Abby started out with the sniffles this week. Aidan and I got it. Whenever Aidan gets a cold it's just a nonstop faucet running down his throat pitching him in to these coughing fits. His dr often tells us to be proactive and do a neb treatment before it gets worse. Wednesday night was awful. He was already getting the vaporizer in his room, plus I spray saline up his nose, I rubbed some vicks on his chest, his mattress is elevated, and he coughed for a good 4 hours straight. So much that I got physically sick. A mama's reaction I guess. The tail end of the cough sounded like croup but the way he couldn't stop to catch his breath was like whooping cough but didn't sound like whooping cough. I was ready to take him to the ER. Rick said he just needed to sleep. We did a neb treatment too. He coughed so much he threw up a few times in his bed. We took turns lying with him. Finally I just sat up with him and held him sitting up. I looked at clock and the coughing fits would get shorter and shorter. We managed to sleep off and on until 3am when he was restless and wanted to go into our room. I took him there and he told me he was going to get sick again but never did. I prayed that night for it to be a snow day on Thursday so both he and I could sleep at least until 7 and get some much needed rest. I was so happy when the flash notice texted my phone at 5:30am indicating no school. It was like having a newborn again. I decided with the unplanned day off to finish cleaning the house so that we can just 'enjoy' hunkering down with Abby during her recovery.
The snow brought stress about Abby's surgery. The news kept saying more snow and ice for Friday. I talked with the surgery center, indicating we would probably get a hotel room but didn't want to spend the money if they end up cancelling her surgery due to weather. She told me they pretty much never cancel. Hotel booked and the roads ended up being clear! Hauled the vaporizer with us. He coughed for a long while but finally settled into sleep somewhere before midnight. I tossed and turned all night and didn't sleep much again.
We had to be at the surgery center at 7am. In all of our pre-op conversations with the dr. he indicated it's a 30 min surgery but that they book the OR for an hour. From the time they took her back I kept an eye on my watch. When the time came for her to be reasonably done, nothing happened. Still nothing happened. Almost an hour in the OR and still nothing. I started to panic a little, Rick telling me everything is fine although he got up to pace. FINALLY her dr came out apologizing and saying the reason why is not only because of her small mouth and big tonsils, the tonsils were inverted like an innie belly button so he had to take extra time and go slow because of those major blood vessels. In addition, her tonsils went down farther into her throat- like a tail. The adenoids came out with pus, so he said sinus infection as well. She still had the breathing tube in so we couldn't see her. A nurse came to get me and she was moaning and flipping all over the place coming out of it. Hard to witness. I don't know what was worse- this or when she had her ear tubes she was inconsolable for 3 hours. She woke up in quite a bit of pain, they gave her a dose of pain meds and when they sent me to the pharmacy to get her prescriptions filled I came back and the nurse said she just gave her pain meds. I panic again, saying she was just given pain meds but the nurse indicated they gave her something in her IV to knock her out. We made it home and she did great eating sherbert and resting. Her Sunday School teacher at church sent her a get well cookie bouquet! They told us she would sleep most of the day but she didn't sleep a wink. I gave her a small bath to get the hospital stench off of her and I think that was too much. She asked for a barf bowl and fell asleep. Praying she doesn't get sick and praying for a recovery with no complications!
