Who needs tonsils? Not my girl!

The follow-up appt. for Eliz after her sleep test went just about the way I thought it would.  She needed her tonsils and adnoids removed.  I wasn't surprised by this at all.  The actual results of the sleep test did surprise me.  She stops breathing 4.5 times an hour for 22.35 seconds.  Oh.  My.  My big fear going into the test was that they would say she didn't really have a problem and there was nothing to be done.  Turns out her problem was much worse than I had thought.  We scheduled the surgery, and then waited for the weeks to pass and the big day to arrive. 

Xander was to spend the night with Grandma Linda, to Bry-D and I's great relief-my parents weren't able to help out b/c of work, and Bry-D's mom is out of state.  Eliz has spent the night with Grandma Linda, but not Lex, and never has he sleptover without Eliz.  So we did a trial run the week before.  Honestly, I knew the little guy would be safe, I was more worried he would drive his Grandma to drinking; maybe to her knees in prayer, but instead, he melted her already rather soft heart.   He also sent his Aunt G into fits, as he and her eldest are clones of each other, and her Eldest was going to prom the next night.  At some point, I will get a good picture of Eliz & Aunt G together so that I can show everyone, that this is who Eliz looks like.  At least we know she'll be pretty when she grows up.

To make the wait easier for Eliz, I kept us moving and going.  We visited friends-I still hadn't located my camera, so there aren't very many pictures, and they aren't very good.  We met people at the library, had people over, and went to their house.

The week of surgery, we went out everyday.  First with friends to the Children's Museum.

 The Barbie Exhbit.  This may have been the last day it was open.  A rare still moment-I never got a picture of Eliz's friend, she put 6-7 multi-colored tutu's on under her skirt-to cute!

 We also went to the Bounce Spot, but my phone died, so not a single picture of that.  And our last day before the surgery was Wednesday, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo.  Still no camera, but the girl in the black jacket in this picture volunteers/works(she was maybe 15) at the Zoo with the dolphins.  They kept swimming up to her and just floating until she motioned them to go, or if she went to the other side of the dome.  I commented that they must know her, and she said yes, she is there each week.  I told Eliz that the dolphins knew this girl, and that started a great conversation between them. 

 The Cheetahs.  They seemed to be watching us the same way we were watching them.  By this time we were all worn out.

 So worn out that we slept in the day of surgery.  Our arrival time was 6:30, surgery was to begin at 8am.  Thankfully, we're 5-10 minutes from the hospital, so we were only 10 minutes late.  Things moved very quickly.

She was allowed to bring a lovey back with her, adn of course, Bear was her first choice.  I was worried she might try to bring her new Calico Critters Squirrel family, which she bought with her Lemonade Day money.  But she said, "Bear has been my friend for forever, he's keeps me safe all the time."  Bear got an ankle tag, and the pink wrap was put on his arm, they tol dher when she woke up from her "nap" she would have one just like it.  She was great for the entire pre-op.  The nurses loved her, and complimented her on her manners.  I was relieved, I thought she might be "that kid" that they can't work on because they behave so badly.  I went into the lobby, and hadn't even gotten the text message that surgery had started sent out before they told me she was in Recovery.  I spoke with our ENT, whom I really like, about the surgery-she had big adnoids and medium tonsils; and had just gotten settled into my lobby chair, when I was told she was waiting.  She was hysterical when I got in the room.  She was crying and screaming, "I don't want my tonsils out!  I want my tonsils back in!"   She would start to calm down, and then would become hysterical again.  She kept shouting, "Home will make me happy!"  So much for manners.  I finally told her they wouldn't let her leave until she calmed down.  She looked at our nurse, San, and when she nodded yes, this was true, Eliz shut right up.  This was taken during one of her calm periods.

Other than that first 45 minutes after she woke from surgery, she's been really great. Most mornings she wakes up asking for her pain meds, but she really doesn't complain about pain any other time. She does complain about not being allowed to run adn lday, or go anywhere(we went to the store today).  We're offically at one week now, and she seems to be normal.

My big fear for after surgery was that this wouldn't make a difference-that her sleep would continue to be less than restful, and the daytime problems would continue.  Of course, my only question for the ENT about surgery was, how long til we know it's helped?  She said about 2 months.  We might see change sooner, but her sleep schedule has to reboot itself, and you have to wait for her to heal before that can happen.  So, more waiting.  Gah, I hate waiting.