Claire Gets Her Tonsils Removed

There was an emotional lead up to this day. No one more than Claire wanted these nasty tonsils out! Yet, she knew the process would be hard and who in their right might would want to go through that? Of course, none of us wanted her to have to suffer but all of us wanted to her be rid of the complications these tonsils/adenoids posed. We had to be at the hospital at the early hour of seven. Thankfully, Aunt Ali stayed the night so we could slip out of the house unnoticed and get Claire to the hospital on time. She was teary when I woke her up. I suspect she had been awake for a while and the nerves had gotten the best of her. My poor Claire. I just wanted to be done with this already.

Claire, Scruffy, Daddy, and I got in the car and headed to Good Samaritan hospital where the out-patient procedure would be performed. We checked her in no problem and were immediately called back. This is when it became real for Claire. Heavy feet, stiff body, tears welling up in her eyes . . . she realized she was in a real hospital and was actually going to get surgery. I talked her through it. It's going to be okay. I won't leave you . . . became the mantra of the morning. Hesitantly, she changed into a gown that clearly was not made for a tall seven year old like Claire- but it worked. It had Ronald McDonald and his gang on the front. It seemed odd to have Ronald and his friends on there and Damien and I laughed when she only recognized Ronald. That dated us big time!

The nurse started taking Claire's vitals and surprisingly- Claire was running a fever of 100.2. Great. I didn't have a good feeling about this. The nurse called the anesthesiologist to ask what he thought of her fever. After a short phone call, she let us know that they would go ahead with the surgery because a true fever starts at 100.4. Okay, we dodged that bullet. Claire didn't seem warm to me at all and wasn't acting sick so I was a little confused but tried not to get too nervous. If they cancelled the surgery I was going to be so upset! The nurse started talking about the procedure to us in front of Claire. She tried to speak over Claire and use words Claire might not understand but I knew Claire was digesting everything. She spoke about the IV, the cutting, the scabbing, and all sorts of stuff and I knew Claire was going to freak! Claire then leaned over and told me she was going to get sick. 'I think I'm going to barf!' were the exact words and she was right. Within minutes, she did throw up. I was pretty darn confident that nervousness caused the barf but the nurse wasn't so sure. 100.2 fever and barfing? Another call to the anesthesiologist and doctor to see if we should proceed. Dude. My blood pressure was going through the roof!

The doctor came in and we chatted to see if we should go through with the surgery. They wanted to make sure surgery was the right thing to do before they gave her the happy juice which would help Claire relax, reduce anxiety and also have some amnesia inducing effects. THANK GOD, the doctor felt that Claire was just anxious (as did I) and that her fever and subsequent puking was all a part of it. Surgery would go on as scheduled! They gave her the magic potion and Claire swore she didn't feel anything. Then she started smiling and laughing at absolutely nothing. Love it! The nurse bent over and told her, "It's time to go into surgery and you can say goodbye to your Mom and Dad before we wheel you back." She leaned over and gave us a kiss. I braced for the painful separation. But there wasn't one. Instead, they unlocked her bed and wheeled her away. Claire turned around once and waved and then rolled away smiling and never looked back at us. How great is that medicine?

We waited in the waiting room and said a few prayers for our sweet girl. I knew that this was a routine surgery and also knew that I had been through far worse surgical procedures with Michael- but it never feels good to know that one of your babies is in surgery. After about forty minutes, they came and told us she was out of surgery and in recovery. They said they would come and get us when she tried to wake up. Not five minutes later did they come out and say she needed us. I couldn't wait to see her. She looked pretty good. The only hard thing was that darned anesthesia. It really did a number on her. Her lips were swollen from the procedure and her throat was really sore. It wasn't sore from the tonsillectomy but instead from the breathing tube that they inserted during surgery. She was crying off and on and it was really hard to comfort her because she really didn't know where she was. I hated seeing her so confused and in pain but I tried to stay grounded and know that this was only temporary. After about half an hour, she had a popsicle and started to come around. From this point on, she got better and better and after a little over and hour- she was ready to go home. Thank goodness she made it through the procedure. Now all she needs to do is heal. I am so happy that is behind us and I think Claire is, too.

**They took her temperature during surgery and it was 98.1 Isn't it crazy how nervousness made her temperature spike?