Goodbye Tonsils

Zander has been sick quite a bit in his life. As a baby, he had an ear infection about every other month. It got a little bit better as he got older, but not much.
And he snored. A LOT - LOUDLY. When we were were in Washington DC last year, he fell asleep during the video portion of our tour of the capital building. He snored SO loud that all the school kids in there were laughing hiserically. When the lights came up and they saw it was a little kid making all that noise.... sheesh...
Anyway, he had a problem.
In June of this year, he got strep throat. When I took him to get checked, the doctor told me that his tonsils where HUGE and I should really have them looked at by a specialist. This wasn't the first time I had heard that, so I decided that it was time to get something done.

So, I made an appointment with an ENT. He took one look at Zander's throat and said, "That's not normal. Those should come out."
This is what his tonsils looked like:


So. It was time to take them out. I wanted to have it done BEFORE school started so that he wouldn't miss any school. The first day that they could get him in was August 9. ONE week before school started. Talk about cutting it close!

Naturally, he was a little nervous about the whole thing. So we tried our best to get him ready for it so that he would know what to expect and not be scared.
We got this book from the library. I would HIGHLY reccommend it to anyone who has a kid getting thier tonsils taken out.

It is written from a little girl's perspective. She describes everything that happened to her, from the beginning to the end. We read the book over and over. I think it helped all of us.

A couple of days before the surgery, we had a little "Goodbye Tonsils" party - just like they did in the book. I made a cake and decorated it with carmel topping. It didn't look very pretty, but it was pretty yummy.



On the BIG day, we had to get up pretty early. We were supposed to be there at 6:30 am. I had a friend who volunteered to watch the girls for me, so Brandon and I were both able to go. (Thank you Jennifer!) Brandon's dad came and joined us in the waiting room.


It was almost 8:00 before they called us back. Zander got to sit in a big chair and put on a nightgown with clowns on it. (In the book the girl wore one with elephants, but Zander was happy with the clowns.)


The doctor and the anestegiologist both came and talked with us. Then it was time for him to go. A nurse came and walked him back to the surgery room. We were able to give him a kiss and a hug, and then he was gone.
It was a little hard to sit and wait while they were operating on my little boy. But, it was over before I knew it.
The doctor came out and talked to us. He said that everything went perfectly and that he was doing just fine. Then, we got to go see him.
He was sleeping, and I started crying a little at the sight of him lying there with an IV running out of his arm. But soon, he woke up. The nurse kept telling me how cute he was.
It wasn't long before he was eating a popsicle.



Then we took him home.

We had a rough few days, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be. The worst time is right after he wakes up, when his medicine has worn off and his throat is dry. But, as long as we keep his throat wet and cold, he's been doing really well. We went to visit Gran and Papa yesterday - and he got to play with his cousins. He was VERY tired by the time we went home, but I think he did pretty well.
I think he'll be ready for school on Tuesday, but I'll probably be worried about him all day.