Olivia's Surgery

     Just 3 short days ago, Olivia had her first appointment with the ENT doctor.  After a quick exam we were scheduled for tubes.  Dr. Meade took one look at Olivia's ears and knew that tubes were the answer.  Olivia had so much fluid behind each ear drum that she had extremely limited hearing in her right ear and her left was not much better.  I had heard this before from  Dr. Meade 5 years earlier when Isabelle was faced with the same issue.  I agreed with him that we should take care of Olivia's ears soon.  When Izzy had her surgery Jon was serving in Iraq and I was thankful that he would be there for Olivia's.  I can take care of things on my own when I need to but I prefer to have his support when I can.

The day of her surgery arrived and after a long night of no eating or drinking we loaded up our grouchy baby and headed to the surgical center in Sandy.  The pictures above are of Olivia about a half an hour before surgery.  She was very upset at the nurse for placing a pretty blue arm band on her. Finally she calmed down and decided to watch a little Dora and play until it was time for her in surgery. 

Olivia's turn came and I had to hand over my baby to the doctor and watch as they packed her back to the operating room.  I knew this was coming but I still did not handle it well.  Jon and I waited patiently for 45 minutes but if you ask me it felt more like hours.  Finally Dr. Meade came in to tell us how well the surgery went.  The Dr. explained that not only did they place the tubes but they had to remove her adenoids which were very infected.  I asked to see Olivia and they politely said no.  I hate that they make you wait until your child is awake.  It was not soon after the doctor left, that I heard him being paged to her room.  Anxiety got the best of me as I broke out in tears knowing that my baby needed me and they would not take me to her. This is where Jon is of great strength to me.  He stays calm for the both of us.  I am sure that it is his military training of "show no fear" that kicks in at moments like these.  Finally relief as  the nurse walked in the room and took Jon and I to our sweet daughter.  We walked into her room to see her tiny little body laying on the hospital bed.  The nurse was having a difficult time getting Olivia to wake up.  Olivia is a strong willed little girl and was not going to make the nurses job easy.  Olivia does things only when she is ready and just to prove her point she decided that it would be a good idea to hold her breath.  The nurse let me sit in the rocking chair hoping that if I held her and talked to her she would start to breath better and wake up.  After a little oxygen and a lot of talking she finally came around.  It didn't take long for her to notice the iv in her foot.  Remember the earlier pictures of her making it well known how much she did not like the arm band, well the same can be said about an iv in her foot.  The nurse quickly took it out so that she would stop screaming.  One Popsicle and  a few sips of  apple juice  and we were finally on our way.   

I had to take this one last picture of Olivia sleeping soundly in her car seat on the drive home.  She is our  little angel and this picture is testament to that.