A few other thoughts about T&A (tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy):
1. For three or four days after surgery, M’s and Kate’s breath was unbelievably foul. And they aren’t really allowed to brush their teeth right away — plus they aren’t going to want to.
2. Kate barely talked for three days. She whispered a little bit, and gestured a lot. She said it wasn’t because of pain, and since M kept up his constant stream of chatter, I don’t think pain was an issue. Rather, I think she was getting used to how loud her voice was.
3. Both M’s and Kate’s voices went up. Maybe that’s something else Kate had to get used to hearing. It was startling at first: their voices were higher, but also hoarser. Things are starting to smooth out now.
4. The world is a noisy, noisy place. In addition to not speaking, Kate wore earmuffs sometimes, got a couple of headaches when she returned to school — schools are LOUD — and one night came down complaining that she couldn’t sleep because her sister (who had strep throat) was snoring. Dan and I couldn’t help it: we burst out laughing. The number of times Flora came down to complain about Kate’s snoring is countless.
5. No one snores in my house anymore. Well, sometimes Dan, but only if he falls asleep on his back. If I get him to turn on his side, he stops.
6. Be advised that: a) Pain tapers off day 1 through 4, spikes on day 5, and spikes again days 7 to 10. b) At day 10, about 3-4% of the time, there is bleeding (this is what happened with M this weekend). Only about 5% of the time is it serious, but call the ENT just in case. c) The pain radiates. That is, although what is hurting is the surgery site(s), what hurts is the ears or (again, in M’s case) the cheeks.
7. I’m glad that we decided to do Kate’s and M’s surgeries at the same time. When we told people we were doing it that way, most of my friends, who are kind, said I was brave. My family, who is usually also kind but more honest, thought I was crazy. But it compressed the clinginess, the interrupted sleep, the missed work hours to do both children close together.
8. I think I have made this clear, but we could not have done it without massive amounts of support. Someone had to be there at all times for the children, and someone also had to be there for Flora.
9. Social media counts as support. All the good thoughts and prayers and offers to help that came in through my Facebook and Twitter feed — thank you all so much. I couldn’t take some of those offers, especially once Flora got sick, but you all helped me so much by being a line of text away.
10. The support the children got as well once they returned to school was vital. Neither Michael’s daycare nor Kate’s school gave me any problems regarding their activity or dietary restrictions. They didn’t hesitate to welcome them back. Kate’s school was able to administer meds with my direction; Michael’s daycare needed to have one of my in-laws come down if M wanted meds. M didn’t ask for medication at daycare, although he did ask for them once I picked him up.
All-in-all, between surgery, strep, and readmission to the hospital on Saturday, it has been a challenging 10+ days. But I sincerely hope going forward we will be seeing fewer health issues for Kate and M.
I also think that part of Kate’s separation anxiety was tied to the fact that she just couldn’t hear. And she was probably waking up at night because she stopped breathing. That would feel like a nightmare to her. We’ll see how she does behaviorally once she is sleeping through the night again.
What decision have you made recently that felt right but people thought you were either brave or crazy?
Red Pen Mama 