No More Tonsils!

I remember when I was a little kid I had a book called No More Tonsils. It was about a little girl who had to have her tonsils removed. It's an old book, so in that book, the little girl had to pack her suitcase to go to the hospital, and then say goodbye to her parents once she got there. I think I must have inherited that book from one of my older cousins who had to have their tonsils removed, because I still have mine, and as far as I know mine were never in danger of coming out.

Today was Hayden's big day. No More Tonsils! In his case, he had outpatient surgery at the same surgery center where they removed his adenoids last year. His surgery lasted 20 minutes from the time they took him into the operating room until the time his surgeon came out to the waiting room to tell me he was out and waking up. We were in and out in just over 2 hours. And I couldn't imagine leaving Hayden all by himself in a hospital to stay overnight! My, how times have changed! I even got to walk into the OR and hold his hand until he fell asleep with the gas mask on his face.

Even a year makes all the difference in our case. Last year, Hayden was still 4 years old, and I was a complete basket case, just from the thought of him being put to sleep while someone cut something out of him. They sedated him before he went into the OR, so he was nearly asleep before they put the gas mask on his face. This time, Hayden is a waaaaaaaaaay more mature 6 year old (or so he thinks), he got no sedative before the OR, and he attempted to play Pokemon on his Nintendo DS, even as they were holding the gas mask on his face. Oh, and I didn't fall apart as soon as he was asleep. Minor detail.

So we're back home now. He's been on the couch, watching movies all afternoon. He's taking a nap now. I think the pain meds finally caught up with him. I'm so impressed at how calm and sweet he has been through the whole thing. He did have a moment when Isaac was eating lunch and he couldn't eat anything. Poor little guy is starving, and all he's allowed to have is clear liquids! So I cheated. A little. I gave him a fudge pop. Technically, he's not supposed to have any milk products, but I looked at the ingredients, and the first two were water and sugar. So I figure it's really just chocolate flavored water. Anyway, it made him stop crying, and he was happy. And then I made him some Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and strained out the chicken and noodles, and you would have thought it was Christmas. He said, "Thank you for helping me feel better, Mommy! I feel better already!" I just love that little boy... I can imagine how cranky I would be - probably sort of like after my c-section when I was really hungry and they wouldn't let me eat...

Thank you to all of our friends and family who have been thinking about Hayden and praying for him today. He's doing great.