Tonsillectomy-the next generation

Jacob went in for his tonsillectomy last Friday.

My biggest fear has been that he'd hurt the way I did. I just kept banking on the fact that everyone says it's easier for kids than adults.

Despite an early start, and the fact that he was begging me to stop when we drove past Krispy Kreme on the way to the surgical center (he had to skip breakfast), the morning went quite well. We waited entirely too long for a child that age, but hey, I guess it could have been longer. You take what you can get.

The good news: Jacob makes a much cuter tonsillectomy patient than I do.

(I'm sorry to dredge up those visual reminders that you had hopefully purged from your brain)

See?

Here he is happy watching Toy Story while waiting for the fun to begin.

I am jealous. I just got to listen to the weirdos around me.

(there weren't many people there so early in the morning this time. No fun conversations to eavesdrop on. Except the lady right next to us who sounded relieved when her pregnancy test came back negative and started talking about how her husband was trying to convince her to "try" the night before. Umm, thanks for sharing. Those curtain walls are thin lady!)

Anyway, the procedure went exceptionally well from everything his surgeon said.

Waking up from anesthesia....well.....that was a different story.

Apparently Jacob and general anesthesia don't mix. At least not pleasantly.

They got me back to recovery just as he was starting to wake up.

And just in time for the thrashing and screaming and crying to begin. And with his asthma-type issues, just after intubation with screaming and crying, the coughing kicked in. Hard. Which hurt and then scared him.....it took me along with a nurse and a good five minutes to get him settled down.

It was a very long five minutes.

Also, it made me glad he was a small child. If he ever needs a procedure with a general when he's older (read: bigger), I'll be nervous!

The norm is about 45 minutes of observation after surgery and the five minutes of instructions before you head home.

With the struggle to get him functioning after waking up, it took a little longer. Shortly after we hit an hour post surgery, and as we were preparing to go, he started doing some major puking.

Not good!

Back to the beginning of the prescribed post-op time, a few minutes from leaving.....and he started puking.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Finally, over three hours after surgery, we got the thumbs up to head home. Thankfully he was responsive and a bit more functional as each minute passed, so he was doing pretty good by the time we left.

I should stop here to tell you that he was still begging for Krispy Kreme. From the minute he was the least bit coherent after waking, he was asking for KK. Literally seconds after puking, he was asking for KK. As the nurse was wheeling him out to the car all he talked about was, that's right, donuts from Krispy Kreme.

Loaded in the car with a bucket on his lap (thank goodness. he needed it multiple times on the drive home), the conversation was the same.

Appetizing, isn't it?

Staying true to my word, I stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way home, assuming he wouldn't be able to eat anything for a couple of days and that they'd just be a treat for the rest of the kids.

He stayed sick the rest of the night, until about 9 o'clock. Poor kid.

But-shocker!-the thing he was still asking for was a donut. Sure, why not? It's Krispy Kreme donuts. They practically melt in your mouth anyway.

And guess what? After he ate that donut, he quit getting sick. Who knew?

Krispy Kremes really do fix everything.

He's doing all right now a few days later. He wakes up in a lot of pain every morning, and it just kills me to hear him crying about how much it hurts because I remember all too well just what it feels like.

Hopefully he'll stay on the upswing and not have the crash that I had. I would really hate to see him have to deal with that. We'll see!