Monday, August 9, 2010

8-9-10

That's what today was :)  It should have started with the alarm going off at 6:00 AM.  Instead, it started with a jolt at 5:00 AM.

Kaitlyn has this habit, when she gets up in the middle of the night, she comes and stares at us to see if we will wake up.  I find this creepy.  She finds it funny.  She says Archie is the hardest to wake up this way.  Again, kinda creepy.

At 5:00 AM, I felt eyes on me, she said she just wanted to give me a kiss, did so and then went to her bed.  Or so I thought.  I fell back asleep and Dusty woke up, he said he heard the water.  I ran in the bathroom in the nick of time to keep her from drinking it, she wasn't allowed anything by mouth after midnight.  Being denied water did not make her happy.  She said she was so thirsty and her throat hurt so bad she just wanted a little drink.  To make up for the disappointment she came to bed with us.  Which meant she watched TV and was talkative and we were done sleeping. 

By 6:45 AM, Kaitlyn was in her new "just for surgery" rock star jammies and we were on our way to the hospital.  We got there exactly on time, which was perfect and amazing, especially considering that I passed the surgery center at least 3 times. 

As we pulled into the parking lot, the crying start.  Kaitlyn was terrified to have the surgery.  She did not want an IV, she did not want to be left alone, she did not want to have her tonsils taken out and she did not want to have the surgery.  We finally got her inside, where she quietly sobbed nearly the entire time.

At 7:20, the admitting receptionist called us back to get Kaitlyn admitted.  Dusty stood with us and she rudely told him there was no need for him to go back with us.  We were put off and since it was early, he sat back down.  Kaitlyn was furious.  We all got our bands to go back with her and shortly after the nurse took the three of us back to get her ready for the operation.

Kaitlyn was still not happy and wasn't being too friendly to the nurse.  The nurse was great, if not a little weird.  She was given some great cream on one arm and one hand to numb the skin so the IV wouldn't be painful.  She put on her gown, used the restroom, we answered all the questions and then Kaitlyn informed the nurse that she was not getting an IV today.  She figured that was that.  The nurse gave her the option of being halfway asleep when she got the IV or all the way asleep.  Kaitlyn said she wanted to be all the way asleep, problem averted.

From there we met with the anesthesiologist and the doctor to go over the procedure.  Kaitlyn was then ready for her surgery.  She was not at all happy (nor were we) when we found out that we could not be there with her when she fell asleep.  This resulted in more tears as she was wheeled away.

40 minutes later and the doctor came out to tell Dusty (I was in the restroom) that the surgery went great and she was perfect.  We would be able to go back in 10 minutes before she was woken up.

15 minutes later we were called back.  Unfortunately, they had already started to wake her up.  So, she was in pain and she was scared because we had promised to be there when she woke up.  She was screaming, bleeding quite a bit and slobbery, so the blood was coming out of her nose and her face, gown, sheets, pillow and ice pack were covered in her blood.  After about 15 minutes they agreed she was awake enough for pain medication.  Why they wouldn't put some medication in her IV prior to taking out, prior to waking her up is beyond me.  Obviously it's going to hurt when she woke up.  How would it not?

It took us about 10 minutes to get her to take the medicine.  It worked within a few minutes and she fell asleep.  She was at peace.  About 45 minutes after that, they said if they saw the whites of her eyes she could go home.  They made her a special bag with a get well card all the nurses signed, a ton of stickers, ice packs, bendy straws, juice, tissues and a basin incase she needed to throw up.  We made it home in 20 minutes and put her in our bed.

Kaitlyn slept for a couple of hours.  She woke up in time for her next dose of pain medicine.  We had picked her up some flowers and little balloons while she was sleeping and she was glad to see her "flower" friends.  She ate a few spoonfuls of ice cream and eventually went back to sleep.  She seems to be the most comfortable when she's sleeping.

She slept on and off for the next 4 hours or so while watching Scooby-Doo in between and sipping on apple juice.  She woke up again for more medicine and then fell back to sleep.

While she was asleep this time, I got to go to Labor and Delivery because I had more symptoms of a UTI.  Again.  Luckily this time they got me on the monitor quick, did my urine and had me out with a prescription in 45 minutes.  It's amazing, the time I go in unprepared I'm there for 5+ hours, but when I go in with a book and fully charged cell phone it's easy breezy :)

I got discharged, picked up my prescription and headed home.  Kaitlyn had been ringing her bell the entire time I was gone according to Dusty.  She wasn't happy that I left.  When I got home she sipped on some juice, got a fresh drool rag and then a special surprise!

Kaitlyn woke up again to see a very special bag of goodies from her friend and girl scout sister Meaghan and was so excited.  She fell back to sleep and has been that way ever since :)  She gets to take more medicine in about 30 minutes in additions to her antibiotics and then hopefully sleep through the night :)  Hopefully!

1 comment:

DaphneB said...

Surgery is sooo hard on kids. Isaiah had his hernia surgery at 3 months old...while I was still nursing. They told me not to feed him for several hours prior to our check in. I can't remember how many it was, but I was nervous about that length of time. Idiots didn't tell me that it would be another two or so before the procedure and he wouldn't be able to eat at all!! They called us back to see him after the surgery and told us that it would probably be about five minutes or so before he woke up but when we reached his side his eyes were wide open and fixed in one spot. It was very freaky and even the nurse didn't know how to handle it. Thankfully he closed his eyes again and woke up a few minutes later. Seriously, we booked it out of there. Didn't even change him out of his operating gown or anything. I went to get the car, Jacob got wheeled out with him, we pulled around the corner and I fed my poor hungry baby!!!

I hope she feels better soon and has some more restful days and nights before she starts FIRST GRADE!! =o)