This summer while Scott was traveling, I let Owen sleep with me a few times. I was reminded what a horrible sleeper Owen is. He would take 5 or 6 labored breaths through his nose, then gasp for air through his mouth and flail his arms about. I decided we'd waited long enough, and I scheduled a visit with the ENT. He determined that removing Owen's tonsils and adenoids would improve Owen's breathing greatly, and we scheduled a surgery date for the middle of September.
Owen is our 4th child to have this surgery done, so we knew what we were signing up for, but we also knew that in the end, Owen's quality of life would be improved.
We checked into the surgery center on Friday at 11. I was worried we'd be given an earlier surgery time, and I didn't know how we'd get all the kids off to school. But with the later time, we were able to get the kids off to school and then Anne came over to stay with Kate and Aaron (who stayed home from school sick that day). Scott took the day off work, and the three of us headed off to the surgery center.
Owen enjoyed getting to decorate his mask with stickers.
He thought his bed with wheels was pretty cool.
Saying our goodbyes as he headed back to surgery.
When surgery was done, and he was starting to wake up, they brought us back to see him. I was prepared for him to be really mad (he was when he woke up from his urology procedure last year). But when we got back to him, he was perfectly peaceful and in and out of sleep. The nurse said he had been pretty upset when he first woke up, but they gave him a dose of pain medication through his IV, and it calmed him right down (just in time for us to see him). The doctor said surgery went great. He said the adenoids were huge and so were the tonsils. He said Owen should be able to breath so much easier after this.
When he was more fully awake, they moved him to a recliner with me holding him, and took us to a recovery room. I sat and snuggled him while they monitored his stats and gave him fluids through his IV. He mostly just slept on me.
Finally we got to check out and go home. Owen was excited to ride in a wheelchair.
The car ride home was rough. I sat next to Owen in the back, so he could lean up against me. He was white as a ghost and did not feel well. He threw up on the drive home (we had an emesis bag with us, thankfully).
Recovery has been rough. Owen really doesn't like the pain medication (it tastes horrible). If we can stay on top of the pain meds, he does all right. But when he gets behind on the meds, he starts to hurt and it's a pretty quick downward spiral from there.
But we've discovered that if we bribe him with quarters, he's more willing to take his medication. He thinks he's going to get rich off this.
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