Ear Surgery #2

Ear surgery #2 is over! Thank goodness!!! Now it's recovery time. 

You would think I would be used to this whole surgery thing by now, the fact is that you are never ready no matter how big or small. Paislee is getting older and with age comes questions. She is starting to remember things like the mask they used to put her to sleep ( which we dare not mention) or the red tubes which were her drainage tubes from heart surgery. You could tell the days before that she was getting a little bit nervous and scared. She even told one of her friends to pray for her. So of course I am touched and still a nervous wreck. One because surgery is scheduled for four hours and this is the longest since heart surgery and another it's just plain surgery. You worry about blood pressures dropping, vitals, you just worry because you are a parent.  So as I lay in bed with my child Tuesday night I break down and just look at her and think she has to go through all this and she is just five years old. She has done nothing wrong to have this. She is an innocent child who day after day wakes up and just keeps going and knows no different. There is no way that I have her strength. She never complains. In another sense, I get angry. I am mad that innocent children are sick with cancer, heart defects, and many more diseases. We take life for granted. 

The next morning Paislee goes to school and I get her all excited about the hotel we are staying at because we have to be at Vanderbilt at 5:30 in the morning. This is also my seventh wedding anniversary. We leave after school and eat in Nashville  and then stay at the Opryland Hotel. The valet was extremely nice and said he would make sure he would have our car ready since we were leaving so early. We stayed up late and walked around the hotel because we knew Paislee couldn't eat or drink after 11:15 so we were making it to the last minute and spent time as a family. 

We of course didn't get much sleep but awoke at 4:30 am. We showered, packed our things and went to get our car. We were amazed at how nice they were. The valet had kept our car under the drive at the front all night instead of taking it to the parking lot just so we wouldn't have to wait for them to bring it and Paislee wouldn't have to wait in the cold. He had gone off duty and told the next one to make sure it stayed there for us. That made out morning even at 5:00 am! We get to the hospital and Paislee is greeted by all the caring wonderful nurses and doctors. 

She has the best anesthesiologist who hands Paislee his cell phone with the movie clip with the song " Let it Go" from the movie Frozen and they sing it together as he is taking Paislee down the hallway. I think that morning we felt as ease more than we ever have. It was like we had a calmness. Rick was joking with the doctors and nurses and Paislee was smiling and of course happily went back with the Frozen song. As we waited for Paislee we went downstairs for breakfast and ran into our heart surgeon. He talked and then he went and checked on Paislee and came out and told us she looked great. He took his time to just check on her. The best part was when the doctor came out and Paislee's hearing bones were connected!! All we had to do was cover the perforation. That was big because of incision and moving cartilage and lifting eardrum, etc but we were so excited because that means we only have one more ear surgery left!! We just have to repair the hearing bones on the left side!! Paislee is still in pain but she is continuing to improve and we will go back in four weeks for a followup. Thank you for all your prayers and just remember that they do work. There are so many children who are sick and families who struggle to hold it together to take care of them. Please keep them all in your thoughts and when you kiss your children goodnight, be so very thankful.