Surgery Story

Monday we went in to Children's Hospital to get the kids adenoids removed, and put a tube in Charlie's ear. Sunday night was hard. Lua was very upset. She wracked her brain trying to think of reasons to postpone the surgery to no avail. Finally, she just cried. Riaz laid with her until she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion at 10:30 at night.

In the morning Lua was calm. Maybe it was acceptance, or possibly just resignation. Charlie, having no real idea what surgery meant, was simply mad because he wasn't allowed to eat breakfast. We packed them in the car with surprisingly little resistance and met my mom at the hospital.

The staff at Children's couldn't have been nicer. I almost wished that I could go there myself when I need a hospital visit, because I've never met a kinder, more accommodating group of nurses. They put the kids at ease and by the time we sat in the waiting room for surgery, I was definitely more nervous than either Lua or Charlie. They sat there calmly playing with toys in their purple and blue hospital pajamas, waiting for someone to call their names.

Charlie's turn was first, and I was the one to walk him into the operating room with a hair cap and a long paper gown pulled over my front. Charlie's hand gripped mine as his fuzzy yellow socks shuffled down the long hallway. They brought us into the white room filled with folks in scrubs and paper face masks. I sat down in a chair and I was so grateful when they asked Charlie to sit in my lap for the sedation. The nurse spoke to him gently as she put the mask on his face, covered in the chapstick flavor he'd selected - grape. (My memory of getting my tonsils removed included sniffing some chapstick, and I thought it was that which put me to sleep. But here they put it on the mask so that the nitrous oxide doesn't smell bad).

Once the mask was in place the nurse sang "Five Little Monkeys" while Charlie drifted off to sleep. Before I knew it, Charlie's head was heavy on my chest and his eyes were closed. It wasn't until we'd laid him on the table and I was creeping out of the room that I started tearing up. I forced myself to quell the flow before I got back into the waiting room to sit with Lua.

Once Charlie's operation was done, they brought him into a waiting room and called Lua in for her turn. The procedure for sedating her was basically the same, except they had her climb up on the table herself and I held her hand while the nurse put her mask on (bubblegum flavor this time) and talked to her about My Little Ponies. Lua wasn't scared, she wasn't traumatized. She didn't look at me with panic in her eyes when the drugs started to take effect. I breathed a sigh of relief and left her operating room with my heart feeling lighter.

The kids are recovering nicely. This is the third day after their surgeries, which we were told would be the most difficult day. It's the first time they've had fevers but they are fairly mild. I am so glad my mom could stay with us and help take care of the kids (and me!) while they are getting better. It's supposed to take a couple of weeks before they are completely over the swelling from the surgeries. I can't wait for the day that Lua wakes up and can breathe out of her nose without trouble, and Charlie can hear perfectly out of his right ear that was filled with fluid before the surgery.

Thanks so much to all who said a prayer or sent a good thought to our family this week, and especially to the kind staff at Children's Hospital who helped get Lua and Charlie - and Riaz and I - through this experience with relative ease and comfort. You are all a blessing.