Surgery was set for Thursday January 8. We got a call from the ENT the day before telling us that we now had to be at the surgery center at 6:30 in the morning. Yikes!! We do not do 6:30 very well. It's rare that we're up at that time. Tom was good and headed off to bed at a decent time. I'd been trying to clean the house (it was in DESPERATE need of a good cleaning). My parents arrived around 10:30 to stay for a few days and ended up helping me finish the kitchen floor, but by the time I'd done that as well as get everything ready for the next day, it ended up being 11:45 when I finally laid down.
Of course when I closed my eyes I couldn't sleep. It felt like my brain was on and wouldn't shut off. I was just starting to doze off an hour later when Declan woke up. After his sicknesses in December, we've been trying to get him back to sleeping decently. For a few days now, he's been waking up for a few hours in the middle of the night. He doesn't cry - thank goodness - but instead talks and talks and coos and caas and laughs and giggles. Well he decided to do this from 12:45 to 2:45 am. I decided to feed him at 2 to see if that would quiet him, but . . . no. He then woke up again at 3:30 and started talking. I immediately nursed him and fortunately it worked and he went back to sleep. Well by the time my alarm went off at 5:45 for me to get ready, I'd hardly slept at all. Tom and I get ourselves ready, quickly got Declan and Taylor ready, and then headed off to the surgery center.
Fortunately Taylor was in a good mood. In fact she seemed kind of excited about the whole thing. I think she really liked the attention she was getting from Mom and Dad and, fortunately, didn't really have a clue about what was about to happen to her. We'd brought a bag of things for her to do, which came in handy as it wasn't until about 8ish before she finally headed off to surgery. While we waited we watched a movie, played some computer games, looked a dinosaur book, and worked on a kindergarten workbook - for fun.
During that time we talked with the nurse who'd be in surgery with her, the anesthesiologist, and her doctor. Because it was her first surgery, when it was time they just came, put the sides up on her bed, and wheeled her away. It was hard to see her go, but of course you've got to be happy and have a smile on your face.
Tom and I were both hungry (and tired), so I headed off to McDonalds while we waited. When I returned, the doctor was already there talking to Tom and telling him how the surgery went. I couldn't believe how quickly it had gone. Then we just had to wait a bit until they were ready for us to go to the recovery room. After about 45 minutes, we finally got called back.
Poor girl. She looked so miserable. I'm such a bawl baby that I just wanted to cry. They had little rooms that we were moved to once she was ready to wake up. From there we sat with her and held her and tried to get her to eat a popsicle and drink some apple juice so that they would release her. She wanted to go home, but did NOT want to have anything go down her throat. We finally got her to eat a little. At one point, she started fussing about her tummy hurting and then all of a sudden she let out this HUGE belch. It was enormous. We just started laughing. Unfortunately a little later she ended up throwing up, but that's common with anthestics.
Finally, she got the okay to go home. For the first day or two, she laid around and slept a lot. It was so weird seeing Taylor falling asleep on the couch. She's our one who fights sleep, especially if there are people around and things to do.
After a few days, she started feeling better (as long as she had her pain killers). Unfortunately that has been our big battle - getting her to take her medicines. She HATES it. Usually when she starts taking meds, she fights it at first, but eventually gives up and realizes she's gonna have to take it so she stops fighting. Not with this. Even though it's what makes her feel better, she fights tooth and nail every single time it's time for her pain medication.
Here's how she looked the day after surgery. For about a week, her eyes looked like that. It just killed me to look at her. I felt so bad for her.
Well, while we were at the surgery center, Nana and Papa helped out at the house. They took Shelby to school, helped take down our Christmas decorations, and helped with whatever was needed. It was so nice having them. When we needed to deal with Taylor, they were always there to help out with the others. Thanks so much Mom and Dad!!!
We had one especially funny moment with Payden while my parents were here. My dad was talking about how it was tiring being the only one that Payden wants all the time, which is true. When he's around, we constantly hear "Paaaa-pa" as she's wanting him to play or do something else, but you never hear her call for my mom. At that moment, Payden came in calling "Nana." We were all a bit shocked, but then we found out why, "Nana. I have poopoo." We died laughing, and then my dad commented, "Well, I guess it's not that bad."
Anyways, things have been pretty low key as Taylor's been healing. One day I went to the fridge and realized that she had wanted to display her drawings. She'd been showing them to me, but I hadn't been paying attention to what she was doing with them. It was too cute.
I tried to get her to let me take a picture, but I couldn't get her to open wide enough. We'll have to try again, but for now this is the best I got.
For now we're still waiting for her to feel better. We struggle getting her to eat. She fights her medicine, and you can tell that she still doesn't feel 100%. She's upset a lot and gets sad a lot. The hardest time of day for her is around 2 when she wakes up for her nap and she needs to take her medicine. She just cries and whines and throws fits and just struggles. I'm really feeling like she is very sensitive to pain (something I've noticed before, but this definitely confirms it). I think until she feels 100%, she's going to have a hard time.
We had a good moment with her the other day. We had pancakes and eggs for dinner because we're trying to eat things that she can eat too. She LOVED it. She ate and ate and ate. It's the most she's eaten since her surgery. She's even lost her cute chubby belly that we love so much because she's not eating well, so we were so excited to see her eating.
There've been a few funny moments with her. There are numerous moments where I look up and she's quietly gone and gotten a pint of ice cream and is just digging it. With other kids, it's hard to tell them no, so we've had a lot of ice cream eating and jello and pudding and whatnot.
Anyways, we look forward to her feeling 100% better and then seeing the full effects of everything.
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