Gwyneth did really well staying overnight at the hospital Monday night. She had an IV drip all night and it gave her a good head start towards staying hydrated while she recovers from the tonsillectomy. I woke up when the nurse came in during the night to help with giving Gwyn her pain medicine and change her diaper. After she was awake Tuesday morning, she was in very good spirits and talking, singing, and counting just like her old self. Reid brought Ryker back to hospital before he went to work. Gwyn was discharged and the kids and I headed home.
Since we've been home, things have been going fairly well. Gwyn is drinking sips of pedialyte or apple juice and eating a little bit of food. She gets fussier when her pain med is wearing off, so I'm just keeping up with the schedule of pain medication every four hours even through the night. It's tough getting up at night to make her take the medicine though (it's like being on a newborn's schedule again!) so I stretched it out to over 5 hours between doses last night and she was fine. I'll probably stretch it out more tonight so we can both get more sleep and we'll see how she does.
Supposedly Days 5 to 8 post-surgery are really tough because the scabs start to come off of the throat and it is more painful to eat and drink. So this weekend could be a challenge. But Gwyneth is very sweet when she's not feeling good and she just wants to be held all the time. So we are relaxing together in front of her favorite shows with a sippy cup while Ryker crawls around and makes a mess. :-)
Hope our sweet girl is back to 100% soon!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Surgery Day
Today was Gwyneth's tonsillectomy & adenoidectomy at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Scottish Rite hospital. Overall, she is doing really well. The surgery was scheduled for 9:20 a.m. so we had to arrive at the hospital at 7:20. We talked with various nurses, the surgeon, and the anesthesiologist before the surgery. They gave Gwyneth a codine type drug to relax her before they took her away to the OR. And she got a little bit loopy and cute, smiling and giggling at nothing.
The surgery went very well. They only had to remove part of the adenoids, not all of them, which is what we were hoping in order to avoid speech/voice issues. They checked her ears and there was no fluid so we don't have to worry about tubes. While she was under, the nurses drew blood for various lab orders we brought along. I don't like having her blood drawn unless it is absolutely necessary so this was a great chance to take care of blood work that I've been putting off like Celiac and thyroid tests. I'll post again when we get all of the results for those tests.
When Gwyneth was waking up in her recovery room after the 30 minute surgery, they gave her the doggie security blanket she brought along and that made her very happy. Then they brought her to the overnight room where Reid, Ryker and I were waiting. We took turns holding her and she was being very sweet. She even started to sip apple juice for us. Ryker fell asleep in his stroller when I walked through the hospital to get lunch from the cafeteria and he slept a while.
The afternoon was hard because Reid had to leave to go to work, Ryker woke up from his nap very hungry and Gwyn's pain medicine had begun to wear off. So the next few hours I spent balancing between fussy kids. Luckily there are TVs in the hospital rooms with lots of kids channels, so that kept Gwyneth distracted occasionally. She had stopped wanting to drink apple juice so she was put on an IV drip (which is attached to a vein in her foot). At some point she decided to pull off the pulse ox monitor from her thumb and strip off the hospital gown. She has also been telling the nurses "All DONE" before they even start their checks of her vitals. (That reminds me: this morning just before the surgery, a nurse came by and asked "are you Gwyneth?" and Gwyn quickly responded "nope!" - we laughed that she was saying "nope, not me lady, keep walkin")
Ryker was understandably fed up with the whole boring day, so I decided to leave Gwyn alone in the room to give Ryker a break and give Gwyn a chance to nap. We walked around and went outside to a koi pond for a few minutes, but I was worried about Gwyn, so we didn't stay away too long. When we returned Gwyn had thrown her pillows and covers around and didn't look happy. She wasn't thrilled with Ryker back in the room though because he was getting very loud and fussy and I could tell that she was super tired. Reid came to the rescue and left work early to pick up Ryker to take him home for the night.
Gwyn perked up after that and the nurse suggested I order some dinner for her, but by the time dinner arrived she was cranky again. After she got more pain medication and ate a little applesauce and a few bites of chicken soup with rice, she started to fall asleep. She's been sleeping soundly for a while now, and even slept through the nurse checking her vitals. They will have to wake her up at 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. for more pain medication, so it will be a tiring night... We plan on being discharged in the morning as long as she is drinking and eating.
More updates tomorrow...
The surgery went very well. They only had to remove part of the adenoids, not all of them, which is what we were hoping in order to avoid speech/voice issues. They checked her ears and there was no fluid so we don't have to worry about tubes. While she was under, the nurses drew blood for various lab orders we brought along. I don't like having her blood drawn unless it is absolutely necessary so this was a great chance to take care of blood work that I've been putting off like Celiac and thyroid tests. I'll post again when we get all of the results for those tests.
When Gwyneth was waking up in her recovery room after the 30 minute surgery, they gave her the doggie security blanket she brought along and that made her very happy. Then they brought her to the overnight room where Reid, Ryker and I were waiting. We took turns holding her and she was being very sweet. She even started to sip apple juice for us. Ryker fell asleep in his stroller when I walked through the hospital to get lunch from the cafeteria and he slept a while.
The afternoon was hard because Reid had to leave to go to work, Ryker woke up from his nap very hungry and Gwyn's pain medicine had begun to wear off. So the next few hours I spent balancing between fussy kids. Luckily there are TVs in the hospital rooms with lots of kids channels, so that kept Gwyneth distracted occasionally. She had stopped wanting to drink apple juice so she was put on an IV drip (which is attached to a vein in her foot). At some point she decided to pull off the pulse ox monitor from her thumb and strip off the hospital gown. She has also been telling the nurses "All DONE" before they even start their checks of her vitals. (That reminds me: this morning just before the surgery, a nurse came by and asked "are you Gwyneth?" and Gwyn quickly responded "nope!" - we laughed that she was saying "nope, not me lady, keep walkin")
Ryker was understandably fed up with the whole boring day, so I decided to leave Gwyn alone in the room to give Ryker a break and give Gwyn a chance to nap. We walked around and went outside to a koi pond for a few minutes, but I was worried about Gwyn, so we didn't stay away too long. When we returned Gwyn had thrown her pillows and covers around and didn't look happy. She wasn't thrilled with Ryker back in the room though because he was getting very loud and fussy and I could tell that she was super tired. Reid came to the rescue and left work early to pick up Ryker to take him home for the night.
Gwyn perked up after that and the nurse suggested I order some dinner for her, but by the time dinner arrived she was cranky again. After she got more pain medication and ate a little applesauce and a few bites of chicken soup with rice, she started to fall asleep. She's been sleeping soundly for a while now, and even slept through the nurse checking her vitals. They will have to wake her up at 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. for more pain medication, so it will be a tiring night... We plan on being discharged in the morning as long as she is drinking and eating.
More updates tomorrow...
Friday, May 18, 2012
Friday at the Farm: Summer Break
We are gearing up for Summer Break now since Gwyn's last day of school was yesterday! She is having her tonsils removed on Monday so she has to miss the last week of school. I let all the therapists know that she will miss next Friday and we'll see about the Friday after that. I also had to let them know that we will be visiting family and friends in Colorado for almost a month this summer! And when school starts again in August, Gwyneth will be going 5 days a week instead of four, so we'll have to change our therapy times to after school.
It's too bad that Gwyneth has to start the summer off with a painful surgery, but I believe that it will be the best for her in the long run. She had strep throat 8 times in a year and 3 of those times also had ear infections. So her tonsil surgery is early Monday morning and we will keep our fingers crossed that she has an easy recovery. She did so well after her open-heart surgery, but she was only 4 months old. Now she is 4 years old and I'm worried about the emotional impact this painful recovery will have on her.
I will be posting updates through the surgery and recovery of our precious girl.
It's too bad that Gwyneth has to start the summer off with a painful surgery, but I believe that it will be the best for her in the long run. She had strep throat 8 times in a year and 3 of those times also had ear infections. So her tonsil surgery is early Monday morning and we will keep our fingers crossed that she has an easy recovery. She did so well after her open-heart surgery, but she was only 4 months old. Now she is 4 years old and I'm worried about the emotional impact this painful recovery will have on her.
I will be posting updates through the surgery and recovery of our precious girl.
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