Our day began at 5:30, we roused Athena from her bed and bundled her in blankets for the short car ride to the surgery center. She was really good waking up so early, waiting in the waiting room and letting the nurses take all her vitals in pre-op. Things took a turn however when the anesthesiologist introduced himself and said that the best thing to do was take her quickly and whisk her to the OR right away. She panicked and clung to Chris. He had to pry her off and she went screaming and reaching for him the whole way through the double doors. It tore my heart out and Chris had to resist an urge to punch the doctor and take her back in his arms. It was a traumatic separation for all three of us.
The surgery lasted about 45 minutes. The funny thing is that last week, Athena had an awful ear infection that actually blew out the tubes in both ears leaving perforations in her eardrums. The ENT patched each ear successfully, no problems at all.
In post-op she was completely stressed out and disoriented. I immediately crawled into her bed with her and held her while she sobbed. The little five year old in the next bed was just waking up coughing and crying after a T&A (tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy) and my heart went out to her. I was very thankful that we were not dealing with that pain on top of her ears. After about a half an hour in recovery we were able to get her to sit up, take of few sips of water and liquid Vicadin and we went home.
She was so out of it when we got her home but Zoe was happy to see her and wanted to jump on her and play. We thought it best to take Zoe away from our little apartment and give Athena some peace, so Mimi and I took her to the store to pick up Athena's prescriptions. By the time we got back, Athena was 100% her normal self. In fact, the difficulty today was trying to get her to stay calm. The doctor prescribed no activity today, but she would not sit still, constantly jumping, laughing, hanging upside and going stir crazy. I intended to keep her home this whole week, but I'm not sure I can contain her.
So, it's all over, it went exceptionally well but it was not fun.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Surgery Day
Zoe brought her sister a balloon to make her feel better.
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9 comments:
So sorry for all the trauma. I hadn't thought about how much harder the separation would be due to her age and awareness, compared to an infant. Wow! That had to be terrible. But I am so glad that she is doing well and is up and about and her old self. That part is great!!!
Yay!! I think all in all, that was quicker than K's MRIs have been! Super fast. LOL. I'm glad she's feeling great, too!
It is kind of cool that that EI did the removal portion of the surgery all on its own!
That damn jerk of a doctor! There are easier ways to ease children into these things and clearly he needs a lesson in that! But I'm glad Athena's recovery went quickly. Being that she's three (rather than 5 or 8) hopefully she won't remember this after too long...
Wow...that anesthesiologist must not have kids...that's not how they'd do it at our hosptials. :( I can't imagine how hard that must've been for everyone. I'm so sorry.
I'm glad she's doing well and it's funny about the tubes already being gone. I didn't know the perfs would need repair. When I get a bad cold my right eardrum blows out and I can make air pass through it if I'm feeling freaky. :) The ENT knows. I'm glad she's doing better. It's heartbreaking to watch them come out of anesthesia, eh?
Toss in a vasectomy and a love triangle among the nurses and you would have yourself a killer ER episode.
I can't imagine the anger Chris must have felt, surely there was a better way to go about getting a child prepped.
Love you Athena!
im sorry about the sad separation...it would always break my heart when i was just the nurse, not the mom and dad! im so happy that she had such a quick turn around time- happy recovery!
So glad it's all over ... no fun at all. But glad she is much better and feeling 100 percent again!
I can't believe the way they whisked her off but I am glad it went fairly smoothly. Glad it's all over now.
Sweet Athena! I'm glad it all went well, but so sorry for the traumatic journey to the OR! That would have torn my heart out too!
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