Addison’s Second Surgery

Emerson woke up early and got herself dressed today, and styled herself with this little pink bandana. I asked her what that was about, and she was like, “I just like it!” So yeah ok, go for it girl! (And yes, she wore it all day at camp.)

After I took Emmie to camp, we had some time back at home just resting with Addison, trying to keep her from eating anything, since she had to fast before her surgery. But eventually, it was time to report to Red Hills Surgical Center at 10:30 am, to get tubes re-placed in her ears (for the second time), and to get her adenoids removed. Poor girl has just had recurring ear infections basically her whole life, and although we were hoping she would outgrow the infections and not need them again, but unfortunately that just didn’t pan out that way. And with the second set of ear tubes, the ENT doctor also wanted remove the adenoids, so she had that done today too.

She was in really good, silly spirits when we first got there, and changed into her special little gown. But then, we were told the doctor was running late, as the surgery she was doing at the hospital was running longer than expected.

Addison actually brought this same puppy with her for her first surgery back in 2022. We had taken Emerson to Disney the weekend before this back then, and Lady was brand new, as Emmie picked her out for her baby sisters souvenir. She still loves her, two years later!

So I think they ended up taking her back into surgery about an hour later than planned. And during that waiting time, she got grumpier and hungrier and more and more tired, and poor girl was fading.

Once they took her back, we only had to sit in the waiting room for about 20 minutes before the doctor came to get us for the post-op consultation. She told us that yes both ears were badly infected (which we already knew), but that one of them had actually perforated and was draining. (Just this morning, Addie told us, “this ear has ear boogers,” so apparently she could feel it in there.) And she confirmed that obviously we were in the right place and that she still needed the tubes, which we clearly agreed with.

She was super upset and disoriented coming out of surgery, and coming out of the anesthesia. It took us a long time to get her calmed down, but we turned off the light, and put on one of her sleepy night time videos for the music, and we took turns holding her and loving her and after about 20 minutes we got her calmed down. She only had to be able to take one sip of water before they would discharge us, so luckily that wasn’t too difficult.

We got our discharge orders, and got some ear drops we have to do twice a day for the next 4-7 days, and got her loaded up in the car. She fell back asleep really easily in the car, with blankets covering the windows to block the sun.

Since Addie couldn’t eat or drink this morning, we fasted in solidarity with her. And so by the time we finally left the surgical center a little before 2pm, we were more than ready for some food. So we went through the Chick-fil-A drive thru and got lunch for all of us. Addie was still upset and crying when we woke her up again at home, but she did eventually perk up and want to eat, and she ate really well. (They forgot my avocado lime salad dressing though {plus forks & straws}, and that was annoying, so I just saved the salad for later when I can get some of their dressing.)

It took a little bit of fighting, but Jeff eventually got Addie down for a late afternoon nap, sometime around 3:30 or so. He fell asleep with her, and I fell asleep in the living room recliner. Luckily, Grammy was already planning to pick up Emerson for us, so she got her, and they got milkshakes for the girls, before heading home to us.

We had just a little bit of time to just hang out together, and then I made a quick simple dinner. I actually hadn’t been planning to cut up the small watermelon I got the other day, but Addison saw it on the counter and asked for it, so obviously I just wanted my poor pitiful girl to have whatever she wanted. Tried these curry empanada’s for the first time, and they were really good. Definitely would eat this again.

We had a slightly rough night, since Addie was still not feeling great. But we worked through all of the drama and the trauma (from ear drops & motrin) and finally got both girls to sleep. Addie is actually still laying here on the couch next to Jeff, but we’ll try to move her to her bed soon.

Praying she gets really great rest tonight, and that she’s comfortable and pain-free throughout the night. And praying that we get some rest too, after a long, emotionally draining day for us too!