Esther's Tonsilectomy

 Esther underwent surgery on January 7 for having her tonsils and adenoids removed.  She had this done at Children's Hospital in Seattle.  It went amazingly well.  I'm so glad we did have it done there as she did struggle a lot with post-surgery pain.  They were amazing there.

We arrived a little early, but they said that the surgery team was ahead of schedule, so we didn't wait long.  Esther got to look at the fish tanks (her favorite thing to do at Children's), and play on the Wii with her daddy for a few minutes and then we were called back to the prep room.

In the prep room, we talked with them about her allergy to polyester (all the gowns there were polyester), and we decided it was best for her to just wear the shirt she had on through the surgery.  We were fine with that as it was not a new shirt and her comfort was more important than that!

She was actually all excited about everything.  You see, for the past few months we have rarely taken her anywhere in order to keep her healthy for this surgery.  So not only was she "out and about" but she also had mommy and daddy all to herself.

She was loving it!  She loves meeting new people too - she waves her little wave and says "hi" to each new person who came into her room.  She liked getting a bracelet to wear and playing on mommy's new "tablet."

 It had been decided that I would accompany her to the OR, but the "gown" they brought was pants, and I was wearing a skirt.  We decided to have daddy bring her back instead.  She thought it was all just a lot of fun - she had no idea what was in store for her, poor girl!









Here is Esther in a big bed with mommy to comfort her after the surgery.  She was very quiet and groggy at first.  She liked to just snuggle with mommy and watch a movie.

After a little while the nurse removed the IV as Esther had already drank some juice.  They also gave her some ibuprofen   As the morphine began to go away, we noticed that Esther's eyes were all red, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.  We consulted with the nurse and we determined that this was her reaction to pain, so we added Tylenol   That didn't help either so we ended up having to give her Oxycontin in order to get the pain under control.

It was so sad to see her laying there, no complaining but having tears rolling down her cheeks from the pain.  Such a sweet, sweet little girl!

The first day and night were basically keeping her pain to a minimum and trying to get her to drink.  At first it went well, but the next morning it was a little difficult to get her to drink or eat, so we tried a Popsicle   When Esther was little, she had problems with aspiration due to swallowing difficulties, so she was never given a Popsicle   So this was something very new to her and she really didn't want anything to do with it!

I ended up putting it in a cup.  After a while, I started scrapping off the Popsicle and feeding it to her by spoon, like a slushy.  That worked!

It was just a couple of hours and she was feeling much better and wanted out of bed.  She wanted to leave now.   She even ran out of our room once and I had to chase her down!  We got the go ahead to be discharge, so Daryl took her to the play room for play until the discharge paperwork was done.

She did great on the drive home,sleeping for quite a bit of the ride.

She was thrilled to be home and was very playful for a little while, but she over did it and was very ready to lay low for the rest of the day/evening watching movies!

The first week was tough.  She really needed all the pain meds and developed some really junky breathing.  I used essential oils, both topically and diffused in the room, to help c\open her airways and boost her immunity.  I also was giving her an herbal remedy for immunity enhancement called "Immune Boost 2" that I had ordered from T-Tapp.  We also did breathing treatments for a few days as I did not want her to get pneumonia again!

By day 10 she began to be her old self.  Grabbing her coat and asking to go outside, grabbing an apron and asking to help with dishes and grabbing hands to lead her "helpers" to show them what she wanted to do.  It is so nice to have our old Esther back.. Or should I say "new and improved" Esther back.  She has more energy and zest.  This is good and bad!  Great for Esther, but now we have to be on our toes more to keep her out of trouble!

 I'm so glad we went ahead with this.  You can hear that her breathing is unrestricted.  She sleeping really well at night.  I don't have to diffuse oils at night in her room in order to have her sleep through the night anymore (that gets expensive!).

And best of all - she gets to go out and about again!  We haven't taken her anywhere yet, but tomorrow we are all going to church for the second time since the beginning of September!  I am looking forward to filling an entire pew once again!