Surving a tonsillectomy

Today was the big day. The day of tonsil removal history. Well, at least for Caleb. For those of you who haven't had the fine fortune to spend much time with the boy, let me give you the brief history. As an infant, Caleb was the classic chronic-ear infection kid. Two sets of tubes seemed to be helping that until we realized he wasn't really hearing us. We had moved to Minnesota by that time and tool him to see Dr. Malone. After a hearing test, it was confirmed. No he wasn't just a complete and total 2-year-old ignoring us, he was a 2-year-old ignoring us who also couldn't hear us. An x-ray then revealed he had adenoids that, according to her, would rival the worst of the worst in an adult. We had them removed. But at that age, you really don't have tonsils and even if you do, and have them removed, they are likely to stay put.

So the tonsils remained.

And while the ear infections went away for the most part, the Strep Throat began. And the snoring. And snoring and snoring and snoring. Earlier this spring, Brian, on a whim asked to look inside Caleb's mouth. He was so shocked by what he say that, without thinking he nearly yelled "OH MY GAWD!" Yes, his tonsils touched in the middle. We both confessed we never really knew what tonsils looked like, let alone enlarged ones, until we saw those. Yuck.

We took him back to Dr. Malone who recommended we consider removing them. And so that brings us to today.

Caleb was a trooper. Leading up to this, he has been the most concerned about waking up during his surgery. We seemed to have done an adequate job convincing him that wouldn't happen and he agreed to be brave.

We were supposed to have a morning surgery time. Brian is off Wednesday mornings, so this would work perfectly. Until we got the call that indicated when they said "morning" that could really mean anything up until 11:45 a.m. Which is the time we got. And the poor kid can't eat after midnight. And, given that time, Brian can no longer make it there. Aye aye aye.

We headed to the surgery center and Caleb got checked in and changed into their pajamas.

We had to wait for the surgeon who was running late. So we didn't get taken back into surgery until about 1:30 p.m. Caleb was thrilled.

I also suited up to take him back into surgery. Caleb liked my hat and thought we should document it.

I was shocked when they came to get us and Caleb just willingly got up and followed along to the OR. As soon as we got back in the room, they asked him to hop up on the table and Caleb announced he had to go to the bathroom. They all questioned, "REALLLY?" And Caleb was insistent, "REALLY." So one of the nurses took him. After they left the room, they shared that last week they had a kid lock themselves in the bathroom. But to his credit, a minute later, Caleb walked back in and hopped up on the bed. The doctor shared that last week, he had a girl who was about to count all the way to 33 with the mask on. He wondered if Caleb could beat her. Caleb responded, "Probably not."

Caleb smeared bubblegum lipsmacker all over the mask and put it on his face to start counting. "1-2-3-4..." He kept going, "33-34-35-36..." And going, "43-44-45...33...33...thiiirty-threeee..." At which point the doctor said, "And 100, he is out." I gave him a kiss and headed out.

A mere 40 minutes later, they came and got me. Caleb was a bit sad and out of it, but doing amazingly well. We had bought him a little Tetris game which he requested (He calls it "Tantagrams") pretty quickly.

He played and rested for about a half an hour and had a popsicle.

And then, I finally got a smile.

We got him dressed and headed home. And he's been resting well since. We can only hope the rest of is recovery goes as smoothly as today went.