Adenoidectomy

Hayden and I arrived at the Paulding Hospital at 6:45 am on Friday April 22nd.  After registering and paying our lovely bill, we were brought back into the surgery center.  Hayden was very excited because this was on her bed:

She thought, "what a fun place my mom has taken me, toys, pens, a new bed, no wonder she woke me up so early!"

Then a nurse came in and tried to hook Hayden's toe up to a monitor to get her heart rate and oxygen levels.  This is when the real drama began and Hayden was not having any of it!  I finally distracted her by taking her out to the fish tank and looking at the "fishies" while the nurse got her numbers.  Then came trying to put on her hospital bands and gown.  She did not like this one bit either!  They wanted the bands on her ankle and Hayden wanted them on her wrist, clearly the place a "bracelet" should go. 

Then the next nurse came and they were ready to take her in for surgery around 8 am.  The nurses kept telling me that many parents think their child will cry when they are taken away, but many don't.  I was pretty confident that she would lose it and I was definitely correct!  She was not happy when they carried her away, but the anesthesiologist said that it was actually better for her to cry because she would take bigger breaths in between sobs and go to sleep with the gas very quickly.   After the surgery was over the surgeon told me that her veins were too small to get an IV in and I was relieved because that would mean she would wake up without one in.  If she was trying to tear off the monitor on her toe, then I can only imagine what she would have tried to do to an IV.

The surgery lasted about 30 minutes and then Dr. Vick came and talked to me while she was waking up.  He told me it went well and that her adenoids were so large that there was absolutely no space between them and the end of her nose.  He also said it was so tempting to cut out her tonsils because of their size, but there are lots of risks associated with taking them out in young children.  He hopes she will grow into them, but believes we will probably be back in a few years to have them removed.  He also said she was quite congested so he drained out her sinuses.  

Then Hayden was brought back to me in her gown and wrapped up in a blanket, holding her favorite blanket. I wish I had a picture of this, but I was alone, so that did not happen.  I know this sounds weird but it was almost like having a new born brought to me.  She was so tired and I held her just like a little baby...This was wonderful....until they wanted her heart rate and oxygen levels again!  Hayden woke up from a dead sleep the second they tried to put it on her toe and was so angry that her numbers were all way to high for discharge.  She drank some fluids and they again tried 2 or 3 times to get the numbers, but all efforts were futile!  Eventually they discharged us without the numbers and told me to watch her color through the rest of the day to make sure she was getting enough oxygen.

I didn't even dare try and get her shirt back on, so we went home shirtless.

She got spoiled the rest of the day by having her blanket and pacifier with her all day!  She was so happy when we got home and had tons of energy.  She got super tired around noon and took a long nap.  It is crazy how kids recover so quickly.  Today she still has a runny nose, but seems back to normal!  Hopefully she will learn how to breath through her nose again and breath better at night.