Bye-bye tonsils!

Caroline, our sweet little middle, went through a bit of a rough time last summer and early fall. She's always had pretty large tonsils, but they seemed to be getting bigger.

In this picture they are not quite touching, but if she ever had even a touch of a cold virus, they would be even larger and be what they call "kissing tonsils."

They began to interfere with her sleeping. She always slept very fitfully...as in, this is how we found her asleep one night:

And she always slept with her mouth open, breathing and snoring heavily. Like this:

In fact, there were a couple of nights where she woke up with panic attacks because she just could not draw full breaths. After consultations with ENT's and sleep specialists, we were referred for surgery as soon as possible, which ended up being mid-September. Luke's mom came into town so both Luke and I could be with her at the hospital. She did great in pre-op. It helped that she had 4 members of our church family (pastor, two deacons, and children's minister) there to pray with her (and bring her a Veggie Tales movie to look forward to)! As soon as they had to leave, though, she kept saying, "Where did all my friends go?!?"

She was quite nervous that Mommy and Daddy couldn't go to the OR with her, but we are so thankful that Jamie (another church friend who Caroline knows well) was the CRNA who would be handling her anesthesia. We handed her off to Jamie and knew she would be well taken care of. Next thing Caroline knew was that she was back with Mommy and Daddy.



She had quite a hard time coming out of the anesthesia and even needed to be re-sedated a bit to help her calm down, but finally we were allowed to take her home. They warned us that an adenotonsillectomy can take up to 10-14 days of recovery and let's just say that Caroline needed every one of them. My favorite quotes of hers during those days were, "Mommy, I don't love surgery," and "I'm just having a wuff (rough) time." She spent her first days in the big bed.

She spent her next few days on an air mattress on the floor in our room.


Then the next few days on the couch.


Then the next few days trying to play, but giving up and falling asleep on the floor.

We kept the house well stocked with broth, jello, pudding, gatorade, ice cream, and popsicles, but she refused to eat even much of that. She said it just hurt so bad to swallow :(



She ended up losing 7 pounds (out of only 41!) and had me quite worried, but the doctor assured me she would gain it back. And she just about has by now, but it took a while!

All that to say, though, the surgery has revolutionized her sleeping! She now stays still in her bed (once she finally falls asleep, being the little night owl that she is) and is breathing through her nose and not snoring at all. We are so thankful for God providing the right medical care at just the right time for her.