Clay's tonsilectomy

Well, Clay got his tonsils removed today. He was pretty nervous this morning & cried a few times because he was scared. But we took his favorite stuffed animal & Mommy & Daddy gave him lots of hugs & snuggles. I left at 6:30 a.m. to get him to the hospital to be admitted & get through all the pre-op stuff, while Neil stayed home to get our other 3 kiddos to school. After dropping all of them off (at 7:10, 7:15, and 7:30, all at different schools), Neil headed to the hospital. He got there just before they took Clay back for surgery. I was glad he made it just in time. The hospital, our doctor, & all the staff was wonderful! The surgery went fast & smooth, with no problems and the doctor said that Clay's tonsils & adenoids were HUGE. Once Clay woke up from the anesthesia, I was able to go sit with him until they were ready to move him to recovery. The poor little guy was so sad when I walked in. He was crying because he was scared and he was hurting pretty bad. They gave him morphine 3 times in the half hour I was there. At least he was willing to eat some ice chips. It felt good on his throat.

After about a half hour, they moved him to the recovery room on the pediatric floor, where Neil was already waiting for us. We got him settled in & they gave him some other pain meds & I kept giving him more ice chips. He started to feel a little better & just relaxed & watched some cartoons. The staff there was wonderful & brought Clay some stuffed animals, a huge coloring book & crayons, stickers, a book, and a few other things. He thought that was pretty cool!
Around 11:00, Neil left to go start picking up our kids from school. (The whole school district was dismissing kids early because the highschool football team was playing in the State finals down in Little Rock. Kind of dumb if you ask me, but whatever.) During the next couple hours, Clay improved dramatically! He kept drinking Sprite, eating ice chips, popsicles, applesauce, pudding, jello, etc. And every time I would ask him if his throat hurt, he would say no, that he was fine. He went 5 hours without any more pain meds! They finally gave him some more about an hour before they released him, just so he wouldn't start to hurt later on. And then of course they gave us prescriptions for some meds to give him at home.(I was SO glad to see this happy, smiling face, after lots of painful tears just a couple hours earlier!)

After Neil picked up the older kids from school & took them home, he ran to Chick-fil-A to grab some lunch for me. He brought it to the hospital & visited with Clay for a while, then left to go back home, pick up the older kids, go buy some "Get Well" surprises for Clay (a get-well balloon, a magna-doodle, and some play dough), and then they all came to visit Clay at the hospital. Right before Neil & the other kids got to the hospital, our doctor came in to check on Clay. He said he was doing great & could go home. He'd have the nurse get his discharge forms ready & he could go. It was perfect timing. So we loaded everything up, signed a few forms & we were off. I took the kids home, while Neil headed to Walmart to get Clay's medicine.
After getting home, Clay had some pudding, Sprite, & mac-n-cheese for dinner, & then another popsicle for dessert. Then he snuggled up with Tessa & Jonah to watch a movie (PJ was heading to a scout campout).

Anyway, we feel very blessed that Clay is doing so well & we hope that he continues to heal quickly & easily! He's such a little sweetheart, and we are SO grateful that all went well today!