Week in review: The week of surgery

This week has been almost entirely consumed with our oldest daughter's tonsillectomy. This was a much needed, scheduled procedure. This tiny little girl has had strep throat 8 times since last August. Every 3-4 weeks, we were facing yet another strep diagnosis and round of antibiotics. Finally, we had enough and made an appointment with an ENT, only to discover at the appointment that she had strep AGAIN. She had literally just finished antibiotics 10 days prior. The doctor felt the best course of action would be to remove the tonsils and adenoids asap, and we agreed.

I knew it was the best decision. Strep throat can cause rheumatic fever which can lead to cardiac issues, luckily we had not made it to that point yet, but constantly being on antibiotics is not an ideal situation either.

Tonsillectomies are routine, outpatient procedures. But nothing is routine in the mind of a Mommy when her child is facing surgery. I was a nervous wreck. Being a nurse, can be a good thing when it comes to the health of your children, but it can also be a bad thing. You see, we know all the bad things that are unlikely but *could* happen, and those are the very things I was worried about. The what-ifs surrounding anesthesia scared me to death.

The day before and the morning of surgery, I was in a constant state of prayer. I just kept repeating the same things over and over in my mind, "please God keep her safe. Guide the hands of the doctors and nurses. Please let her wake up healthy.' Just on constant repeat. God probably got tired of hearing it. He probably just wanted to say "Be quiet and trust me". One of the biggest things I was worried about was the moment where the nurses would take her from me and wheel her into the OR. I had the whole scenario worked out in my mind and none of it was pleasant. I thought she would be screaming and clinging to me and I would be an emotional mess. That is not how it happened. Her pre-op nurse gave her a medication called Versed to relax her and it did it's job! She was laughing about everything and was even happily giggling when they wheeled her into the OR. Her dad and I were even laughing. There were no tears. God is good...all the time.

I wish I could say the next time we saw her was just as pleasant, but that would be a lie. She was hurting, confused and crying. All I could do was hold her and tell her we were there and everything was okay. About an hour later, we were on our way home.

We are now 2 days post-op and she is slowly recovering. She's been in quite a bit of pain. One of the hardest things I've encountered as a parent is seeing my child in pain and not being able to do anything to help her. Luckily, she's been sleeping a lot and we haven't had any problem getting her take her pain medication. We are praying that each day brings a little less pain and soon she will be back to her usual self.

Her sister, Nevaeh, will make the world's best nurse in a few years.
She has been so sweet and caring. She brings her whatever she needs. She is constantly refilling her water and bringing her Popsicles. This morning, Shaylie was crying because her ears hurt and I looked in on her and Nevaeh had a flashlight looking into Shay's ears. I asked her what she was doing and she said "trying to figure out what is hurting her". She is just precious.