Caden Rocked his Tonsillectomy

Remember how Caden snored SO loud every night? Remember how he even stopped breathing for a few seconds at night? Remember how we took him in to see Dr. Meads, and he said Caden needed his tonsils and adenoids out? Remember how the physician's assistant said Caden "wins the contest for biggest tonsils"? Ya all that happened, which led us to August 14 when Caden went in for surgery. 

We were so nervous for our little guy to have surgery. We talked to him about what was going to happen and even played Dr. and operated on his baby and snake. We were trying to act so excited about  it you would have thought we were going to Disneyland! Whatever we did must have worked because Caden did so well before and after surgery. He totally rocked his tonsillectomy!

We got to the surgical center and Caden got his wrist band. We played in the waiting room for what seemed like forever before they called us back. 

 We were trying to get a picture of his tonsils, but it was pretty hard. Trust us when we tell you, they were huge!

 They took us back to the room and we met with the anesthesiologist and Dr. Meads. They walked us through some things, and we asked way too many questions. We were just so nervous for our little guy, but we tried not to show it.

 Then they asked Caden if he wanted to walk or ride into surgery, and he chose to walk. He marched right in there like he owned the place! Caden gave us a hug and a kiss, and then he was gone. I wanted to bawl right there. Tyler and I waited in the waiting room for maybe 20 minutes before Dr. Meads came in to talk to us. He told us the surgery went really well and that he could see that Caden's tonsils were so big that they were overlapping each other. It was easy to see why he stopped breathing at night. Dr. Meads also said the adenoids were pretty high up, which also explains the difficulty breathing. We were so grateful to Dr. Meads for fixing the problem. We had to wait a few more minutes before we could go see him in recovery. That was probably the worst part because at one point we could hear him screaming and we couldn't go get him. The nurse finally took us back to see him. He was pretty groggy, but we were able to hold him and talk to him. We heard horror stories about kids when they come out of anesthesia and how they are very combative, so we were expecting Caden to be that way, but to our surprise, he was so good. He cried for a little bit, but we were able to calm him down. Even the nurses and doctors that came by to check on him said his calm behavior was very unusual. The nurse said they had to watch him for about 2 hours, so we sat in the recovery room and had a lot of water and Popsicles.

 Caden was content to watch Jake the Pirate and Doc McStuffins while we waited. What did people ever do without technology?

 They put Caden's IV in his leg, so we was showing us his bandage.

 After two hours we were ready to go home. Caden just jabbered the whole way. The one thing Tyler and I noticed immediately was that his voice sounded so different. It's hard to explain, but it was louder, clearer, and higher.

Our little champ did so well! Caden was even running around the yard that night and both Tyler and I were starting to question if he even had surgery or not. He was not acting like it at all. We tried to keep him lying down, but what three year old can do that for long? We had a lot of visitors come over that night to see how he was doing. Caden was loving all the attention, gifts, and popsicles.

We were aware that the third and forth day would be the worst, and that has definitely proven to be true. Caden doens't really complain about the pain, but you can tell he is just not himself. He is a little bit whiny and cries at the littlest things. Yesterday he was watching Toy Story 3 and the movie stopped in the middle, and Caden had one of the worst temper tantrums about it. I couldn't even understand him because he was crying so hard. We've been giving him his pain medicine around the clock to help him feel better. 

But honestly, I can't even believe how much better he is doing with his surgery. Even the first nap he took we could tell how much better he was breathing. He is sleeping better now after surgery than he ever was before his surgery. Tyler had his tonsils out a few years ago, and I was expecting Caden to be more like how Tyler was, but it is like night and day between the two. Don't get me wrong, we've had some rough times, but Caden has proved us all wrong, and it is doing so well!

We are so thankful for modern medical technology and that this surgery was not that invasive for our little champ. We are so happy he is on the mend and are hopeful he will sleep and eat better now that those pesky tonsils are out!