Ivy got her tonsils and adenoids taken out.
I always knew she had big tonsils. Our doctor looked at them at her 3 year old check up and said as long as she is sleeping well and not getting too sick that her tonsils should be fine for now.
Well fast forward a few months, I took Ivy to the dentist for a cleaning and the dentist told me she had 11 cavities. The whole dentist experience that day was out of control.
Let me back up....
I had made the appointment for Ivy and Gwen for their teeth cleaning 6 months prior when we left their last appointment. The appointment slowly crept up on us. We had moved the week before and life had been so busy. I decided to keep the appointment anyway. I did not really prepare the girls for the dentist. We basically just woke up one day and I took them in for their appointment. Gwen had just been getting over a little stomach bug and I thought she was well enough to go. We waited for them to call us back. Once it was our turn they wanted Ivy to get x-rays right away, something we had never done before. Ivy was freaking out and I was trying to hold her down on the table while holding Gwen too. Then Gwen went #2 and since her stomach bug she had been going diarrhea. It was so stinky and it was like coming out of her diaper and through her leggings. All while Ivy is losing her mind about x-rays. Finally the girls calmed down and got their teeth brushed by the dentist. The x-rays never happened for Ivy and Gwen cried the whole time the dentist was in the room with us. I thought the whole experience was through, finally. And then they proceed to tell me Ivy has 11 cavities. I didn't even know that was possible. Doesn't she only have like15 teeth? She was cavity free only 6 months ago. I had not prepared myself for this. I was just trying to make it through the appointment.
We headed home and I cried and felt like a bad mom for not taking care of my child's teeth.
I decided to get a second opinion on Ivy's teeth. I took her to a new pediatric dentist and they said she had 8 cavities. So a little better, but still crazy. The dentist was very concerned about doing any dental work on her because of the size of her tonsils. Its dangerous to sedate children with enlarged tonsils, something the other dentist did not bring to my attention. So he referred me to an ear nose throat doctor. The dentist said we should wait on any dental work until we see what the ENT has to say. Of course the ENT said we should take the tonsils out. I didn't expect anything different. They are surgeons and want to do surgery. But I wanted to hear him out. Since Ivy had kissing tonsils, where they touch one another she snores and is at a higher risk of infection.
After talking with Ty, our pediatrician, and Tyson we thought we should go forward and get the tonsils removed.
Sorry, that was a lot of information and very long.
Ivy and I went in to the surgical center early in the morning for the procedure. They made her put a gown on and then the surgeon came and talked to us. The anesthesiologist came to talk to me about everything and then his helper guy picked her up and they took her away. It was kinda intense. She was screaming and they walked away and then the nurse lead me to my own little conference room to wait.
I was reading over paperwork they gave me about the recovery process and I didn't even et through it before the doctor was back to tell me everything went great. It was about 20 minutes. He told me she did great and that both her tonsils and adenoids were very large. He warned me that her voice may be different too now that there is more space. Soon after that the nurse came to get me since Ivy was waking up.
A nurse was holding her and her eyes were really wide and big. Once she saw me so calmed right down and was totally fine. She drank some juice and took a little cat nap and even giggled a little once she woke up.
I think I prepared for the worst with recovery. Ivy was a rock star! Such a strong little girl. Later that same day as the surgery we went to the park. We swam a few days after that and she always had an appetite. We tried to only eat soft foods. And had lots of popsicles. Gwen really benefited!
Day 6-8 were the hardest. It still was not bad. We just really had to stay on top of the mediation. She would eat something and say it hurt her tongue. She would eat some ice chips and then settle back down. All and all Ivy did such a great job. We have always struggled with taking medicine. In the past she would spit it out or refuse to take it. And we never had that problem this time around. She would take it without a big fight, most of the time.
We are so proud of our big girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment