After 1 year of roughly 10-12 sick visits to the drs. and 6 months of NO SLEEP it finally came down to having a tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy. When I say 6 months of no sleep I mean 6 whole months. Emmi would go to bed no problem but after being asleep for about 2 to 3 hours the wakings would begin. We would be waked by panic screaming. When we went to her room to comfort her she would say she was scared. She wouldn't talk about dreams or anything. We would lay by her and she would quickly fall back to sleep. That was happening over and over all night long. We have been zombies for so long. We read every sleep book in the planet. Then she would be sick again. We would try to "sleep train" her over and over with different techniques. One was to give her one chance to come out of her room, then after that was to lock her in her room. That seemed awful and cruel but we thought it will just take a couple of bad nights. Well, the panic screaming got worse and worse. Not better. We got an appt. with a psychologist. We have taken her to every homeopath in the freaking state. No answers as to why her fears at night are now branching into her normal daily activities. Or why she is such a behavioral mess.
So after about the 12th fever and sore throat episode I finally put on the mommy nurse hat and got a flashlight to see her throat. I about died. Her tonsils were almost touching the epiglotis. You know the hanging thing in the middle of your throat. I don't know alot about throats but I know it shouldn't look like that. That moment I got on the phone with an ENT and demanded she be seen that day or next. They could sense my urgency and got me in the next day. When the ENT examined her throat he said her tonsils were enlarged but not the biggest he had seen but after seeing all of her sick visits he decided to put her on the schedule for surgery.
He sent me home with some literature of some of the behavioral issues that comes with enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Everyone was Emmi to a big fat T. We waited patiently for those 2 weeks to come. Of course she was sick again come surgery time. They took her anyway.
I really didn't know how to prepare Emmi for surgery. I just told her she was going to the hospital and when she comes home she will have a really bad sore throat. And she could have all the popsicles she wanted. She lit up. And she has lived the last year with a sore throat so I think she thought no sweat mom. Whats the big deal.
The saddest part was putting her NPO for almost 24 hours before surgery. Telling a toddler NO FOOD or DRINK. They don't understand why their mom and dad would be starving them. Brian and I became master of distraction.
Brian's mom took Jack for the afternoon and we went to Primary Childrens Hopsital. We got checked in and Emmi got her stamp bracelet and got to get into funky hospital jammies, which she hated.
They were running ahead of schedule so they let me take her to the OR and help her go under anesthesia. It was actually quite traumatic. She didn't want the gas mask on so we had to pin her down and force it on her. She was just looking at me with crocodile tears streaming down her face saying, "mama nooooo" and then she was out. I had tears in my eyes when I had to leave the OR. I wanted to just be a nurse and stay in there and hold her hand. It was awful leaving her there on the table totally out.
Surgery took 45 minutes. The surgeon came to the waiting room and told us how the surgery went. He said, "Her adenoids were absolutely huge". He said that with them being so big they have been obstructing her airway at night in her sleep. He said her tonsils were bigger than seen on exam cause they were really spread out and starting to embed into the tissues. I about started to cry! Finally a real answer on what is wrong. And finally a solution!
I got to see her fresh from the OR. She was in so much pain. She just kept holding her throat. They called to the OR for an order for another dose of Fentanyl. Thank goodness. Then she started to stop breathing. I started freaking out. The nurse didn't seem to be too alarmed. I guess I don't see enough of this type of stuff. She finally got transfered to the same day surgery recovery room where she would be watched for 4 hours. She needed oxygen for about 1 hour after and then she started waking up. She wanted her daddy right when she woke up. Yeah.....me mom, I'm just chopped liver.
Emmi kept asking for icee's. She would hold them in her hand and then refused to take a sip. Then they would turn to liquid and she would start to cry about it. The nurse probably brought out like 3 new icee's for her to just let melt.
By the 3rd hour she ordered chocolate milk and mac n' cheese from room service. We were proud that she got down some sips of milk and a couple small bites of mac n' cheese!
Emmi was excited to get her blood pressure cuff off, her IV out and out of those jammies. In fact she complained more of her IV than her throat. Kinda funny. And home we went.
She slept like a baby the whole first night home. We thought she was cured. Wow were we sorely mistaken. This last week has been brutal. She has ups and then downs regarding pain. Her pain meds have been a god send. We have to threaten, bribe, pin her down to get it down her, but once it is down she is good. She has had less awakenings at night. Mostly they are due to pain. We pray that this surgery will all change our lives!
So after about the 12th fever and sore throat episode I finally put on the mommy nurse hat and got a flashlight to see her throat. I about died. Her tonsils were almost touching the epiglotis. You know the hanging thing in the middle of your throat. I don't know alot about throats but I know it shouldn't look like that. That moment I got on the phone with an ENT and demanded she be seen that day or next. They could sense my urgency and got me in the next day. When the ENT examined her throat he said her tonsils were enlarged but not the biggest he had seen but after seeing all of her sick visits he decided to put her on the schedule for surgery.
He sent me home with some literature of some of the behavioral issues that comes with enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Everyone was Emmi to a big fat T. We waited patiently for those 2 weeks to come. Of course she was sick again come surgery time. They took her anyway.
I really didn't know how to prepare Emmi for surgery. I just told her she was going to the hospital and when she comes home she will have a really bad sore throat. And she could have all the popsicles she wanted. She lit up. And she has lived the last year with a sore throat so I think she thought no sweat mom. Whats the big deal.
The saddest part was putting her NPO for almost 24 hours before surgery. Telling a toddler NO FOOD or DRINK. They don't understand why their mom and dad would be starving them. Brian and I became master of distraction.
Brian's mom took Jack for the afternoon and we went to Primary Childrens Hopsital. We got checked in and Emmi got her stamp bracelet and got to get into funky hospital jammies, which she hated.
They were running ahead of schedule so they let me take her to the OR and help her go under anesthesia. It was actually quite traumatic. She didn't want the gas mask on so we had to pin her down and force it on her. She was just looking at me with crocodile tears streaming down her face saying, "mama nooooo" and then she was out. I had tears in my eyes when I had to leave the OR. I wanted to just be a nurse and stay in there and hold her hand. It was awful leaving her there on the table totally out.
Surgery took 45 minutes. The surgeon came to the waiting room and told us how the surgery went. He said, "Her adenoids were absolutely huge". He said that with them being so big they have been obstructing her airway at night in her sleep. He said her tonsils were bigger than seen on exam cause they were really spread out and starting to embed into the tissues. I about started to cry! Finally a real answer on what is wrong. And finally a solution!
I got to see her fresh from the OR. She was in so much pain. She just kept holding her throat. They called to the OR for an order for another dose of Fentanyl. Thank goodness. Then she started to stop breathing. I started freaking out. The nurse didn't seem to be too alarmed. I guess I don't see enough of this type of stuff. She finally got transfered to the same day surgery recovery room where she would be watched for 4 hours. She needed oxygen for about 1 hour after and then she started waking up. She wanted her daddy right when she woke up. Yeah.....me mom, I'm just chopped liver.
Emmi kept asking for icee's. She would hold them in her hand and then refused to take a sip. Then they would turn to liquid and she would start to cry about it. The nurse probably brought out like 3 new icee's for her to just let melt.By the 3rd hour she ordered chocolate milk and mac n' cheese from room service. We were proud that she got down some sips of milk and a couple small bites of mac n' cheese!
Emmi was excited to get her blood pressure cuff off, her IV out and out of those jammies. In fact she complained more of her IV than her throat. Kinda funny. And home we went.
She slept like a baby the whole first night home. We thought she was cured. Wow were we sorely mistaken. This last week has been brutal. She has ups and then downs regarding pain. Her pain meds have been a god send. We have to threaten, bribe, pin her down to get it down her, but once it is down she is good. She has had less awakenings at night. Mostly they are due to pain. We pray that this surgery will all change our lives!
Hence, there has been no blogging in the last year. I have a nightmare 3 year old and a 20 month that put me in full motion all day and night.
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