Tonsils and Adenoids

The time had come for both of the boys to have surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids. Aaron had a horrible double ear infection in march that happen to cause both tubes in his ears to fall out. After another ear infection a couple weeks later the pediatrician recommended we go back to the ENT. While at the ENT he mentioned that it would be a good idea to have Aaron's tonsils removed. He asked if he had trouble sleeping at night, difficulty breathing, snoring, etc. I have always considered myself unlucky when it came to my children sleeping. Both boys have had horrible night terrors and snor like a trucker. Aaron wakes up usually 2-3 times a night. Tonsils are rated in stages one -four. One being normal size, four being so big they are touching. It was no surprise that both boys were a three and Aaron nearly a four. We had been thinking about have Ian's tonsils removed for a while due to the fact that he gets strep throat and tonsilitis constantly. So with our summer schedule filling up and not wanted to have the boys missed the last few weeks of school we decided the week after Easter would be the best. Tim had 8 days off and hopefully that would be enough time for them to recover. If only they would have given us a two for one pricing!

So to prepare the boys for their surgery I pulled out the old Huggy Bear Video that Logan Regional Hospital used to us when teaching children about having their tonsils and adenoids removed. The boys could not believe that I was the little girl in the video and that Grandma was in it too. I also completely forgot until my mom reminded me that I taught the class at the hospital for a few years (again no idea how I forgot about that). After watching the video the boys were so excited to have their tonsils removed -they could not wait to have ice cream and popsicles all day and night.

The morning of the surgery the boys were filling great! The hospital completely spoiled them with stickers, new pillow, beautiful quilt, and teddy bear for each of them.

The boys did great in surgery. Aaron headed back first and enjoyed racing the doctor down the hallway in the rolling bed. Then it was Ian's turn -apparently he took out a nurse he was rolling so fast ;) The staff was amazing. The boys of course had to bring their favorite stuffed animals with them which meant they each had about 4 stuffed animals. The doctors let them bring back all of their patients and made sure they were well taken care of too.

 Sorry gross...top is Aaron's tonsils and the bottom are Ian's. They are definitely big -considered that is the doctors fingers and Aaron's are a even a little bigger than Ian's being a couple years younger. As you can see Ian has one that is much bigger than the other -this one had a lot of stones from reoccurring infection.  The boys were in surgery at 8:30 and 9:00 and we were home with the boys laying in bed by 11:00 am! 

We moved Aaron's bed into the family room so the boys had a comfortable place to lay down and rest. Ava thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately by day 2 she figured out how to climb up the bed, which led to her climbing up the couch, and us quickly grabbing her before she climbed over the back of the couch.  

The next 3-5 days were spent making sure the boys received their medicine every 3 hours morning and night. The boys each slept in our room for the next couple of weeks. We pulled out the camping cots and one boys slept on each side of us. Occasionally we would all sleep a little longer then we should have at night -which meant the boys would wake up and were due for medicine a hour ago. Oh the nightmare! It would take us hours to get them to take the medicine. The refused to take it because it hurt to swallow but wanted the medicine because they were hurting. It was a constant battle. After about 5 days Aaron decided he absolutely hated medicine but he really still needed it or we couldn't get him to eat. We would give him medicine and he would throw it up. Then it was guessing if he actually got any or not. Finally we ended up with a system. He would count to three and we would squirt a little medicine in his mouth then he took two drinks of ice cold water. Yes, it had to have a lot of ice! Each dose of medicine took a half hour to get down if we were lucky but usually about an hour. As long as we kept the boys caught up on their medicine they were great! 

We had so many wonderful friends and neighbors stop by to visit the boys and bring ice cream, popsicles, snow cones, even ice cream in the form of a cupcake. They loved it! Aaron wanted to eat Smokin Apple mac n cheese all the time. Ian loved baby oatmeal with brown sugar. I would usually always make oatmeal for the boys in the morning. One morning Tim made them oatmeal and they refused to let me make it again. Then I watched as Tim dumped a Tablespoon or more of brown sugar in their tiny bowl of oatmeal...problem solved! They also loved toast. I realize that sounds insane since it is toast...crunchy hard toast. But when you slather it in butter with a little cinnamon and sugar they were in heaven. We also made a few batches of banana muffins that the boys inhaled. 

After 10 days of constantly alternating Ibuprofen and Tylenol, waking up to popsicles melting everywhere,

being awake for hours upon hours during the night and not realizing that by the time you roll out of bed it was nearly noon.

These boys are finally feeling great and back to normal! We are eating normal foods...hello meat! The boys are sleeping so so much better. We have seen the most significant difference with Ian. He is like a whole new child. Ian wakes up feeling refreshed, is sleeping normal hours 8:30 - 8:00, and not so over emotional during the day. Aaron is waking up occasionally at night but usually only once and he has not been having night terrors. Those of you that have had children who have night terrors understand what a wonderful blessing it is to not have to deal with those! We are both hoping that things continue to get better :) Love Aaron's scary spider picture (his drawings are really beginning to make sense).