Tonsillectomy

Collins had his tonsils taken out last Friday, 4/25/14. I am glad to be on the blogging end of this ordeal! He did great. Dr. Loftin said they were large and that they needed to come out. He also trimmed his uvula because it was "long and floppy," and said if it wasn't causing him to snore now it would eventually. Dr. Loftin also replaced the tube in his left ear.

We had to be at the Surgical Center at 6:45am. Collins was very brave. And was prepared for an unexpected game of baseball, just in case :)

Poppa and Grammy stayed with us over the weekend. Poppa came with us and Grammy kept Hadley. The nurse in the background of the picture below is Mrs. Kristie. She is Mrs. Cally's (from church) niece! She was so sweet.

Collins loved the warm blankets they had for him before surgery. This is him asking for the third one: 

The picture below is right after surgery/recovery. When he got tubes the first time this was the same room we were in, and this was the worst part. This time was much better! He looked at Jake, then went right to sleep. When he woke up a nurse offered him an apple juice slushy. That didn't go over so well. We tried room temperature apple juice and he drank a whole cup of it!

Once we got home the biggest challenge...by far...has been getting him to drink his medicine. We gave it every three hours the first two days, even waking him during the night to take it. It tastes awful. And hurts to swallow. Have you ever tried to convince a three year old to wake up during the night (three times) to drink a nasty, painful dose of medicine? I wouldn't recommend it. We tried flavoring it. Sweet tea and sugar worked for a while. Then cutting the straw helped a lot. There were some necessary threats made (none carried out, of course) and he was given a quarter several times for drinking his medicine. Whew. Stressful!

According to the doctor, today should have been the hardest day. It was actually the best so far! I'm hoping we're on the downhill side of this. We're planning to let him sleep through the night tonight instead of waking him to take medicine or drink. I hope that is a good plan and it doesn't make his throat too dried out/sore.

We prepared for this surgery by stocking up on the following foods: chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, mac n' cheese, shells n' cheese, oatmeal, eggs, jello, sherbet, ice cream, applesauce, Gatorade, etc. Know what he's wanted most? Doughnuts. He requested Krispy Kreme because he saw some at the Surgical Center. I thought it might hurt him, but he ate at least a half dozen the same day as his surgery. We have gone back for another dozen. I'm thinking Krispy Kreme could use this in some marketing efforts. Well, if only Krispy Kreme needed marketing.

Jake, MawMaw and I are going to take turns keeping Collins at home this upcoming week. Hadley will go to preschool so he can have our one-on-one attention. We'll probably keep him home the next week too since he will still need to take it pretty easy, and can't do so at preschool if the weather is pretty. We don't have a plan for that week just yet, but something will work out. I'm sure he will be so ready to go back to school and play!

We are very grateful for all our friends and family who have prayed for and checked on our baby boy!!