Avery Grace

Avery Grace

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Tonsillectomy Drama!

My apologies for the length of time that has passed since our last update. My role as mom is now blended with "nurse" as I have been helping Avery around the clock as she recovers from the removal of her tonsils, adenoids and the placement of her ear tubes. I thought this would be "no big deal" and BOY was I wrong!!! We are on day 12, and she has YET to take a drink of anything on her own, and is only just now starting to willingly eat a few things. She has been on the verge of dehydration since the surgery, and I spend much of my time drawing up fluid into a syringe and shooting it into her crying mouth so she will swallow. Good times.

The nights are the worst part. I guess her throat dries up and the pain is unbearable so she wakes up screaming. Last night was only one time, but before that we are talking about every hour to hour and a half of painful whimpering or full blown hysterical crying. I also think the narcotics were starting to make her crazy. As if we don't have enough issues... now I have a drugged out 3 year old with Autism who is starving and dehydrated. Let me assure you that if I knew it was going to be this hard... we would have waited a few years until bribery or reasoning was more effective with her. Lesson learned.

But, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? Let's hope so, because at the moment I feel pretty worn down.

1 comment:

jenn barbee said...

Jenny, it's apples & oranges overall w/ our daily challenges, but I can relate to the pain/dehydration factor w/ this surgery. Hannah had hers out last December & boy was I surprised how hard it was to get my eat/drink anything girl to swallow ANYTHING for about 10 days. Lots of crying, didn't get to the syringe point. Hang in there, you're doing a great job.-jenn