Post-op Recap

Charlotte had her surgery yesterday morning and everything went well, however, as was expected she was a bit of a mess afterwards. But who isn't after waking up from anaethesia? Especially if you're too young to know what the heck is going on!

She stayed in the hospital last night, and, thankfully, came home this morning. We had to share a room with another family and it was difficult to get her to sleep with all the constant chatter, lights going on and off, and all the alarms beeping. Not that any of it was anyone's fault, but it's still annoying.

She was getting IV fluids at the hospital and they left the IV in so the home nurse can come by and give her fluids if necessary. I can tell you right now it's going to be necessary. There's no reasoning with her about swallowing her juice, soup or ice cream. We managed to get a bit of broth and juice in her today, but not enough to keep her hydrated. On top of the usual, excrutiating sore throat that comes with a tonsilectomy, there's also the issue of Char's low muscle tone, which is restricting her swallowing as well. You know how when you get a bad sore throat your swallowing is much more labored and you kind of have to think about doing it? Well it's that much harder for Char since she has to think about swallowing on a normal day. But as today trudged along we started to notice that she was swallowing a little easier. Probably a combination of time, drugs, and limited energy for resistance.

Having the IV left in her arm is also posing another issue for Char. She can't crawl. She's totally immobile until they take it out on Sunday. That was tolerable today since she still didn't have any desire to do anything except watch Elmo and Patti LaBelle (they sing the ABCs together on Sesame Street - another reason why I question if she's mine, she likes gospel music. It's always funny to see people's facial expressions when she asks to watch Patti LaBelle, "Did she just say Patti LaBelle?" "Yep"). But the next couple of days might be a challenge. The IV is on her left hand and it's all wrapped up on this board thing. It might as well be a cast. Maybe I need to make it into some kind of stump-like thing that she can use kind of like a wooden leg ..... hmmmm ..... I'm thinking paper towel roll, plastic tubing, duct tape .... maybe I need to think about this a little more. Although it would be fun to see the nurse's expression when she walks in and sees that. You don't think she'd call DCFS, do you?