the education of henry

No More Tonsils

2013-11-04

This week I was on quarantine for my surgery - and I made it to Thursday without getting sick! Which meant I had to get up early, miss breakfast, not get anything to drink, be given some strange medicine, be gassed to sleep, then have an IV in my foot, have someone cut out part of my throat, burn the cuts closed, and then be trapped in a hospital bed for a day.

But let's start with some pictures from before my gruesome ordeal, when I was just trapped in the house with Mommy and Daddy.

Dressing up.

Dressing up some more.

Taking a LEGO bath.

Me and Mommy.

Who's there?

So I woke up early on Thursday morning and Mom and Dad put me in the car and we went for a drive. I got to watch Cars while we were on the road, so I was thinking this was going to be a really fun day. Little did I know.

My surgery was the second one of the day because some little preemie from the NICU needed surgery too. I was okay waiting, because I got to watch more Cars. And Grandma Gail came to see me while we were waiting.

Waiting for surgery.

Surgery went fine and there was nothing unusual about my tonsils, except how big they are. Or were. Doctor said I have 50% more space in my airway now, so hopefully that will mean better sleeping in my future.

I woke up in a room full of strangers, then Daddy came to hold me. After a while (I was falling asleep and waking up a lot), we rode in a wheelchair to my room. There were trains and trucks and loaders and backhoes and other cool stuff on the walls. Even so, I didn't really want to be there because I know what being in the hospital means: someone coming in to bug you every half hour with medicine or thermometers or needles of some kind. No thanks.

But the room was okay at first. I got to drink all the milk I wanted and I had some pancakes and some scrambled eggs and a pouch and I watched a lot of Curious George cartoons and saw GG. So it wasn't so bad. For a while.

Unhappy Henry with tired Mommy.

Thursday night was pretty awful. I was really tired, but I kept waking up because I had that stupid IV in my foot. Daddy tried to get the nurses to take it out, but they said it had to stay in until the doctor came back in the morning. Thankfully he showed up a little before 7:00 AM. When Mommy and Daddy told him how much I was eating and drinking, he said he would tell the nurses to pull it out. Once the swelling in my foot went down, I felt a lot better. And then I got to go to the playroom.

Happy to have the IV out.

Running trains in the playroom.

Picking out some more toys.

This hospital was much faster than our regular hospital at getting us out the door, and we were home before lunch. I had some yogurt and some milk and a pouch and Grandpa Al and Grandma Wynne showed up. They had a present for me - it was so big it was wrapped in a blanket. When I lifted up the blanket I saw it was a truck with a backhoe!

A new truck!

It's the same red as Grandpa Al's truck.

And it has a backhoe!

Mommy and Daddy rested a little while Grandpa and Grandma were there to help out. Grandpa went home in the evening, but Grandma stayed at the house with us. Friday night went better than Thursday, but I was still up a lot. Mommy and Daddy took turns watching me through the night.

On Saturday I played with my new truck some more and played with Grandma and Daddy and Mommy. In the afternoon we went out for a drive and looked at the leaves and saw this really cool train. unfortunately it was behind a big fence and Daddy wouldn't toss me over so I could get a better look.

"Big Cho-choo!"

Me and Daddy by the caboose.

After the train we went to get some ice cream. Mommy and Daddy and Grandma tried to get me to have some, even though they know I don't really like it.

Mommy and Daddy trying to get me to drink a cherry malt.

I win. They gave up.

I decided to go sit by myself.

Time to go?

Saturday night I slept more, and Mommy and Daddy did too - which is good. Sunday morning I was still really tired so I watched Winnie the Pooh with Grandma. And then we went for a long drive. I know it was long because I didn't fall asleep like I usually do. Finally, we arrived at someplace I had never been and we went into a building and found a room full of trains! It was awesome! We stayed until Daddy couldn't hold me up anymore because his back was hurting. I guess he didn't believe me when I told him he could put me down and I wouldn't grab any of the trains.

Look at the little choo-choos!

More! More! More!

After all the choo-choo excitement, I did fall asleep on the way back to Grandma's house. Daddy stopped to get some groceries we can't get where we live and then we stopped to see Great-grandma Dorothy and Auntie Diane and Uncle Milton and Uncle Billy for a few minutes.

Visiting Great-grandma Dorothy.

It was getting late and Mommy was waiting to be picked up from studying at school, so we dropped Grandma Wynne off at her house and picked up Duke and went home. I fell asleep again, and didn't cough too much, until I got home and Daddy woke me up.

And that was my week. I am slowly getting back to normal. No school until next week, and Mommy and Daddy seem to let me do whatever I want to do - as long as I don't cry. This next week would be really fun if I wasn't going to be trapped in the house.

Take care, everyone!