Surgery

Monday we went to see the ENT to discuss tubes. The ENT is fabulous and agreed that she did need them and scheduled the surgery for Wednesday. We headed from the doctor's office to the main hospital to pre-register. We went right up to Same Day Surgery (which is now on the fourth floor) and met lots of familiar faces. My mom worked on Same Day for years and there is a beautiful portrait of her hanging right over the nurse's station. It was great to see my mom's friends and they loved all over Hannah while I got her registered.

This morning, we had to be at the hospital at 6:00am which meant I had to get up at 4:30! A good 6 hours before we normally do! We made it there on time and Hannah only fussed because she wanted her cup and couldn't have anything to eat or drink until after surgery. We went up to Same Day and Rita took us straight back to a room. Hannah changed into a precious little hospital gown (which I have seen many times when working on pedi, but it was so cute on her!) got her ID and allergy bracelets and we were sent downstairs to the holding area. Once downstairs Hannah was visited by several old friends of my moms who are CRNA's. I also worked with them while working at the surgery center right when I moved back to Midland. Dr. Dyer, our old neighbor and friend came over and did Hannah's anesthesia pre-op and paid special attention to her pre, during, and post surgery. Dr. Patel came by and said hello and the nurse came by, Hannah held out her arms and went with her! She even laughed at us waving bye bye to her! They said she cried for just a minute before they gave her the gas to put her asleep. Stuart and I went to the waiting room for about 10 minutes and Dr. Patel came in to tell us that she was done and did great! He said that really needed the tubes and would be a totally different child now that she has them. I have such a hard time imagining this because how much better can she be? He took us back to the holding area where Hannah was asleep on the bed. They had warned us that she may wake up screaming but she didn't. She woke up a tiny groggy but once we handed her her sippy cup, she was fine. They took us back upstairs to Same Day where Allison gave Hannah a cup of milk and she ate some puffs and crackers. We waited there for 30 minutes, got dressed and were all home before 9:00. Stuart took off the afternoon to keep her and she did great. You would have never known that she had had surgery! Even tonight, as I gave her her ear drops, she is acting great! This was such a wonderful experience and we are looking forward to life with tubes!