Have you ever had one of those events coming up where you
wanted it to both never get here and for it to get here and just get
over with? Sure confuses the brain!
Pharyngeal Flap surgery is happening tomorrow. I can’t believe it’s here already. I also can’t believe it’s been 6 weeks since
Gabriel had his tonsils and adenoids removed.
What a horrible experience!!!!!!
Take it from me – just because a surgery is deemed
‘outpatient’, it is by no means easy.
This was one of the worst experiences ever!!!!
Gabriel and I have spent a lot of time in recovery
rooms. For every surgery, he’s been
required to spend a minimum of 1 hour in recovery before being moved to his
room for the night. So, when I add it
up, I think he and I have sat in recovery rooms for approximately 8-10 hours
total. The recovery room at the ENT
Surgery Center was full of children who kept vomiting (including Gabriel) and
other children having stuff sucked out of them over and over again. It was dreadful and recovery at home was no
better. Gabriel was in an unusual amount
of pain, kept running fevers, and was incredibly cranky! His doctors keep saying it was good practice
for the pharyngeal flap surgery because recovery will feel exactly the
same. I’m not sure how they know that.
At any rate, it is now 6 weeks later and we are on the eve
of surgery #9. Wow – that’s just hard to
believe.
I have done all the usual preparations – pantry swap,
packing of clothes, prescription pick-up, and finally worry myself into
sleepless exhaustion.
Since we decided to move forward with this surgery, all of
my quiet moments have been filled with an endless supply of ‘what if’ and ‘should
we really’ questions. I wake up in the
middle of the night thinking things I would never admit out loud for fear that
verbalizing my fears would give them the power to come true.
To remind myself of why we are doing this, I had Gabriel make
a little movie so we could capture his speech before and after this surgery. We don’t expect miracles – I’ve said this
before – but we do expect change. Take a
look and see why this surgery is so important to us. Forgive the darkness – I didn’t want to make
him redo everything when I realized how little light there was.
I have many other things to update all of you on – but it
will have to wait. Surgery is at 8:30
tomorrow morning and we need to arrive by 6:30.
That means I have only a couple more hours to get some serious snuggles in
with my favorite 3-year old!
If you don’t mind, please try to include our Gabriel in your thoughts and prayers tonight. It’s going to be a very long day tomorrow and a very stressful time following the surgery while we wait to see if any of the possible dreaded complications become reality. Only time will tell. Until then…
