Hilmans (mainly Emily's) life: Emily's surgery part 2...

Emily had her 2nd surgery yesterday. It was quite the day for sure. A couple of weeks ago we had a drs. appt with the ENT to check her tubes. Our speech path had mentioned several times she was concerned about her adenoids and tonsils getting in the way of her speech. I had asked at a previous appt and he had said she was too young to do anything about it. I brought it up again at this appt and he said her adenoids were indeed swollen and set up the surgery to take them out.

Overall the day went well. Surgery was fine, once it got started. The hospital was aobut 45 min. behind schedule because they had an emergency. Em had been no food or drink since 8 the night before and was not very happy about the wait. Our room was right by the nurses station and she walked out multiple times and told the nurses "ready". Fortunately Pastor Lou stopped by to visit so that filled some time and they had a wide assortment of magazines Emily enjoyed reading.

The dr. took the adenoids and then had said he wanted to check her tubes that he had put in July 09 to make sure they were ok. When he checked the tubes he said she had a significant amount of wax buildup (this is nothing new and is what they tell us every time we get her ears checked). Since she was under anesthesia it was much easier to clean them out. He cleaned them out and discovered the tube in the left hear was smashed up against the ear drum, and the tube in the right ear was out in the ear canal, so neither where they belonged! He took the old out and put new in.

She did great in recovery, they said she didn't cry at all, but was rubbing her face, to the point she has scratches on it now. They bought her out to us, and she immediately fell back asleep on me. She slept for about 1/2 hour and then they said we needed her to drink something before we could go home. This is where things got difficult. She flat out refused to drink anything. We had juice, milk, popsicles, ice cream, you name it we tried it, and she sobbed hysterically the second you put anything near her lips. About the time the nurse said she was going to call the dr. to see if he would just let us go home, she fell asleep again, so we said we'll wait until she wakes up and see how she does. 2 hours later (it's now 3 o'clock!), she wakes up and still refusing to drink. I happened to be eating a banana, she sees it and decides that is what she wants. One bite of banana and she is happy as can be, downs an entire glass of apple juice and is good to go.

She did good once we got home, ate a ton, and vegged on her beanbag chair. She seems back to her happy self this morning, enjoying being a lump on the bean bag chair watching her new Dora movie. The dr. said no school for a week (I had planned on sending her back Monday), but fortunately my mom is free and is going to stay with her next week.

So hopefully the hard part is over and we are on the road to recovery :) Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers yesterday!

Here are some pictures of our day.....

Picking out stickers before surgery...they had Dora stickers!