T-Day

After months of deliberating, weeks of waiting, and days of "will we or won't we", the big day is finally here.  And as I type, a giant piece of my heart is sitting in an operating room.  I'm not gonna lie--part of me wants to curl up in a ball and sob.  My anxiety has been working overdrive for a couple weeks now and every worst-case scenario has passed through my mind.  But I know that he needs this--and if there was any question when it was just the snoring, there wasn't once round two of the strep hit last week.  But it's still so hard to send your child into an operating room with all of the unknowns of anesthesia and painkillers, and know they're going to come out with the worst sore throat of their life...and that it will stay like that for a while.  Knowingly doing that to your child is hard, no matter how positive the long-term end result is.

I was nervous when Jacob had his leg surgery, but I might have been even worse when he had a mole removed when he was two, if only because that was his first round of anesthesia.  So when he went in for his leg, even though it was a much bigger deal, I felt better about it in general because he'd already gone through anesthesia twice--once for the mole and once for his endoscopy to diagnose his Celiac Disease--so that part of it didn't concern me nearly as much.  The stakes of the actual surgery were bigger, though--hoping that they didn't find any surprises once they got in there and knowing we had a very long recovery ahead--but for whatever reason this surgery just has me on edge.  Carter's never been put under before, and actually never really had a major illness that has challenged him like this one.  Oh, and add in that an informal Facebook survey of how my friends' kids fared after surgery elicited a couple "fine after a couple days" responses and a few more "expect to watch a lot of movies for a few days" to contrast with a couple other "watch out for days 5-10" from Carter's teacher and someone else...I truly have no idea what to expect.  And that alone has me on edge.

We've stocked up on soft foods, and two flavors of Jello are gelled in the refrigerator.  We will experiment with smoothies and lightly pigmented popsicles and eggs and pudding and yogurt.  He's never had oatmeal but we'll try that.  We'll sleep with him in our room and stick to the infant-like every-three-hour medicine schedule.  Whatever he needs, we'll do it.

Someone just brought a phone out with the surgeon on the other end.  He's out and did fine!

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He came out of surgery pretty quickly.  In fact, Craig was still off getting us lunch when they brought the phone out with the surgeon on the other end.  He made it through just fine, with pretty big adenoids and very big tonsils.  I went back to see him and he was very, very pathetic.  He was in a lot of pain, and could barely talk.  He was crying and was making a noise like he was having trouble breathing.  He was fine, though, as his oxygen levels were high, but he had a tough time for a while.  Craig came back with food and ate his lunch before I took a turn.  When I came back he seemed a lot better--much more relaxed and trying to rest.  He was drinking water but still refused a popsicle or juice.  He tried to rest for a bit and when he woke up he slowly got back to being his chatty self.  We got to leave around 3pm.

He's been content since he got home, just sitting on our bed and watching TV.  He ate a very decent dinner--jello, a banana, some gnocchi, and half a sausage without the skin.  He doesn't seem to be in pain--at least not unless he swallows, and even then it's not bad.  We'll have to keep up with the medicine at all hours, but it seems like it will be worth it.  He went to sleep without an issue, but I'll definitely feel better being able to wake up and shine a flashlight on him to be sure he's okay.  I'm sure we're not out of the woods.  Maybe he'll be sorer tomorrow.  Maybe it will be when the scabs come off in a few more days.  I've already had to tell him more than once not to run through the house.  Every time he gets up from the bed, he scampers to wherever he needs to go.  It's going to be tough to keep him down, that's for sure.  Lots of shows and some tablet time, and hopefully some Legos and Hot Wheels and magnetic tiles when we can.  I'm looking forward to the snuggles, regardless!

Just a few pictures to share from earlier today...

Hanging out pre-op with his buddies, Colin the Bear and Patrick the Hedgehog

He got to decorate his mask with stickers and was so cute practicing with it.  The surgeon pretended Carter was blowing him away when he blew into it, which made him giggle and try even harder!

Post-op and pathetic :(  Trying to rest with an ice pack across him.  

I'm so proud of him.  He was such a big boy, so happy and brave heading in and so sweet and patient even when he was in pain afterward.  He struggled a bit when it was hard to breathe and talk, but he reached out for my hand and hung in there until the medicine kicked in.  Such a sweet boy.  I feel so grateful things went so smoothly today, and I hope and pray that continues.  It'll be an interesting week and a half, no doubt.  But I'm so happy to bid those pesky tonsils and adenoids farewell!