Anatomy of a Tonsillectomy -- Grace Style

Well, the big day has come and gone (one month ago today to be exact!). Seeing as to how the surgery day itself was an all-day affair and I have quite a few other little children to attend to, Scott took the day off of work to be with Grace in her moment of need. At her consult appointment a couple of months ago, the doctor's office sent us home with a packet of information, a DVD outlining what to expect on the big day, and a "Surgery Land" game board for Grace to take along with her and fill out as she went throughout the day. All in all, it served EXTREMELY well in preparing her and if anything getting her really excited to have her tonsils taken out.

Pre-Surgery

Here she is arriving at the hospital. As per the instructions, she brought along a favorite toy, a movie, and her Surgery Land game card.

The Documentarian

According to Scott, Grace was a super champ! All the nurses and other staff thought she was just too sweet and too cute. She didn't seem to be nervous AT ALL, which surprised me quite a bit. I thought for sure that once the big day was here she'd start freaking out and end up not wanting to go through with it! Thankfully, she was excited and ready to take it all on.

Apparently, once she had changed into her regulation hospital jammies and settled in to wait for the surgery itself, she decided to put on a photo shoot with all KINDS of interesting poses.

Check out those "honeys" in her throat. Hahaha. When the doctor initially checked Grace out, his comment upon looking in her mouth and seeing her tonsils was "Oh yeah, those are some honeys." Weirdest comment ever, right? Hahahaha.

Even though the surgery itself lasted less than an hour, Grace had to be there a couple hours beforehand to get all checked in and then stay for a minimum of 4 hours afterwards to make sure everything went okay. (Which it did, thankfully.)



Post-Op

Cute little Grace. All drugged up and recuperating.

And Recovery -- Featuring the best $10 I ever spent at Costco. Her Robe.

(As in this is what she lived in day and night for practically the entire week she spent convalescing at home.)

These pictures were all taken about a couple weeks after the surgery. To be honest, the recovery was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. For some reason I thought she'd bounce right back and be ready to go to school after just a couple of days. When Scott and Grace first came home from the hospital that night and he told me that she was supposed to stay home from school for the first week and no P.E. for 2 weeks, I thought that seemed a bit extreme. In the end, though, the doctors clearly knew what they were talking about a lot more than I did. Hahaha.

The first night home she was still pretty out of it. Between the anasthesia and the painkillers, she didn't have a shot. She spent the majority of the evening zoning out in the rocking chair, gingerly eating mac and cheese while watching iCarly. The next couple days consisted of LOTS of popsicles and ice cream, more mac and cheese, steady doses of hydrocodone, and the cutest (and most pitiful) little high-pitched, half-volume voice you've ever heard. That's probably what I miss the most these days -- that soft little voice not much louder than a whisper. Hahaha. No, seriously. She was so cute and pathetic all at the same time it just about broke my heart. Things got a bit dicey by the end of the week once the scabs started to come off and her throat hurt, and in the end, it definitely took the full week for her to be ready to go back to school. And even then, I would say that the recovery wasn't entirely complete until after Thanksgiving. Time heals all wounds, though, and I'm sure when she looks back on this in years to come the only thing she'll really remember is the ice cream. And popsicles. All in all, Grace handled the whole ordeal a LOT better than I thought she would. And, as a bonus, she has set the stage and served as a role model for Ethan who will need to have a surgery of his own in February.

And that's a wrap.