Noelle had her tonsils and adenoids taken out last week. Holy smokes! What an ordeal. I was under the impression that a tonsilectomy was pretty "easy", but it wasn't for Noelle. When they brought her to me after the surgery she was crying and screaming. They handed her over and she proceeded to scream, kick, hit me, try to pull her IV out, etc for the next hour. I was in tears and was praying for help. About that time the nurse came in and said she had talked to the anesthesiologist and they were going to give her some Versed (since 4 doses of the pain med hadn't put a dent in her!). The versed worked (that is the medicine they use when someone gets a colonoscopy-it's good stuff), but only for 20 minutes. After that she was awake! Thankfully, she had calmed down and was now only sad and hurting.
Obviously I havent' been taking pictures of her during this, but the picture above says it all. I tried to get her to drink from the juice box and she squeezed it out at me. Juice everywhere! The syringe was full of the HOT PINK antibiotic I have to give her twice a day. She squirted that all over my bedroom carpet! Last but not least the pin. We use the pin to keep her jammies on her. We have to pin the zipper to the collar so she doesn't strip down and itch her skin at night. So last week she was mad at me for "pinning her up" and because she couldn't get the pin undone she just used brute force and broke the whole zipper. You can see the handle of the zipper still attached to the pin. What a girl! She is a fighter. On good days I can sort of laugh about it, but most the time I'm shaking my head and wondering what I am doing wrong.
It's only been a little over a week since the surgery, so I probably shouldn't be expecting great things yet. However, I am still discouraged by her sleep thus far, it's not improving at all. I was blessed to get a call from my uncle Jed (an MD and sleep specialist) before the surgery. He gave me hope about helping her with the sleep apnea, but it does sound like she suffers from night terrors too. He said kids grow out of night terrors around the time they hit puberty. Aahhh! I don't think I can wait that long.
I know I really don't have anything to complain about. So, take this all with a grain of salt. We are all healthy and very blessed. Heavenly Father hears and answers my prayers. I'm sure of that. I am tired and I do need to help Noelle get better before it really does damage to the whole family, but I will try to be patient until the answer presents itself.
On a more positive note, Noelle loves her cousin baby Grace! She was SO excited to see her when Lisa got to come for a short visit. Here she is helping read Grace a story. Ellie definitely loves babies.
And here she is sleeping like an angel. It's very deceptive, but I thought her hands were so cute (notice the pin).
Learning to swim (ok, we did have friends which made it a little bit fun)
Practicing the piano on a new/old piano. I am so thrilled to have this piano, but it is a chore for Libby to practice and an even bigger chore for me to argue with her while she is "practicing".
A sunflower in our garden. The garden is lots of work, but I have to admit that I enjoy it most of the time.
And of course there was the cherries. Never ending cherries. I made some fruit leather, dried some, froze some, took some to neighbors. It was a chore, but they tasted good. In the movie Return to Me, the grandfather says "I'm blessed with work". I love that line (and that movie). It's hard to admit because I would like a break every once in a while, but ultimately I too am blessed with work.
