Of Tonsils and Two-Year-Olds

On Monday, Steven got to go in and get his tonsils and adenoids removed.  He has (had) huge tonsils.

Look at those tonsils!

Because of those tonsils, he has had trouble sleeping (apnea) and he has had a bunch of ear infections this last year.  We are hoping that the removal of the tonsils will help in these areas.

We arrive at the hospital at 6 in the morning and Steven had fun playing while I checked in.

Then he got to go back into the exam room for a preliminary check.  They put the ID bracelet on his arm, and he just held it out from his body.  He did not like having it on his wrist.

He was much happier with the ID bracelet on his ankle, and when he got to go to the pre-op area with more toys.  He had lots of fun playing with the toys.  He wasn't quite as happy when he was carried off to go into surgery.  I figured it would be callous of me to take a picture of his sad face as he was carried away, so you will have to imagine the way his face turned red as he frowned and started to cry.  But they took him away at 7:30 to get anesthetized and get his tonsils and adenoids out.  45 minutes later the doctor came to tell me that everything went well, and about 20 minutes later,  they let me in to post-op to watch Steven wake up.

He was waking up well when I got there, and then after he saw me, he fell back asleep.  They told me that as he first woke up and saw that I wasn't there, he did the breath holding thing-- like when a kid is about to cry and you know how upset they are because of how long it takes them to take a breath to start making noise.

He seemed to do fairly well Monday after the surgery.  He ate most of the things that were put in front of him (hot cereal, smoothies, mashed potatoes, bread).

And he slept a lot.  In the morning, he kept blowing bubbles as he breathed, and I tried to capture a bubble, but I was too slow.

Steven enjoyed holding the popsicles, and occasionally licking them.  Each time the popsicle would melt down the stick onto his hand, he would get frustrated with it and cry, holding the popsicle out to me to fix it.

Steven did fairly well, as long as his pain meds were working.  When they started to wear off he started to look pretty pathetic.  I also learned that he likes some flavoring better than others.  Evidently Grape flavored lortab is not acceptable to Steven.  After one dose of the medicine, he started to blow raspberries to get the flavor off his tongue.

He spent most of Tuesday sleeping and looking pathetic.  And drooling.

Samantha tried to comfort him a few times.  I think she was happy to have Steven back home.

And today, Steven seemed to be recovering well.  He didn't seem to be in as much pain, and I finally got him to eat something today (He didn't eat anything on Tuesday, only drank his juice). The thing I finally got him to eat this morning was chocolate!  Now why didn't I think of that before?  Around lunchtime I gave Steven a dose of his medicine, and because he hated it so much, I decided to let him play on the computer for a few minutes before I put him down for his nap.  Shortly thereafter, I heard heavy breathing and this is what I saw:

Steven slumped on the computer desk, asleep.

I have heard that recovery can be a roller coaster of ups and downs, but I hope his recovery is nice and smooth, and that it is mostly ups.