Taylor's Big Day

I am so happy that Monday has come and gone.

Monday was Taylor's big day for her tubes, and it started out early. SO early. I was up at 4:30, and I did manage to sneak in a small cup of coffee. Even though it was early, I actually wasn't tired. I think I've been anticipating that day for so long that I was beyond ready for it to be here.

We arrived at the hospital at 6 am, and it was kind of eerie that we were the only ones in the lobby. We were taken down to a room and our nurse was nice, but Taylor was not happy with her. She was not amused by this stranger talking to her and trying to get her vitals. She even tried blowing bubbles to get Taylor to calm down, but it wasn't happening. Taylor was not having it at that time of the morning. I don't blame her. She is not a morning person!

*This was the view from the rocking chair in T's room. We spent some quality time in this chair.*

We changed her into the pants and shirt the hospital provided (no more gowns!) and tried to get her as calm as possible. I knew we were going to have a disaster on our hands when the nurse had to give her oral medication to make her sleepy. I knew it was going to end badly. Have you ever tried to give a toddler medicine? Not a good time, and then you throw a complete stranger trying to administer it on top of that, and it was a debacle. Most of it got into her, thankfully, but the last couple drops came back up, which ended up all over Mike.

A short while later, it was off to the operating room. I was able to carry her most of the way, and then the OR nurse said we couldn't go any further and I had to hand Taylor off. I held in the tears until we were in the waiting room. I knew she was going to be fine, but it was just the act of giving her to someone else and putting all of my trust in them to take care of her. It was a hard moment for me.

45 minutes later, and she was done! We were taken to a private consult room , and her doctor came in to talk to us. Her tubes were put in without problem, and he said her adenoids were very enlarged, so he removed them. I had a feeling from the beginning that that was going to happen. They also did a hearing test, and it was normal! I was so relieved. I have been so worried that she was going to have hearing loss due to all of the infections she has had.

When we were taken back to the recovery room, I wasn't sure what to expect. The nurse that was with her told us that for some reason, Taylor's age group was one of the hardest to recover from the anesthesia. They get very agitated, and I could see that after being with her for just a few minutes. It was a little scary to see her try wake up from the anesthesia. Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head, she was drooling like no other, and she would cry hard for a minute and then go back to sleep.

She eventually went back to her original room, and they wanted her to just sleep it off if she could. And she slept... for a couple hours! On my lap, in the rocking chair.

Mike had to hold her for a little bit too, because I needed to get up and stretch. She was so content to just sleep in our arms.

The nurse came in every so often to check on her, and finally, at around 12:30, she said we could take her home. She wanted her to drink something before she left, but Taylor wasn't into it at that point and we thought she might do better at home.

The rest of the day, she was kind of still out of it. She was only happy when she was laying in our bed watching Mickey Mouse and dozing off to sleep. She seemed to perk up a little bit at dinner time and managed to have some juice and Cheerios, but the crankiness returned right before bed.

I was supposed to go to work yesterday, and planned on it, since everyone told me she would be fine the next day, but she was flat out MISERABLE Tuesday morning. She just cried and cried. I knew that there was no way I could just leave her with the babysitter, even if it was her Auntie Jill. She just wanted me to hold her. So, I stayed home with her and just loved on her the whole day. Thank goodness for Tylenol!

Dinner time yesterday she started feeling more like her old self. My mom stopped over and brought her a smoothie, which she loved!

I am happy to report that Taylor is feeling much better today and back to trying to climb every peice of furniture in the house. I am going to keep her on the Tylenol today just in case. I don't want a repeat of yesterday's fiasco.

I can't wait to see how this is going to change her world! Hopefully no more ear infections!