Emma's Hospital Adventure(s)

On Tuesday, March 2nd, Emma and I drove to Children's Hospital in Waltham for her surgery. She was scheduled at 10:30, with an arrival time of 9:15. She arrived like this-



Prior to surgery-



The plan was to remove her tonsils and adenoids and open her ears enough to see her ear drum, then determine if she needed tubes. Our surgeon spoke with me before the surgery to see if I would be ok if they put in tubes no matter what. Then, as we further explore the hearing loss issue, we will always know it is not fluid (as it is common for fluid to come and go, which can result in hearing loss). I agreed that the tubes were a good idea. They took me back in the operating room with her while they put her to sleep- and though I know she was in no pain, it was very hard to watch her go under. Her little eyes rolling around and smiling faintly... I had to work hard not to cry!
After about an hour, our surgeon came out to let me know that everything went well. Emma's tonsils and adenoids were very enlarged and showed signs of repeated infections (though Emma has only been diagnosed with Strep once!) The Doctor reported that Emma's ears were the smallest she has ever worked in and they could only fit the smallest titanium tubes in her ears. There was no fluid in the ears or sign of past fluid. So the Doctor asked me to schedule Emma's follow-up visit at the same hospital so we could check the tubes, test her hearing, and have a CAT scan all in the same day.
Emma had a really hard time coming out of the anesthesia. She cried and cried. They finally gave her more morphine to put her back to sleep a little. When she woke up she was much happier, but then the nausea set in. 4 hours in the recovery room stretched to 5 and she still could not hold anything down, so we were admitted. Nothing like an un-expected hospital stay to shake you up a little. Here's what Emma looked like once she was settled in her overnight room-

By 9pm she was holding food down. When her breakfast came at 7am, she was so hungry! But because of all the trauma in the back of her nose-she couldn't smell, which meant she couldn't taste and she was MAD! I'm not talking just a little mad-but full on kick and scream in her bed mad. I couldn't blame her, she hadn't had anything to eat for over 36 hours! Finally, by 9am, the hunger overcame her and she just ate the food anyway! We were discharged that day and here's what she looked like on the car ride home-


Emma was recovering great at home! She was eating and drinking well and I was feeling really positive about her healing. Then, Wednesday at 4:40AM, Emma woke up crying. She said she had a big hair in her throat. It took me a minute to wake up- then I realized she had something dark on her pillow. I turned on the light to find a pool of blood on her pillow and blood on her hands, neck, and face. Luckily, she's been sleeping on a crib mattress next to my bed ever since we got home and the nurses, doctor, and hospital had warned me this could happen. The 'scabs' that form after a tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy will typically slough off between 7-10 days after surgery. In a small percentage of cases, when this happens, bleeding may occur and they take it very seriously. I called the on-call doctor at Children's and took Emma to the nearest Emergency room. They then transported her by Ambulance to Children's Hospital Boston. I was holding it together until they put her in here-


and I got in my car to follow. The on-call Otolaryngologist determined that Emma would need to go back into surgery to re-cauterize the bleeding spot. Gasp! They got her into surgery within an hour and a half. She was only 'under' for about 20 minutes. When the Surgeon came out to talk, he told me we were very lucky. Once they got into her throat, there was a spot further down that was actively spurting blood across her throat. We feel blessed that it was taken care of now, instead of suffering from symptoms of internal bleeding several days later! They had already determined to keep her overnight for observation, so the rest of the day went well.

Our recovery clock was reset, so Emma cannot return to school until Wednesday, March 24th. Overall, she feels great, so now my challenge is keeping her calm so she can heal. And we'll keep praying that when these new scabs slough off, history will not repeat!! Pray for my sanity! We have 9 more days of at home togetherness!