Another trip to the "hoss-a-pital"

A trip to the ENT doctor in late November brought a very unexpected turn of events in the Balzer household. We went per the recommendation of our pediatrician, and I was so thankful to finally be going because Sadie Beth has had so many ear infections this past year. I fully expected the doctor to say it was time for some ear tubes, but no need to hurry. Well, to our surprise, he decided that Sadie Beth needed her tonsils/adenoids out and ear tubes put in...and that we needed to do it ASAP since her current ear infection wasn't responding to antibiotics. That was 11/23; surgery was scheduled for 12/2! Not only was it a much more serious undertaking but it also involved an overnight hospital stay since she is only 2 years old. Being the mommy that I am, I couldn't bear to think about leaving Sadie Beth at the hospital without me overnight, so that meant a hospital stay for Balzer, family of 4!
So, off to Kosair we went early the morning of 12/2/2009.
Sadie Beth was such a good sport about everything. We had processed over and over again how she was going to the hospital, the doctor was going to take her tonsils out, she was going to have ouchies in her mouth for awhile, but that Mommy and Daddy were going to take good care of her and give her lots of hugs and kisses. She was very excited to wear the new "jammies" we got her for the hospital and also to wear her "special hospital dress." She still calls her pajamas her "special hospital jammies"
The pre-op room was lots of fun! Especially after they gave her the Ver-sed to make her drowsy before taking her back to the OR. She was a total goof.

The surgery went fine and Sadie Beth did amazingly for being such a little thing. The nurses all fell in love with her and Kosair was wonderful. Initially we were going to have to be in a shared room, but when the recovery room nurse found out we had Ainsley with us, she pulled some strings to get us a private room, for which we were so GRATEFUL. Then when the floor nurse saw I was a nursing mom, she got me on the meal rotations which was very kind of her...and the food was great! They also got a bassinet from the nursery for Ainsley, who was a champ the entire stay. She ate well and slept even better at the hospital than she did at home at the time.

Unfortunately, the week to follow was no so much fun - top of the charts as far as awful weeks can go. Sadie Beth's recovery was awful. We had such a hard time getting her to eat "sick food" - we tried and tried to get her to eat jello, ice cream, pudding, etc. - if it was soft, we tried it. David made her so many "special treats" that were total duds. So he got to eat a lot of lemon pudding...and is still trying to this day to convince her that she wants to eat his pudding. It's become the running family joke.

My poor sweet girl picked up a stomach virus from the hospital and threw up for 3-4 days straight - which wasn't good since we were already concerned with her being dehydrated. We attributed the vomiting to her pain medicine though and stopped all that (per our pediatrician) - which made her pain so much worse. Then we realized it was a stomach virus because I got it too. Let me tell you what isn't fun - taking care of a 2 year old recovering from surgery who only wants, "Mommy hold you"; nursing every 2-3 hours; and throwing up all day yourself!

We would never have made it if it weren't for Darla so graciously flying out from Seattle to help. I seriously would have lost my mind. Seriously. It was so wonderful to have her help for a few days. Unfortunately, Darla was the lucky winner of our stomach virus when she got home. Way to take one for the team, Aunt Darla...we are thankful for you! We were also so thankful for our friends (from church and some of my old friends) who blessed us with meals so we didn't have to cook for awhile! That was also such a huge help. The week was awful, but we are so blessed.

Sweet Ainsley - just along for the ride. I'm so thankful to that she has been a pretty low maintenance baby throughout all the chaos. I've struggled with feeling guilty during that time for not being "with" her more - but know that God has certainly taken care of us all!