The Tonsilectomy

I sincerely hope your child never needs a tonsilectomy. We have had a rough week around here.

This is Ethan's tonsilectomy story...The pre-surgery bit went just fine. We showed up at the hospital, got him outfitted in his tiny little hospital gown and waited around watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The tiny little happy pill they gave him dissolved under his tongue and made him unafraid. When it came time for the nurse to pick him and carry him away from me, I thought for sure he was going to scream and cry and refuse to go with her. I was wrong, he was blissed out and dreamy. Bless that little happy pill! The nurse picked him up, wrapped him in a warm blanket and off they went. She did turn him around once to say good-bye and he whispered, "bye, mommy - I wuv you." This is the part of the story where the stoic mother patiently waits with trust in the doctors and faith in her heart that they have made the right decision. But that was not me. I started to cry. Big old ugly crying, hiding behind my hands, trying not to look like a complete idiot. I couldn't even help it, I kept telling myself to stop but it was happening all by itself. They really need to think about giving a happy pill to the mothers as well. I swear I even heard people saying, "Aaaah" and "poor mommy" as we walked to the waiting room. I'm such a dork. The waiting part went by pretty quickly (read this slowly and sarcastically) - I brought a book and read all of maybe three paragraphs throughout the 45 minute surgery. It turned out we had some good luck on our side that day though. An old friend of ours, Sandy, happens to work in the Anesthesiology department and we happened to run in to her. She went to check on him and got us right back to him as soon as he was finished. He hadn't even gotten to the recovery room yet, they were wheeling him down the hall. I heard his moans and cries before I even saw him. We rushed over and they pushed the bed into the room. His face was puffy and he had an IV in his arm and it was all wrapped up like a cast. I know I had that "stressed out, overanxious, freaked-out mom" look. The kind man at the head of Ethan's bed took one look at me and knew. As soon as the bed stopped rolling, that dear sweet human slid the side rail of the bed down and held out the blanket for me to slide under next to my poor baby. I tear up thinking about it even now. I so needed to hold my child right at that moment and he just knew. Ethan stopped crying ... for about three minutes. Then he started to really come out of the anesthesia and it was a total psychotic event. He was screaming and crying, grabbing and pulling out his IV. He wanted if OFF! The nurse explained he needed to drink a little or eat a popsicle before he could have it removed so they could make sure he was able to keep fluids down. We tried explaining that to Ethan but it was pointless. He did not understand and he did not want to understand, he just wanted the IV out. This last for about half an hour - 30 very long minutes. I swear I was ready to shove that popsicle down his throat. Scott offered to eat it himself and just tell the nurse it was him. Finally he came out of the haze enough to understand he needed to eat a popsicle. He ate it very quickly when he realized he could have the IV out when it was gone. Finally we got to go home!

Ethan is notoriously sneaking food, especially popsicles and sweets, but mostly just sneaking food all the time. I actually had to put a childproof lock on the pantry door and fridge to keep him out because otherwise he would eat all day long and then, you guessed it, not eat one bite when it came time for dinner. I thought for sure the recovery would be a breeze! Ice cream and popsicles all day long? "He's gonna love it!" I naively thought. I was so wrong. When Ethan doesn't want food ... you know something is wrong. We got enough liquids down him not to end up back in the hospital but it was a chore every time. It took him several days to really eat anything and mostly he is just eating popsicles and chocolate milk.

It is also a whine-fest around here. Everything he says comes out sounding whiny. I was hoping it would just be a few days but it is going on 8 now with no clear ending in sight. He is not sleeping well and when Ethan is sleep deprived, well, look out! He needs me to sit next to him on the couch all day long rubbing his head. The first few days were pretty nice, I liked spending time with him, sitting next to him. But pretty soon the housework started to pile up and some laundry needed to get washed!

My poor Ethan. Hopefully this will pass soon. It's so hard when they are so little and can't really tell you what is hurting them, how to make it better. I want him to be back to his little cute self again. Hopefully in the end it will be all worthwhile. He will start sleeping better than he ever has and we will be glad we had the surgery ... until then ... wish us luck!