Brooke's Surgery

Brooke's surgery on Tuesday went well. She seems to have quite a bit of energy and she hasn't been in too much pain. The hardest part was just coming out of anesthesia. I think they kind of over medicated her. She had Tylenol w/ codeine and Valium when we first got admitted, then they gave her the regular gas mask (strawberry flavored) anesthetic, she responded badly to that and instead of going out she started flipping out, so they had to give her morphine and belted her down. She got really upset when she woke up so they gave her some percocet... To say the least, when she got to the recovery room she was really drowsy and confused. Her heart rate was erratic and her oxygen levels kept dipping too low. Her throat was irritated from the breathing tube and swelling, so she needed a breathing treatment with epinephrine.

While I was busy worrying about Brooke, poor Dustin got queasy and passed out without me noticing. He says he tried to tap my hand to warn me, but I was too concerned about Brooke's dipping oxygen levels. So, I'm not sure exactly how long he was out before I noticed. My hand brushed the side of his hand and I realized it was freezing and soaked. I looked over at him and his face was blue and his eyes were rolling. I tried to shake him and call his name, but he was OUT. I turned to the nurse and said, "I can't wake him up!" and she called Code. While all of the staff was basically running to our room, I acted on instinct and slapped Dustin across the face. (I still feel a LITTLE bad about that.) He, of course, came to and looked around at all the drama - completely unaware of what was going on. Brooke's anesthesiologist ran in saying, "Which patient is it?" When the nurse said, "Not the patient. The Dad." He looked at Dustin sitting there now wide awake and got the most hilarious look on his face (sort of a mix of amusement and disgust- like, "Are you kidding me?") They forced Dustin to lay on a stretcher while he waited for the medics to arrive. (It's hospital policy that you have to get a full work up when something like this happens, but they had to call in the fire department to do it since we were at a children's hospital.) He, of course, was a picture of health on paper with a beautiful EKG, perfect blood pressure and blood sugar levels. (Actually, I would LOVE to have those numbers. My blood pressure is almost double his.)

Two hours later, Dustin had gotten his "physical" and Brooke's medicine was starting to wear off. It was funny, she went from laying there talking nonsense to sitting up and asking for her popsicle just all of a sudden. Which was such a relief. I felt like we went from this major high stress crisis moment to everything being fine all at once & they were telling us we could go home. Yay! Considering that I had originally been told that we would probably be out of the hospital at 9:30 AM and here it was 1:00 PM, that felt like a big deal.

Brooke's surgery obviously didn't hurt her guilt tripping skills. She was quick to ask if we could stop at Blockbuster to rent a Dora movie (something she had declared herself too old for last month when she turned 6, but apparently Dora is her "comfort show"). We went into Blockbuster as requested and she loaded her arms up with several dvds. When she was told that we were planning on getting just one or two she said, "But my throat hurts REALLY bad. I deserve these." She also needed a trip to McDonald's for a milkshake and mcchicken sandwich. I wasn't sure if she could handle eating the sandwich yet, but she proved me wrong.

Since we got home she has been a trooper. She grimaces when taking her medicine, but doesn't fight it. The biggest issue we have encountered is that when she takes a drink it comes squirting out her nose. Apparently, her adenoids were always so big that she didn't ever learn to think about that when she swallowed. She CAN drink without having fluids come out of her nose now, but only if she makes a conscious effort to take small sips and swallow carefully. I'm hoping that after a little practice she'll do it that way every time without incident. I mean, the thought of her going through life with this problem seems rather terrible. Another issue that she's found is that she doesn't love her new sense of smell. Her nose has always been so stuffed up that she couldn't smell much. To suddenly be able to smell everything has been kind of overwhelming for her. She keeps gagging from all the nasty smells. I have to admit, it's kind of funny to see her going around the house gagging over smells and squirting drinks out her nose. Tatton had this same surgery but he never had these problems. I don't know if that's because he was only 2 years old vs. her 6 years old when he had his operation or if her adenoids were just bigger and therefore more noticeable when gone? Who knows?

Anyway... just thought I'd let ya'all know how her surgery went. Aside from everything I've just said, I think it was a success. She's already noticed that she's sleeping a lot better. The first morning she woke up and said, "Hey! I can tell I didn't snore last night 'cause I'm not tired!" Hopefully, now she can also notice a difference this winter and not miss as much school!

Unfortunately, Dustin came down with a really bad flu yesterday and so I technically have two patients (thank goodness Brooke is doing as well as she is or I would really be pulling my hair out.) As it is, I'm pretty tired from all of the demanding, whining, and grouchiness. Like I said, Brooke hasn't been TOO bad considering - so you know who I'm talking about. ;-)