Our First Surgery. Da-da-duh...

As in, the Munion family's first. As parents and what not. Riley was the star, poor thing. It all started a couple months ago when we decided to get her into speech therapy. She has always had this adorable lisp but well, school is coming and we wanted her to be able to communicate effectively. So there is a battery of tests through the district to get her into therapy at the school by our house. She killed the tests for the most part. Articulation, not so much (duh). And they noticed it was due to a forward tongue thrust, all thanks to her big ole tonsils. "Whoppers," the ENT called them.

They had to go, but man, it's scary to put your kid into surgery. Not just because of the pain ahead. Little ones are all innocence and faith and knowing they don't fully comprehend what's ahead of them, you worry about how the tough stuff will effect that innocence, faith. These were my thoughts as I watched my little girl walk away from me down the surgery wing with a nurse. She looked so small. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Boo hoo! Thankfully, the surgery was quick and easy (20 minutes, actually), she came out of anesthesia fairly well, a few confused tears at first but mostly alert after half an hour. Signed some papers, took her home and rested for a bit, then got some ice cream at the pharmacy where we went to get her throat-numbing suckers!

 Here are the pictures I sent to Dave throughout the process - I know it was hard for him not to be there, but as you can see, she really did quite well.

The two days after were pretty easy, and then her throat started to hurt and for the next seven days or so we were dosing with tylenol or ibuprofin every three hours. Night and day. She hated to be woken up at night like that (I didn't love it either) but if she went more than 3.5 hours, she woke up herself too sore to swallow and we had to work up to it with ice and the suckers. As long as she was medicated though, she did alright - didn't really even have to modify her diet. But it was not fun and I am glad that part is over.

Now we get by on the occasional dose of tylenol and we are go to speech therapy once a week. One session and a week of homework and she is already pronouncing some sounds better! I'm so glad we got this in now instead of after baby comes and school starts, etc. People don't know this but you can actually get speech therapy if your kid qualifies through the school district as early as 3 years old. It's not widely known, so spread the word. I assume the earlier you get them in the better. Same goes for tonsillectomy - I've heard this procedure is way worse as an adult.