Surgery

So... we had an adventure this week. Finleigh had her long awaited surgeries.

Finleigh had her tonsils and adenoids out (to help with her sleep apnea). She also had bilateral strabismus repair (to fix her lazy eyes).

That was Monday. Today is Friday and she's doing ok. 

We were very lucky that everything worked out as it did. We have to travel 4 1/2 hours to go for most of Finleigh's specialist appointments and that's where we had to go for her surgery too. We were warned that there may not be a bed, so that she would not have been able to have her tonsil and adenoid surgery. But there was a bed, much to our relief. The doctors very kindly worked together so that Finleigh would only have to be put under once. Which turned out to be a very, very good thing.

A good thing because it took Finleigh about 8 hours to fully come out of her anaesthesia fuzz. And by fuzz, I mean she spent that many hours throwing herself and everything she could get her hands on around the room. Stripping down naked. Yelling. Screaming. And hitting.

She cracked a chair. Multiple popsicles and jello bowls landed on the floor, uneaten.

And her IV. Ha. She ripped her IV out in recovery. They replaced it and bandaged it up. But within 5 minutes of Finleigh being back in my arms, the IV went flying again - despite the bandage - and it was never replaced.

Somewhere in there, they gave us a private room. 

After the first three hours, she'd worn herself out enough that she fell asleep, but was right back at it when she woke up. Gradually we were able to reason with her and by the time the night nurse came in to do vitals, she was able to carry on a conversation without melting down.

It was a long, long day. A very long day. It's no fun as a mom to watch your child go through that. No fun and emotionally draining.

The take-home: as few surgeries for this child as possible.

But my child, she is strong and is recovering quickly. She's pretty much her normal self. She's been home from school all week. So me? Her mom? I'm tired. 

The ENT found that her nasal passages are super small, that her larynx looks floppy, and he saw evidence of mild reflux, so we will need to do more tests and possibly more work. We were also warned before that to fully correct her eyes, she would likely have to undergo multiple surgeries. The road is not over, but she's healthy and none of this is life threatening. For that, I am grateful.