Kathryn's surgery, little laughs

Well, Kathryn has been, since her first winter (newborn), with a chronic runny nose/cold/congestion. it seems to be a little better this year, or at least it started later, but the symptoms seem to be worse: deep coughing, and she had strep throat a month ago. nothing new with being sick.

however, her speech therapist at school said she noticed kathryn's speech ability (forming sentences, naming objects, etc) is fine, and she is very smart, but the problem is her speaking voice... too often she has congestion which causes her to not be able to form words correctly, as we all know we speak a little different when we are sick. she recommended seeing an ENT to see if there isn't something we can do to clear up the congestion (medicine is not working efficiently enough)

so i took her to see an ENT and the first thing he says after looking in her throat is her tonsils are abnormally large for her age, with no former swelling history, it means, they are the problem. they cut off air flow and cause her to snore, and don't allow for proper drainage of the sinuses when she does get sick which causes sinus infections etc. and they also impede her speaking ability... hmmm.

diagnois: tonsillar hypertrophy and adenoid hypertrophy.

solution: tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (i.e. removal of tonsils and adenoids!)

wow. she's only 3! that's serious surgery... she's going to have to be under general anesthesia, and i am a little ok A LOT nervous! i've never had surgery i have no idea the pain she will be in when she is recovering, and i swear it will break my heart when she can't stop crying because she hurts. i keep hearing it'll make a huge difference etc etc. but there are always rare cases of complications etc. and i being a mom have to think the worst... ::deep breaths::

i wonder if her tonsils have neurofibromas in them and that's why they are so large? ya never know. with her condition the posibilities are endless. but i sure want my baby to feel better so i decided to go through with it. now or never kind of thing. i'm going to be a nervous wreck until it happens, but...

Monday Dec. 14th, 2009 - 6 or 7am surgery happens apparently only takes 15 - 20 mins. then 4 or so hours of recovery at the facility and then she comes home. first we have to get blood work done and a physical done to make sure she can do the surgery. hopefully she can be fully recovered by Christmas.

possibility of dehydration is likely, because it will hurt to drink, but she will need to, to avoid IV and hospitals. there is a possibility of bleeding once the "scabs" fall off, if sucking on ice chips doesn't work, back to the hospital to get the bleeding to stop. ::sigh::

wish us luck and pray for the surgeon! pray for a success! i will let you know how things go.

oh yeah, the recovery will take about 10 days, and she will be out of school for that, so i am wondering if anyone can give me some ideas of things to do with a fragile child to keep them occupied and mind off the pain. i will be starting a list!

totally off subject but something to laugh about:

i have a monkey in the house...he climbs on everything and he refuses to go back to the zoo...

he seems to think the refrigerator, oven door, table, sink cabinet are things to hang from and usually he finds out the hard way...he will certainly have a hard head by the time he reaches adulthood! i guess i better enjoy this cute little face now before the scars from various future injures start taking residence...
boys. gotta love em.

and this is why you don't go driving in super muddy pot holes!
yeah he was stuck good. he should've just got the big rig to pull him out to begin with but he was hard headed an had to try 3 different trucks before it set in that they weren't powerful enough to get him out of such a deep rut!
why in the world would they not have 4 wheel drive standard on F-250's anyway?!?

well daniel and i enjoyed watching them spin their tires in their feeble attempts to pull out this big truck. and he learned a new word "stuck" heheh... the guy probably didn't want me standing there watching, but it was just too funny to not. lol. besides, they sure were making quite a ruckus behind our back yard, we had to come check it out. =)