Tonsillectomy Update

Well it is done. After more than a month to prepare for the day - it has come and gone. It has been a long road and we are not yet through it.

Rhiannon has had recurring tonsillitis for the past several months. On average she gets a full blown case every two weeks. These infections never turned into strep throat just gave her terribly swollen tonsils, sometimes actually touching and extreme sore throats. The decision was made in the end of November to remove the tonsils and then we had to wait until Jan for various reasons.

The week before her surgery, she and her brother had the stomach flu. A few days later she had a raging case of tonsillitis. The day after both Ciaran and Sirah had a high fever and cold symptoms. We have been praying over her all weekend that she would be healthy enough for the surgery - which she was, praise God.

The surgery went well. Rhiannon was well prepared. She asked her doctor, us, and a friend who recently had the same surgery at the same location with the same doctor many questions. She read through a comic book her doctor gave her several times. In addition we worked through some of the online tonsil resources I located last year.

In addition the hospital we use is FABULOUS! Besides providing excellent medical care they truly go that extra mile for the kids. Everything is very child friendly. The staff truly go out of their way for the kids and you can tell they really have a heart for children. They do things like put bracelets on the child's doll, in our case Felicity, they really engage the child in conversation and provide resources, books and toys for the kids to play with.

We met each of the doctors, nurses, anetheseologist and so on who would be working with us through the day. We had opportunity to talk or ask questions and to learn from them. They walked us step by step through everything that would happen. They had pictures and hands on supplies for Rhiannon to look at and touch. They really do their best to make parents and child comfortable with everything that will happen. That sort of personal involvement and attention to detail makes all the difference in the world. I am so thankful for the staff their and all they did for our family.

When the time came for the surgery Serona and I accompanied Rhiannon into her room, we held her hands as she went under for the surgery. This was my second time holding a child as they were put to sleep. It can be a bit intense but we were thankful for the opportunity to be there with and for her. While she was operated on - we headed down to the cafeteria for lunch and to play cards to pass the time. We headed back up in about half an hour to talk to her doctor. The surgery went very well and as he said "Those were something to write home about" regarding the size of the tonsils and adnoids he removed. We then had to wait for Rhia to wake up and recover a bit.

In the waiting room I was crocheting a blanket and Serona reading his wine course book. We chatted with several other parents about their children and managed to pass the hour we had to wait for her. We headed into a recovery room where she struggled to stay awake and drink a bit. About a half hour after her pain meds she was like a different child. Until the pain meds kicked in she was rating herself a 10 or if we were lucky a 9 on a 1-10 pain scale. After the meds she dropped to a 3! We headed home just 4 hours after she went in for her surgery! I was amazed how quickly it all went.

Rhiannon is a trooper and doing a great job. She is in a lot of pain and unhappy but doing her best. She has found she enjoys popsicles and can not stand drinking water or anything for that matter. Thankfully she picked out all real juice popsicles! We will be up every few hours tonight giving her meds and trying to keep her comfortable.

I am very proud of her and know that we will make it through these next difficult days. Sirah and Ciaran are also both sick. Praise God that my parents are in to visit and help with the recovery period. Four adults to two sick kids plus one recovering from surgery is much better than just the two of us!

The future holds many movies, board games, puzzles, and of course many good books. We started the Besty-Tacy series today. I have been looking forward to reading this one with her for awhile but kept pushing it back so she could be the right age to start. Ciaran is really enjoying "Journey to the center of the Earth" right now. Well I must get off to sleep. I must admit to missing blogging and I look forward to getting back to it once we are all healthy again.

Peace,
Tenn