Adenotonsillectomy

I typed this out the night after Charlotte had her tonsils and adenoids out and never got around to finishing the story!

*sigh*
Well, this is going to be long. I need to debrief!
Charlotte is a feisty kid, really unpredictable. I never quite know what her behaviour is going to be like. I have walked out of the dentist and various doctors appointments with her kicking and screaming, absolutely refusing to be looked at, so I was anxious about the whole thing. The operation itself, the recovery, everything.
So just her and I rock up to the hospital. Mum was at home with Lucy, and Raff was getting some work done first up. She was happy as, walking along with her roller bag Bob the Builder case. Waited at the admission desk happily with me, sat and watched TV with me, and then the man came out and called her name and she freaked dropped to the ground and crawled under the chair in the packed waiting room. Yay.

I had to half drag, half carry her in to the lift and in to her room and then back out in to the lounge area as she was upsetting the recuperating kids. The nurse came in to chat about stuff, take her temp, weigh her etc etc. It was horrible. She screamed and kicked and freaked out. I was in tears and I just wanted to go home :( The nurse left us alone and I put a video on and she sat on my lap and clung to me, with one hand clamped fast over her mouth, and her little shoulder squished up against her ear (to keep out marauding ear thermometers!)

So we sat and waited and the a lovely lady came in to tell us about the hospital routines etc and she just happened to have a grand daughter named Charlotte, and she had her tonsils out and got to eat jelly and honey sandwiches afterwards and she wears pink shoes just like my Charlotte. I could have kissed her! She was divine, and of course Charlotte relaxed and happily trotted off to the play room with her, and I layed on the couch and read my novel while Charlotte played for ages.

Now - we got there at 11am, Charlotte had been fasting since 7am. So there were intermittent claims of hunger - I was flipperin' starving, but I couldn't eat in front of her and I couldn't leave her ...
At 12:30 she got shown to her bed. Very exciting! So I ask if we have long to wait and the nurse says that the surgery list doesn't start until 2 :-o
I texted mum to let her know - she had waited for Lucy to wake from her nap and then caught a train in to the city - she was on her way to the hospital and proved to be a timely diversion. I snuck off to the TV room under the guise of needing somewhere silent to feed the ever distractable Lucy, but really I went in there and scoffed my face with banana and dried apricots and almonds!

Charlotte went from insisting to me that she was not going to wear her gown or see the doctor, to getting in her gown happily and letting the anaesthetist listen to her heart etc. in the space of about 10 minutes. And then it was on. My anxiety level was pretty amped by then. Mum took Charlotte to the play room while I breastfed Lucy again.

The doctor came in and got her up on the bed, into her gown, the beds brakes came off and my baby girl was eyes wide as she was cranked up high and wheeled down the hallway. That was a long walk. I was so nervous and cruelly it reminded me of being wheeled in to theatre to deliver Lucy, so I was pretty freaked.

The hospital was fantastic, the lift we went in had painting all over the walls and ceiling for the kids to look at. It was so lovely. The staff were amazing.

We got wheeled in to this cubicle bit where they gave her some colouring in to do (She asked for an extra one for Ella :)) and they gave her a balloon. My darling girl says 'Excuse me, can I pease have a blue balloon cos blue is my favourite colour' It was about then that I just wanted to scoop her out of there and run and live in a cave with her... The nurse brought her back her balloon and all was good.

They took a photo of us together - a Polaroid, so she could sit and watch it develop. It was lovely, really nice. The ENT surgeon came and had a chat to us and then we were wheeled in to theatre. Charlotte was soooo trusting. Her eyes were huge, watching everything and everyone and just listening to what they said. She snuggled right down under the blanket with her stuffed toy elephant.

Then the anaesthetist said that she would be best cradled in my lap to put her to sleep. Nice, I thought. And then he whispered 'hold her very firmly, mum' :( He put the mask over her face and told her to blow in to it like she was blowing in to a balloon, and she took two big breaths and blew. And then she freaked :( and panicked and kicked and tried to pull away and all I could do was whisper to her and kiss her and love her. Then she was out. Eyes rolled back and a gaspy sound in her chest. I was led out of there quick smart and I sobbed all the way down in the elevator.

Thank goodness my mum was there and knew how I felt. We ducked downstairs for a coffee and a half a sandwich. Raff arrived then, and mum took Lucy for a walk to try and get her to sleep.

The doctor had said she would be gone about an hour all up - 30 minutes or the operation and 30 minutes in recovery, so once she had been gone for 45 minutes, I needed to be up in her room waiting. In the end we aited one hour and 20 minutes and those twenty minutes were pretty gruelling. The little boy that was in the next bed came back, we could hear him screaming all the way from the lift, so I imagined that we would hear Charlotte coming too. Not so. She was wheeled silently into the room, as she had came out of the anaesthetic pretty dramatically and they had to give her some Pethadine to calm her down. She was totally zonked and besides sitting up a few times, looking extremely stoned, trying to vomit, we really didn't get much out of her for the next couple of hours.

At 5pm-ish, after my dad came to pick up mum, I decided that keeping an overtired 9 month old at the hospital was a really silly idea, so I left my sweetest middling in the hands of her dad, and drove home.

I felt horrible leaving her like that, so was extremely pleased when the phone rang about 8pm and Charlotte's squeaky little voice told me happily about the present that she unwrapped from her nana. I slept a lot easier knowing she was going to be okay. In the morning I spoke to her and Raff again and all seemed well. She wouldn't take Panadol, so had it put in her IV at one stage and had suppossitries at another time. The pain relief is crucial, as the most important thing that you can do after having tonsils removed is to return to a regular diet ASAP. The action of eating helps prevent infection.

When Ella, Lucy and I got to the hospital, we expected to see the happy smiling Charlotte that we had talked to on the phone a few hours earlier, but she was coming up to 4 hours since the last Panadol dose and they had just taken the needle out of her arm and was looking pretty damn cranky! I told thae nurse that I wanted her to have some Panadol for the drive home and so she held her down and squirted in down her throat. Big mistake, as she then vomited up her breakfast all over herself and then refused to get out of her pukey Dora PJs.

Anyway, we made it home and her recovery was astounding. Besides the first day home from hospital, she hasn't had a day sleep at all. Also, since the following morning when I managed to get her to eat her rice bubbles mixed with ground up Panadol, she has had no relief. She was straight back to eating foods as normal, and has faced the days really well.

The nights were a bit tougher with her waking and yelling and crying, but still it has been 11 days since she had the surgery and she has only woken 4 or 5 nights.
Considering that the reason she had the surgery done was because of lots of night wakings/irregular sleep/breathing/snoring (obstructive sleep apnea), we are pretty happy with that.

I have always checked on the girls as we go up to bed at night, to arrange their blankets and what not, and have been marvelling at the silent sleep coming from Charlotte's bed now. She has always snored and snorted in her sleep, and now no longer. I can already see a massive change in her behaviour. She is not so cranky and is a lot calmer.


She was very impressed with the table. The staff were wonderful and let her take her stuffed toy in to theatre with her.

Obligatory gappy gown.

Photo of a photo, so not the best quality.

:(

Recuperating at home

One week later, at Hannah's 5th birthday party.