Well, crap. I thought that I updated this regarding Kelly's surgery, but I must have been too exhausted/traumatized by the event. She is FINE, and had no complications from the tonsillectomy. However, the next week was so much worse than I anticipated, and I anticipated a really bad week.
She did great on the drive over to the hospital, talking and singing, even though we had to wake up her two hours early at 5:30. I think part of that was because her Daddy was there. :) We got called back quickly, and talked to all the nurses and doctors, who just loved her! Her surgery was supposed to start at 7:30, but it was closer to 8 by the time they actually took her back. The surgery only took 45 minutes or so, which is what the ENT originally quoted.
We went to the recovery room and she was quietly whining and moaning for mommy. It broke my heart, so I tried to comfort her and rub her head and back to let her know I was there. But she wasn't really awake yet, not for at least 10 more minutes. When she did wake up, she screamed and cried and screamed and cried some more. And she just wanted her Daddy to hold her. I joked with Mike that I should have just stayed home in bed. I think that was the last time we laughed for two days. She didn't want the popsicles, just a little bit of water. She was so out of it that she didn't even calm down to watch the Dora dvd they provided. We kept trying to settle her down, thinking that all that screaming must be excruciating. Didn't work. She finally threw up all over Mike and the floor, which was just lovely. But the nurse said she's had some kids throw up multiple times and we did avoid that.
Mike sat in the back seat with her for the drive home, and she dozed off. She spent most of the day sleeping on one of us and, when not asleep, screaming. Kelly didn't want ice cream, didn't want popsicles, slushies, ice, anything. We forced a few bites of melted popsicle down her in order to give her the drugs (tylenol with codeine and antibiotic). She actually ate a decent dinner--tiny pasta--and wanted seconds. I thought somehow 3 year olds really did bounce back quickly. Eh. She wound up in our bed (which is not unusual), but the screaming was horrible. None of us could sleep and nothing would pacify or soothe her. Exhausting. Again, we tried to convince her that crying and screaming would only make it worse, but have you ever tried to use logic with a 3 year old? Especially a 3 year old in serious pain??
After that first night, we couldn't get her to eat. We had to force her off of our laps and say that she could come back if she ate a few bites. We had to give her the medicine and I didn't want to do that on an empty stomach. She wouldn't eat slushies/popsicles/ice cream until 3 or 4 days later. She was actually eating meat before she wanted anything like the ice cream. Finally, Mike took her to the dr for the 1 week checkup and she was 80% healed, which was great. I fully expected the dr to say there were complications, but he wasn't worried. Meanwhile, I was ready to take her to the ER since she wouldn't eat. Kelly is tiny (30-31 lbs at the age of 3 1/2) and a week of hardly eating was scaring me.
But it took that full week and then she started to be my Kelly again. Back to picky eating and being silly.
