It's been almost 2 weeks since the surgery and I'm happy to say that I think Noah is back to his old self again! And he's eating like a horse. Walt even joked yesterday that he's going to tell any other parents of "non-eaters" that the solution is to have their tonsils removed. (For example on Friday for dinner he ate: pasta, blackberries, applesauce, 1/2 jelly sandwich, fruit cup and a popsicle! This is almost a week's worth of dinner for the "old" Noah!)
Anyway, everyone at Children's Hospital was so awesome! We arrived at 10:30 on the day of his surgery - and were quickly called to the pre-op room. We met with some nurses and then the anesthesiologist came in. He was so wonderful and even did some magic tricks with Noah. Noah was totally at ease with him. They also allowed one of us to accompany him to the OR, where we could stay with him while they put the sleepy gas on him, so he wouldn't have to see us leave. I didn't think I'd be able to hold it together, so Walt went with him. The doctor let Noah have a choice of walking down or being wheeled in his bed -- and he walked. So it was like a parade through the halls - a couple of doctors, Walt, Noah and me. We got to a set of double doors and one of the doctors held back and told me that this is where I exit the parade to head to the waiting room. It was so hard to leave him...but it helped that he wasn't scared or upset. It was also hard not to cry my eyes out as I checked in with the people in the waiting room. But, I must say I did pretty well! Walt arrived about 10 minutes after me and said that Noah was sound asleep when he left.
Then we waited. And while it was only about 30 minutes, it seemed to last forever. In walks his doctor (a shout out to Dr. Chi -- he was really awesome!), he comes over to us in the waiting room and asks us to follow him to a little private room. Now, when you watch as much tv as I do, you know that on medical dramas, they only take the people to a private room for BAD news. This was probably the longest (20 foot) walk of my entire life. But, my nervousness was quickly washed away when the doctor informed us that everything went perfectly -- in fact, so perfectly that he was breathing without any problems and we would NOT be admitted to the ICU. I could have hugged him, seriously! He said as soon as he woke up we could go back to recovery. And in this few minute conversation, he must have said 3 or 4 times just how LARGE his tonsils really were.
We waited again, but this time, the waiting wasn't as bad. In fact, Walt & I downed zebra cakes and pretzels (it's the lunch of champions, don't you know) - because we hadn't eaten since early that day and it was now after 1pm. We ate breakfast early before Noah got up since he wasn't allowed to eat -- I would have felt awful eating in front of him. When we walked in to recovery, he was sitting up, eating a popsicle. The poor little girl in the bed next to him had the same surgery and was crying to the point of making herself sick -- it was awful to hear that.
They came to take us to his room, which was very nice. He ended up eating 2 packages of Jello and since he did well with that, they approved him having a soft dinner. He had a rough night that night - and fought us like crazy to take the tylenol with codeine. But all in all - I think he did great. We're slowly introducing more food within the past few days and he's doing great. He has a follow up on July 22.
And while I hope to NEVER have to return to Children's Hospital again, I will say that the commercials are definitely true. If you have children, be glad you have Children's. It was a wonderful experience, I honestly can't say enough good things about it.
