I think up until yesterday afternoon I was in denial that we were actually going to go through with the surgery. Nicole was on the tail end of her cold. She Still had a little runny nose and a bit of a cough. I thought that they would cancel the surgery. Boy! Was I wrong! At 3:30 p.m. when I found out the surgery was still going to happen, everything turned into a tornado and I sat in the middle wondering what in the world was going on.
Let the craziness begin........
I left the doctor's office and returned to Traci's to help get Hannah ready to go to JC Penney to have her picture taken in her baptism dress. Thank goodness Traci was willing to start Hannah's hair!
Earlier in the day I had two phone calls from Logan Regional Hospital (LRH) needing information to get Nicole registered for surgery and to get information for the anesthesia. I put these phone calls on hold until I knew for sure the surgery was going to happen.
At Traci's, I called LRH to find out what time we had to have Nicole there in the morning. They asked if I had talked to the nurse for anesthesia. I told them not yet. That was my next phone call. They left a message to have her call me because she was with a patient.
I went in to assist in getting Hannah dressed and ready so we could be to pictures at 4:40. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I needed to figure out what I'm going to do with Hannah and Ashley. They need to be taken care of while we're at the hospital dealing with Nicole. I did not leave Mendon prepared for the girls to sleep over at Grandma's so we're going to have to punt. I also didn't want to wake them up at 6 a.m. and bring them to Grandma.
I left Traci's with Dave keeping the two youngest and asking him to contact the registration department to get Nicole registered for the next morning. It worked out great that he had to come to Traci's to fix something. I drove off with Hannah at 4:38 for pictures and told him we'd meet up at my mom's.
After pictures and dinner in town, Hannah and Ashley were left behind with Grandma and we went home with Nicole. Luckily, Ashley went to Traci's yesterday morning in her pajamas. Hannah, well she ended up wearing a house coat of my mom's to bed. I was very thankful that Hannah and Ashley had great attitudes about staying with grandma and being willing to "go with the flow."
Before putting Nicole to bed, Dave gave her a blessing, which was quite a workout. She DID NOT want to stay on the stool and she DID NOT want Dave's hands touching her. Good times!
My alarm went off at 5 a.m. this morning. That's just WAY too early in the morning. Dave and I got ourselves ready and got Nicole out of her bed at the last minutes and took her straight to the van. After dropping school clothes off on my mom's doorstep for Hannah and Ashley (again......I was totally unprepared), we arrived at the Surgical Center at 6:30 a.m.
At the Surgical Center, we got all of the paperwork signed, Nicole's weight taken, her pulse and oxygen level checked, her temperature checked, and we were back in a room ready to put her in the gown, hat and socks. At first, she did not want anything to do with the gown. After she realized there were kitties on the gown she was all over putting it on. The socks were OK and she did great with leaving the hat on.
We had some down time while were waiting for her doctor and the anesthesiologist so we started taking pictures of Nicole (she took a few of herself too) and then she drew pictures. When people started entering the room, she knew something was up so she hunkered down in Dave's arms.
The doctor tried to get it set up so we could watch the surgery on TV. It did not end up being an option so he recorded it for us and gave us a DVD of the surgery. We haven't watched it yet but we intend to. Should be interesting!
The doctor came in a little before 8 a.m. and said she was all done and the surgery went well. He informed us that there was a lot of puss/infection build up behind her ears. The surgery was something that definitely needed to be done. Kids with that much fluid behind the ears are usually down to about 50% of hearing. Poor girl! We have to make sure we are aggressive with the antibiotic ear drops so all of the infection drains out.
The OR nurse stopped by also to tell us that Nicole was so cute! She said when she got to the OR and found out that everyone had a hat on like she did she was all smiles. As they went to put the mask on her with the gas to make her fall to sleep, she asked for her mom (made me feel good). The nurse told her I'd be there in a minute and she said OK and then was to sleep.
I was chatting with Hannah on the phone at 8:05 and they brought Nicole to us. She was NOT a happy camper! They explained to us that for the kids it's like they are trying to wake up from a nightmare and they can't. She was inconsolable and cried for quite awhile while lying in Dave's arms. They had the pulse meter on her big toe and she was not happy about that. She was trying all she could with her other foot to push it off.
Finally, Nicole fell to sleep in Dave's arms and the two of them caught a nap for about 20 minutes. The next thing we knew Nicole woke up and was totally fine. She had 1 1/2 cups of apple juice. Walked to the nurse's station for a Cinderella sticker and said she wanted to go home. We were discharged around 9:30 a.m.
I'm glad it's over. Maybe it was better that I was in denial up until the moment because then it all became crazy and I didn't have much time to worry. Again, I am EXTREMELY thankful that I took her in to be checked. With her giving us no signs of anything being wrong I have no idea how we would have ever found out. She must have either gotten use to the muffled sounds or she has a really high tolerance to pain. Either way I am glad she is on the mend now!
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