Natalie's surgery 5.23.13

After a few years of on and off hearing issues, Natalie was scheduled for surgery for tubes (to fix that problem) and the removal of adenoids and tonsils (b/c they were bigger than they were supposed to be).

She recovered quickly - and probably could have gone back to school sooner for energy/feeling well, but we had to make sure she was ok without heavy pain meds.

Upsides:

• She can hear better.
• She doesn't snore anymore.
• She got a singing barbie and a new stuffed animal and full-service for 1 week.
• She was allowed ice cream more often than usual for 1 week.
• She missed a week of school.
• Hopefully, we can avoid constant sickness next winter!

Downsides:

• Nothing sweet tasted right for a week.
• Her throat and ears hurt a lot afterwards.
• She missed her first field day (she got to see a part of it, but not the rotation)
• She also missed a week of school when an awards ceremony and other fun stuff was going on (we tried our best to schedule around stuff, but there's ALWAYS something good going on around here (unpleasant things too, but all mixed together so you can't avoid missing something).
• She was very much on the edge of meltdown all week.

But she did great and even the nurses were impressed with how willing and interested she was in drinking right away and how well she was doing immediately afterwards.

A little over a week later she even participated in a kids' fun run (about 1/2 mile) - and was fine...well, until I realized she might not should have run, then she burst into tears. (I think she thought the tubes might fall out or something!) Ok, so maybe she was on the edge of meltdown a little over a week. :)

[*This was my first experience with surgery for one of my kids, so I was a little nervous about it all...I did ok too.] :)