Savannah goes under the knife

 

For as long as I can remember, Savannah has been a loud breather. She's been a snorer but not so loud that it disturbed us. We've just always accepted this about her. In the wake of my suffering from a horrible allergy season, I considered that perhaps Savannah too was suffering from allergies. So I took her to an Ear,Nose, and Throat doctor. She sat in the patient chair excited to be in a different place and meet a doctor that would not be giving her any shots. :-) As soon as Dr. Stierman had Savannah do the "Say Ahhhhh" examination of the inside of her throat she said "Aha" and then called me over to view too. Savannah had very enlarged tonsils. On a scale from 0 (normal as shown above) to 4+ (kissing tonsils), Savannah's tonsils were measuring a 3+. The poor girl was suffering from sleep apnea and airway blockage.

From that initial visit, we started her on an antihistamine to see if it would help to shrink her tonsil tissue. And then an x-ray was taken to view the size of her adenoids. After a few weeks of meds and no change we made arrangements to have Savannah undergo an tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.

Here she is, the brave little girl on the morning of her surgery. She was so well behaved and so peaceful. Michael had given her a father's blessing the night before and then she and I prayed for her comfort before the doctor took her away. It was so hard for me to be brave and let the nurse wheel her away for the procedure. I had thought that I would be able to be with her when they sedated her but they assured me that my smiling little girl would be just fine and in recovery very soon. So I kissed her goodbye and told her I loved her. A short 30-40 mins went by and I was summoned to the recovery area. Savannah was waking up and so I was able to hold her and cuddle her until she fully awakened and had drank at least half a glass of juice. Her nurse complimented her on being such a good patient and so quiet. While holding her I heard several other patients waking up and crying out. I asked Savannah later why she didn't cry and she said cause we said a prayer and she knew her throat would feel better. Lucky for me she has such faith and is such a sweet girl. And lucky for us all that she has recovered well with little complaints or pain. Since the surgery I now have to go into her room and stand above her bed to see if she is breathing because I can't hear her from the door. It's been a little unnerving at times but we're slowly getting used to the new quiet breathing girl.