Tonsils

For the last couple of months, Brecklynn has had several cases of strep. After her last bout of it, we scheduled to go ahead and get her tonsils out. She had lost 5 pounds since beginning of January so she really needed to get it taken care of so she'd start eating again. So we scheduled her surgery for Monday of Spring Break. My mom was amazing and took Cambree, Ridge and Brielle for several days so I could focus strictly on Brecklynn. I had heard from countless people that this surgery was a very tough recovery so I was extremely nervous on the recovery days after.

Like any mom, I was pretty sick to my stomach about the surgery. I know its a simple procedure but I kept having those thoughts of 'what if' pop into my head. 

We didn't tell her what was going on. She wasn't allowed to have anything to eat after 9 Sunday night as her surgery was scheduled for 8 Monday morning. We kept her up late and tried our best to get her to eat to 'stock' up. I took her to the hospital and told her hte Dr. wanted to look at her throat and make her better. You could tell she didn't understand but she was ok with it. As the surgery neared and more nurses started coming in, you could tell she was getting anxious and scared. I was so grateful to have my Mother in law and brother in law Aaron there. Aaron actually helped Brecklynn during surgery and I truly feel he helped her not be as scared. Curtis gave her a blessing of comfort for her and me right before and it was a very tender moment for me. 

It was great to have my mother in law there to keep my mind busy. Her surgery was quick but her recovery was a bit longer. The nurses kept telling me that they'd hope she would sleep a couple hours but more than likely would wake up pretty soon. She shocked them all by sleeping for a couple hours. Her wake up was easy and she did amazing! I hated seeing her like that and really wanted her to wake up so I could hold her but knew it was better for her to lay and sleep. Finally after 4 hours of observation, we were released from the hospital and she was on a strict clear liquid diet. No dairy, only jello, slushies etc but not straws. The first day she basically slept away. But for a week after, she struggled. She wouldn't eat. No matter what we'd offer her, she would say yes and then freak out almost immediately and say she didn't want it. It was a difficult couple of days. She was in a lot of pain more in her ears than anything else. Nights were like having a newborn again. She would get up every hour crying and screaming. I'm guessing it was her throat drying out and getting sore. It was very hard. She would struggle to swallow and drool a lot. 

After the first couple of days, the next struggle was getting her to eat anything, and also her overrall smell. We had heard she would stink, but omg it was so so so hard to hold her. THat's all she wanted for over a week, was you to hold her and rock her and it made it so hard with how she smelled. We would give her several baths, brush her teeth etc but there was nothing you could do. She knew it too. People would comment on it and even her cousin Darrek did and she turned to him and told him to plug his nose :) 

Her ears still hurt almost 2 weeks after and we hear 20 days is a typical recovery period. She is finally starting to eat again which is so good to see. She's lost a lot of weight and looked so sickly from over a  a week and a half of not eating so we are excited to see her normal again. I am so grateful to my mom and dad for all their help with the kids and my mother in law for all the help she offered during this really hard time. 

 This is her even on a short 1 or 2 minute drives. She has no energy at all.