Today both girls headed into the OR. Lila Grace had her tubes replaced and Adeline had her tear ducts reopened by stints backed by a fresh set of tubes. We knew it was going to be a long days since both the these surgeries were a repeat from a year ago. Unfortunately, this year we were slotted for 2:30 OR visits which meant the girls had to go nearly 12 hours without eating and 5 hours without drinking. Fun Fun!!
We started the day at 5:00 a.m. and woke both girls to give them Pediasure in a bottle. It seems to stick in the stomach longer than milk. Both girls took the bottles and rolled over until 7:45. They didn't complain about not having bottles in the morning (Adeline still starts her day with a bottle of Pediasure and Lila a bottle of milk to make things fair). We skipped breakfast and then started our busy morning. Adeline headed off to with me to drop Savannah at school and then to the gym. Lila stayed behind with Miss Kathy for speech therapy. Lila drank her way through the morning which kept her content. I thought is would be much more of a battle. We packed up all three girls at 11:45 and headed down to duPont.
The girls got a half an hour of playground time before going inside. Once in the pre-op waiting room we waited and waited while Lila continued to beg for drinks. The girls were entertained momentarily by some of the play structures they had but it was a long wait nonetheless.
Finally we were taken back but only to wait another hour or so in the pre-surgical holding area. One bed and a curtain for our family of five. Nap time was upon us and the girls were hungry. Adeline held it together (our non-eater and non-sleeper if need be) but Lila was clearly fed up.
We handed Adeline off to the nurses after hugs and kisses. It was enjoyable watching her separate so easily. This left us with very difficult and very tired Lila Grace. It was all I could do to keep her from screaming. The tv wasn't cutting it and all she wanted to do was run around the room naked!
Finally at 4:15 (nearly two hours late) Lila was ready to go. She screamed and kicked her way into the OR due to our choice of not using the Versed sedative. I figure the less meds the better. I guess she was quite a bear as the post-op nurse had already heard about her feisty nature.
Immediately after handing Lila off we were headed to post-op to watch Adeline regain consciousness. She was out! Soon little sister was wheeled in next to her and all was quiet for about five minutes. During the removal of Lila's IV, Lila shot up to a sitting position and started screaming. Talk about an abrupt "coming to." She laid in my arms and screamed for thirty minutes in between bites of a Popsicle and drinks of juice. Savannah was trying everything she could to sooth her. She asked the nurses for kitty and Ernie stickers. She brought her the IPod that had Elmo shows. Nothing worked. It was clear she was ready for discharge so we went to see the train display and she was magically better - running around and singing. Who knew that was all she needed?
Adeline took longer than expected to come off the O's. She was dipping below a 90% saturation which kept us there until 6:00 p.m. She was pretty lifeless and when we were discharged but had finally taken a bottle and brought her sats up to 96%.
Both girls came home and devoured some Cheerios. All three girls were down by 7:45 pm which is record timing in this house. It was a long day but a necessary one. I am glad we got both girls knocked out at once. I would hate to go back for a repeat.
The end of the day
