I'm Pepper and I Have No Tonsils

BEFORE

See that light strip down the middle of the back of her mouth? That's her uvula and it should be dangling free. Instead, her tonsils are touching it from both side. Ewww.



Today Pepper had her tonsils out.



She was up at 5:00 am, raring to go.



5:15 I'm starvin' already.



On the way in to the hospital she had this to say:



"I smell oreos. Now I smell mushrooms. I hate mushrooms. Ewww! A skunk. I hate the smell of skunk! Why does it fill up the car?" She wondered how they would keep her mouth open ("I was thinkin' about that yesterday.")



We talked about how today was the one-year anniversary of Sunshine's homecoming. "After I get my tonsils out, we'll have TWO things to celebrate! [on this day]"





We had to be at the hospital at 6 am. The doors of Outpatient Surgery were still locked! They whipped us into a room where we waited until 6:47 for the nurse (who was really nice!) to start doing vitals. Pepper watched a movie.



In rapid succession, we saw the Dr., the anesthetist, the nurse anesthetist, another nurse and another nurse. Her surgery was scheduled for 7:15, so they had a lot to fit in in less than 30 minutes!



We neglected to get a picture of me in my scrubs and fluffy hat. Bummer.



They wheeled her down to surgery in her bed and flopped her into the surgery bed. She chose root beer for her flavor and I was able to stay with her until she went to sleep. Afterward, she commented: After I took a big breath, I felt like I was melting away and slipping off the bed. I felt like a puddle. It felt like I was falling.



45 minutes later, Dr. P came to let us know all had gone well and that her adenoids had been blocking whatever passage they live in MORE even than her tonsils had! (reference above picture again for the visual)



A few minutes later we were able to go down to the recovery room while she was waking up. Her poor little teeth were chattering and her lips were trembling and she hated that. She kept asking when it would stop. They gave her another shot of morphine in her IV and Mr. GT was spooning popsicle slushie into her mouth. They had me crawl into bed with her to snuggle her. She was crying quite a bit because of her lips and they kept asking her not to cry so as not to hurt her throat.



Mr. GT sat down in the rocker behind him and suddenly there was a flurry of nurses right there. Turns out (I never noticed!) Mr. GT got all pale and light-headed and almost passed out. One nurse ran for apple juice and another for a bed and a third for a wet cloth. I took the slushie from him and they hustled him into a hospital bed with his head down. He didn't protest much, so he must've felt pretty bad! After lying there about 20 minutes, he pinked up and felt better. It got Pepper to stop crying while she watched the commotion!



Pepper finished her slushie in record time, Mr. GT was allowed to get up and Pepper was wheeled back to her room. She felt pretty punky for the first hour or so, but in the next 3 hours she managed to slip down 2 more popsicles (the LAST popsicles in the hospital! Go figure. It took over an hour to track them down.),an orange jello, a can of 7-Up, and a glass of water with ice. She loved having the ice pack on her neck. She got up to go potty 3 times.

With an hour to go, they took her IV out and sent all the docs down to sign us out, although we did have to stay almost the full 4 hours.



She wanted to ride out in a wheelchair because she still felt dizzy, so Princess No-Tonsil hopped into her chariot and away we went. When we got to the parking ramp, I picked her up to carry her to the car and she whispered to me, "I'm Pepper and I have no tonsils."



In the car, she announced, "I hate getting surgery. I hate going to sleep and I hate waking up. Especially waking up. My tongue was tingly and squooshy, like jelly."



She slept all the way home and now is safely ensconced on the couch and is beginning to open presents. She's beginning to feel done with the whole documentary thing:


Card and present from Auntie:

Presents from Grandma: It's wrapped in baby paper. "I had a baby," Pepper said. "Baby tonsils," we said!

The Tonsil Fairy came!!!!

Presents from Nonny:
It's Mary, the Mother of God!


Nurse Rose Bud is making her slushies and waiting on her. I'm sure after 2-3 days, the fun will wear off. But for today, she remains Princess No-Tonsil.