Update on Adenoid and Tube Surgery

So far everything has gone really well. The surgery went great and it all took less time than we were told, which is always nice.

The morning in a nutshell...(a really big one)

Around 6:00am we woke Addi up and changed her diaper so we could get to the hospital by 6:30am. She didn't fuss, but looked very confused as to where we were going so early. Of course we barely made it in time but were there by 6:30 nonetheless. We were taken straight to the surgery center "interview rooms" and they got her vitals, had us sign a bunch of paperwork, and took payment for their chunk of the bill. Thank God we have health insurance! After that we headed over to our room and put Addison in her hospital gown. She was doing well but started getting cranky because she wanted something to eat or drink. We talked to the doctor, several nurses, and the anesthesiologist about everything. Once we answered a million of the same questions we were allowed to walk around a bit. We gave her a little present I had picked up last night, and she played with that until they came by. They gave her some Tylenol with a drying agent (no clue what that is for) and explained the procedure again and what we would expect.

Around 8am we took her to the operating room doors and one of the nurses took her from there. She didn't want her bear, but really wanted to wear a bib she had found in the diaper bag. I guess she thought they were going to feed her. She didn't fuss when we left, surprisingly. They used a mask to put her under, then put in the IV and breathing tube. We headed back to the waiting room, expecting it to be 45minutes when it only lasted 25minutes! The doctor came out and told us that everything went really well. He said that her ears had a lot of thick fluid on them and that her adenoids were really large with swelling and infection. There was a lot of bacteria on them. Behind all of that was a lot of nasty stuff. It turns out that the adenoids are pretty much the same as the tonsils, but in a different location. Anyway, he told us that he was really glad we made the choice to take them out because of how bad they were. He also said the fluid on her ears looked worse than the last time we saw him except that there was air behind some of the fluid on one of them. I forgot to ask what this means and need to ask one of our doctor friends. She just finished a round of antibiotics just over a week ago for an ear infection so having all the gunk still there or formed again stinks. He also said that because of the amount of swelling/infection on the adenoids she would probably be in more pain than usual. So he prescribed loratab instead of Tylenol. She only needs that for a couple of days though. After that she shouldn't need any pain meds. She also has drops for her ears and an antibiotic. He said she would probably snore for a few days but it would go away once the area scabbed over. He removed the adenoids and cauterized the incision (?) so there aren't any stitches there. It will be raw for a couple of days then it will scab over. Over a week or so it will heal. Then the scab will fall off and it will be a little raw again. During the raw periods she will have smelly breath. The whole process should take about 2 weeks. The tubes should be healed pretty quickly as well. This is the second set of tubes so we know what to expect more with them.

After we met with the doctor, we had to wait until they came and got one of us to be with her during recovery. Eventually they came and I went. A nurse was holding her, and she was whimpering. She wasn't really awake yet but when she heard me she called my name and started crying. I held her and we rocked. She still had an IV in her foot (they didn't take it out until we left). She fell asleep on my shoulder occasionally whimpering. When she woke up they gave her some apple juice, and we headed over to the room we were previously in. Scott joined us. She stayed cuddled on my shoulder for a while. Then she wanted Scott. We maneuvered the IV and switched places. A few minutes later she started to cry. Nothing calmed her. They gave her some pain meds and she cried for about 30-40 minutes while it kicked in. Once it kicked in she was fine. She stole Scott's granola bar and ate the entire thing while watching Sesame Street. We checked out. Then we ran to pick up her medicine and some popsicles and headed home. She had a banana, took a nap and woke up asking for some avocado and milk. We couldn't give her the milk but we had avocado on hand.  These two pictures are from before the surgery - too much crankiness and hurting to get pictures after. She is in the same little gown as last time.

Tubes and Adenoid Removal today

Addi's surgery is today. We have to be at the hospital at 6:30 (the latest the informed us!) and her surgery is around 7:45. It will be about 45 minutes. She has an hour of recovery (only one of us can be in there) and then 2+ hours in the post operative room to make sure everything is okay and she can handle food. Will try to post updates and a summary of how things went tonight. The hardest part will be denying her food and milk until the surgery and having to wake her up in a couple of minutes :o) and of course when she wakes up from surgery she will be really cranky like last time I imagine. We have lots of prayers coming our way and are really grateful for that. 

Go tigers!

We took Addi to the Clemson-FSU baseball game the other afternoon. It was a lot of fun! We only stayed for an hour and a half and got to see a few innings (lots of Clemson points on the board and a couple of home runs! The innings we saw were the best ones evidently!) since it was a 6pm game. We all had a great time! Addi clapped at all the right times and said "go tigers!" as well. An added bonus, we won!

We've only put Addi in time out once in the last several months. She didn't really understand it enough when we tried it before. Several weeks ago was the first time we put her in one. She hit Dylan, and we explained that we don't hit, we love and that if she did it again she would get time out. She hit Dylan again, and we put her in the corner in time out. She cried but stayed in the corner. After we talked to her and she gave Dylan hugs and gave us hugs and we all went back to our day. Fast forward a week, her and I are hanging out. She hits Dylan. I give her a warning and she walks over to the corner, stands there, and cries. I did my best not to laugh since I hadn't put her in time out, but she had put herself in time out. I told her it was okay to come out of the corner and we talked and hugged and she told Dylan "sorry."  She did this the next week with Scott when she started to get into some books she knew she wasn't suppose to get into. When Marie and Ricky were here she started to do something she knew she wasn't suppose to do (I don't know exactly what it was) and she looked at Ricky and said, "time out" and put herself in the corner. He told her she didn't have to go in time-out and she came out and gave him hugs. We just try not to laugh when she puts herself in time-out, which is more than we've put her in time-out!

Addi had me in tears the other night as she insisted on reading to me. She has been "reading" pieces of books to us and reading them with us for a while now, but she pretty much read I love you, Stinky Face verbatim. It is such a sweet book that when she read it by herself, I got teary. I also got teary because it really made me realize that she is growing up so quickly. She also wanted to say her own prayers that night and has parts of her prayers memorized as well. It is precious! She did want to rock and cuddle afterward and let me read her some other books (she read 3 and I read 3) so she isn't all grown up yet. Of course she really likes to go through and only read her favorite parts on most nights and last night she wanted to read Stinky Face over and over and over but she only wanted to read the "mama, mama..." pieces. My little baby is becoming an independent little girl who also loves to be held and rocked.

Our new favorite park - Winthrop Park - nice and shaded and has small toddler equipment so we don't worry that Addi is going to fall off climbing to the slide. She has not grasped this yet...the other day she almost walked off of a 4 foot drop at a different part.

Wearing one of the dresses mom made when we were little.

I think I have it tied up too high in the back :)

Catey & Arch's Wedding!

I had the pleasure of heading down to St. Croix (US Virgin Islands) for my dear friend Catey's wedding. It was a small and intimate affair, and we all had a wonderful time. Sitting by the pool just a couple hours before the wedding...it doesn't get better than that! :)

I arrived Thursday afternoon. I was able to site-see most of Friday and we had wedding stuff on Saturday. Then I had to leave early Sunday. The resort was beautiful and the food was amazing! Everything was on "island time" so it took a while to get food...we quickly learned that if we wanted to eat we needed to show up an hour+ early at the restaurant. On Friday a few of us rented a Jeep and headed out. Our first stop were some sugar cane ruins. After that we headed up a dirt road that we were told to venture on since we had 4-wheel drive. We were very lucky we had 4-wheel drive because driving up a mountain a few inches from a cliff is a bit scary! After we drove around a bit, we ended up at the top of the mountain looking down onto our resort! It was a breathtaking view. From various points we were able to see the coast no matter which way we looked. We drove through parts of the rainforest and under rainforest canopy. After an hour or two of driving and site-seeing and getting a little lost, we stopped at the Country Snack. They are famous for their local-fruit smoothies. There is only one kind and it is amazing! Made from a long list of fruit that they had just picked. There were mango and avocado trees in the yard. We had lunch and hung out taking in everything around us. We even were able to sample some "special" spiced rum home-brew called Man-up! They sell bottles with handwritten labels. Reminds me of fruit soaked moonshine except much stronger. Within seconds I was warm from head to toe. The 1/8inch sample shot I had was enough to last me, well forever. After that we headed to Mt. Pellier Hut Domino club to see famous beer drinking pigs (non-alcoholic beer). There were two pigs. We each paid $3 to see the pigs and give them an Odouls. It was crazy! The pig takes the entire beer and crushes it in his mouth so he can get all the beer out. Then he spits the can out. In the few minutes we were there they each had 3-4 beers and were loving it! That is probably why they switched to non-alcoholic beer. There was a monument up for the original beer drinking pig. There were a couple of pigs in training as well. We didn't have time to hang out at the bar itself. It is a local hangout where people play cards and dominoes and enjoy drinks and company. After that we had to head into town to pick up flowers for the wedding and then back to the resort to get ready for the rehearsal dinner (or non-rehearsal dinner since there wasn't a rehearsal). The next morning we enjoyed breakfast on our screen porch and then hung out by the pool for an hour or so before we had to help Catey get ready for the wedding. The ceremony was at 2pm overlooking the beach. After that we went to the reception. It was a great time!

The view from walking down the beach in front of the resort

The view from walking down the beach in front of the resort

Sugar mill ruins

View from inside the ruins

View from the top of the mountain - you can see our resort at the bottom - red roofs

Rainforest canopy

Non-rehearsal dinner

View from the pool

Our beautiful bride just a couple hours before the wedding

The newlyweds!

Buster the pig's monument

One of the pigs...notice the empty cans in the corner

The pig bar

Mango tree

one of the best smoothies ever!

The country snack

A random wall along the ride...

A close-up of the vines growing on it...they were cactus-like

another ear infection and more fun Addi updates!

So we have another ear infection - the right ear only this time. I am so happy we made the decision to get the second set of tubes.

Some good news...Addi was 25.5 lbs at the doctor today! Of course it was end of day with clothes but she finally hit the 25lb mark!

More fun Addi updates and of course for Scott and I to remember all her fun little things. We get so excited that we want to write down and record every little thing so we don't forget. So we apologize if it gets boring for everyone else :) She came home singing ABCs up to J today. After J she just says random letters and a couple of times she said the words at the end of the song.  The supervisor at her daycare pulled me aside to tell me that she can name all of her shapes...even pentagon and octagon! She was walking by the room when she heard her so she peeked her head in to see. She can point them out and she can name them. She said Addi gets really excited doing them, which is so cute! Of course she still comes home with her shoes full of sand from playing outside. She loves it outside. She sits with her buddies on a tire wheel in the sand and they scoop and pour sand. Of course there is other equipment, but 9 times out of 10 she is on that when we pick her up. Inside they do all types of art, reading, music, and play. Everything is play. She is getting over her shyness and each day when we drop her off she runs in her room usually over to the table to eat breakfast. In the afternoon she runs over to say hi, then goes back, grabs her cup, jacket, and daily progress paper, then runs back to us to leave. She is starting to say bye in front of everyone instead of waiting until we leave to say bye. She finally took a school photo - we've tried twice before and she refused. We joke that she is 2/2 for Santa but 0/2 for school. This time she took it but they said she was on the verge of being upset. We didn't think it would happen, but are happy they finally got one. We can't wait to see the proofs!

She made me a Mother's Day hand-print with a poem on it. I almost cried when I picked her up today and got it. I can't believe how blessed I am to be a mother. She is the greatest gift God has given me and she makes me so grateful for my own Mother, who is such an amazing person - thoughtful, patient, loving, and kind. She knows everything, and I have so much to learn from her. Although I really appreciated my Mother before I had Addison, I have a new level of appreciation for all the love she gave me and all the sacrifices she made for me. I am the person I am today because of my parents. Thanks, Mom. I love you! 

Bless you - tubes and more

Yesterday, I overheard Scott sneeze and immediately following Addi said, Bless you, Daddy.   

Hew favorite new thing to say is a question: What's that? Many times a day she asks us what things are. Pointing to my earrings, What's that?; pointing to the plow on tv, What's that?; you get the picture.

She has also discovered necks (yes, necks). She loves to rub and tickle my neck and say neck over and over. I try to get her to stop because it tickles but that seems to make her more interested. We don't really know where she learned the word, neck, but think its funny nonetheless.

Addison is getting a second set of tubes on May 25th. She is also having her adenoids taken out at the same time since they can harbor bacteria and cause congestion, snoring, and other problems. Her first set of tubes stayed in for 9 months. Once they fell out she got a double ear infection. She got another double infection a few months later and has fluid sitting on her ears now. Her ENT left the decision up to us, but considering that she is always congested, snores lightly and breathes heavily when she sleeps, and doesn't sleep well when she has fluid on her ears, we decided not to wait. Since her first set of tubes fell out early, her eustachian tubes just haven't completely developed. The recovery time is a couple of days so a little longer than just the tubes alone. Prayers please.

Just hanging with her friends, eating cucumbers, and watching Sesame Street

A budding artist

This past Saturday we went to Alligator point for a few hours in the morning. I've been doing a lot of work on the weekends, but I try to spend a few quality hours with Scott and Addison so beach time is a great way to do this!

collecting shells on the beach

look at those curls!

Eating one of the peaches we picked up on the way home. So juicy and sweet!