Days 5-7 went by slowly for me. Only because my son felt great, but still couldn't be too active. Around day 7 is when the scabs fall off, also being the highest risk of bleeding days. The more he gets his heart rate up, the more risk of bleeding he was. Those days were mostly about keeping my son on the couch. He is so active just when he had to use the bathroom he couldn't just get up and walk over, he had to jump off the couch and run to bathroom. On the way back he treated the toys on the floor like they were hot lava and hop scotched his way back summersaulting back to his sitting position. This was no easy task.

I mostly handled it by gaming it up. That's right I played more Mario Kart and Mario Bros in those few days than I have in the past few years combined! Not to mention, watching Pokémon, Spiderman, and several card games.

Kadan did really well eating. We started with soft rolls torn into tiny pieces than moved to mashed potatoes. Then he did some frozen go gurts, and spaghettio's. By day 5 he was ok eating spaghetti with no sauce and scrambled eggs. By day 7 he was fine with peanut butter and jelly, chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. After day 7 he was pretty much up to his normal picky diet.

 

Overall it ended up being a good pleasant experience. We had no problems, and enjoyed spending a week bonding together doing nothing but eating junk food and being couch potatoes. What 7 year old wouldn't want that?

Days 3 and 4 the doctor, nurses and friends all said were going to be the worst. I was gearing up for it. I made sure every 3 hours on the dot I would alternate his Tylenol and Motrin. I tried to keep him hydrated best I could. Honestly, my son did fine. I know every kid is different and mine is a trooper.

There were a few moments where I noticed he got quiet and just kind of sat there watching a movie. At that point  I would ask him, "Is everything ok? You just got really quiet." He would then tell me it hurts a little. Not a lot, but more than before. I would make him a slushie, and check the time. Usually that happened right before he was due for some more medicine. He did say he was more uncomfortable than day 1 and 2, but not in real pain, thank goodness. Since he was eating, sleeping, and drinking that played a big part in it.

When he went to bed on day 4 I didn't give him any more meds till he asked for it or needed it.

Keeping my son from being too active was hard. To keep him down so he wasn't jumping around too much I decided to do something fun. The girls bought and wrapped him 2 movies before his surgery that they had picked out. 1 of them was the first Ice Age. We had them all except the first one. My son went through an Ice Age stage about when the 2nd one came out on DVD, so he has a passion for them. Under the circumstances I decided to have an Ice Age marathon. Normally sitting around watching 4 movies back to back would be a no go, but what else were we going to do?

We had popcorn, my son had popsicles, Dad may or may not have fallen asleep, in the end it was a fun day.

 Is your kid about to have his or her tonsils removed? Then I suggest reading my posts about my son's tonsillectomy. Before my son had both his tonsils and adenoids removed I tried to find articles with tips on making it easier for both me and my son, and found hardly anything.  Besides what my Dr's office said and a few Dr"ish" websites about the facts I still felt in the dark. I did talk to a few people who had this done to themselves or to their children for some information, but never quite felt ready. I actually had a panic attack the night before. So I am blogging about our experience to help a few mom's out there hopefully not have a panic attack like I did!

Keep in mind every Dr, patient, and hospital are different. Not everyone has the same experience. All you can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best in these kind of situations.

Before I talk about the day of the surgery let me tell you about the night before. That is when I freaked out and pretty much broke down. I went to run a few last minute errands so my son could pick out some of his favorite popsicles, ice cream, drinks, and things like that. As I was pulling up to the gas station (so I wouldn't have to do it early the next morning) I got a phone call. I knew the hospital would be calling to let me know what time we were to arrive for surgery, so I was glad to finally get this call. Even though it was 5 O'clock and I already had my husband and my mom call twice each wondering what time to plan on, this call wasn't the one I thought it was. It was the office saying they hadn't received my paperwork. What paperwork? Well, apparently they emailed me some forms. Which I knew, I just assumed I was suppose to fill them out, print them and bring them in with me. I didn't realize it was a link for an online form that the anesthesiologist needed to look at the night before, and that he would be there in an hour to look over the paperwork.  Aaagh, I'm not only 30 minutes away from home, but will need to unload melting groceries, start dinner, change a diaper, and I had a responsibility through my church that tied me up Wednesday nights. In the end I got it done, and I ended up finding someone to take my place at my church.   The point of that rant is if you are suppose to fill something out before hand, do just that, fill it out before hand. That way you don't have a breakdown and find yourself crying in your bedroom during dinner. Even the Queen of Chaos has a breaking point- weird I know.

On to the day of the tonsillectomy. Around 6:30 PM the night before we finally were told what time our surgery was scheduled for. One thing I hadn't realized was no food or drink after midnight! Not even a sip of water in the morning. I can promise that would be hard for even me. I didn't even let my son brush his teeth in the morning because I was afraid he would swallow some of it. We brought a spare change of clothes with us because I had heard even though they give them something to wear, some kids wet themselves while on the anesthesia. When we arrived, of course the nurses and staff were fabulous. My son really enjoyed teasing and interacting with them.

The whole thing went by in half the time I thought it would. Maybe it was a good day, maybe I was lucky, who knows? All I can say is it took a little over 4 hours from setting foot in the building to my husband pulling up the car to the front.

In my mind I assumed they would put him to sleep with us and bring him back still sedated. I was shocked that we parents stayed in the same room the whole time. They took my son away awake and brought him back awake. I was happy to hear that they put his IV in after he was asleep, because that was one of my concerns. They don't take it out till right before being released though, just in case they need it again. That part kind of freaked him out, but only for a second. The nurse was real good about taking off the bandage carefully so that when the IV came out it was so quick he barely saw anything till she put a clean bandage over it ninja like. I told him before hand it wouldn't hurt, it would just be uncomfortable.

Since I was told that day 3 and 4 was the worst I figured if he asked to eat, I was just going to let him. On my sons first day he ate 2-3 of those soft Hawaiian rolls. He just tore off little itty bitty pieces. He ate that in addition to the yummy cold treats he had picked out the day before.

Overall day one was a success. Mostly tiring from lack of sleep the night before and waking up early to prep and get to the hospital.