly watched movies for the evening. I continually tried water and juices with her. Few sips, did take some milk. Zero food. I finally turned off the lights and TV by 9pm, she fell asleep quickly. 

I slept like I expected - like crap. I knew they were coming at midnight to give pain meds, so I basically wasn’t able to fall asleep until about 1am - 3am. I think some monitors were going off at 3am... her pulse oximeter fell off her toe. Then her IV fluid drip line kept alarming for no reason, so they took her off her drip. So all that woke me up, Hannah woke up, then we decided to give her 4am meds early. 

Then I slept from 3:30am to 5:30am when the night nurse came in and Hannah woke up which is basically her normal waking time. 

The morning was long... at least Hannah was tethered to the drip line and could walk around. I was freaking out because she wasn’t drinking or eating much. Hannah isn’t typically a sweets person, but I took an ice cream cup from the RN. And wouldn’t you know it, Hannah at the whole cup! They consider that “fluids” since it’s liquid at room temp, and the cup was 4oz which is what’s needed to be discharged - Amen! 

Getting her IV out was another battle. Poor kid is just constantly poked and prodded this month. We left Children’s around 10am. Hannah fell asleep in the car and took another two-hour nap that afternoon! Poor booger. 

I was warned by loads of other Moms in the Ds community that recovery is awful. Just trying to stay on top of pain management, getting the kids to take the meds every four hours, and forcing fluids and food. It’s been difficult! It makes me feel like a mean, terrible Mom when I have to literally wrestle my child down and force meds down her throat : ( At least we know after two weeks it will be done. 

Wish us luck!

Finally eating strawberries because big sister did.