Vianney's surgery

For months, Vianney has snored like Darth Vadar. Her sleep was disrupted by the two mountains lodged in the back of her throat. When I looked back in her throat, I would see NO room for air. Her tonsils were completely touching. We had also recently noticed her hearing not being as sharp only to find that both ears were filled with fluid so no vibrations were detected. h
John and I were commenting that is probably why she is so easy going because she can't hear anything. She is such a sweet child.
I took her in to see the ENT and he said both sides were a 4+ and needed to come out. He also concluded that the fluid behind her ears needed to drain in order for her to hear and for speech development. Dr. Ferris is a father of several children and has been practicing for many years so we trusted his kind judgement. He did admit she was young, but was sure it would only help her.
We were fully confident in the surgery until about two weeks before and I noticed her snoring had gone away and her speech was improving daily. John was confident that we should proceed and knowing my emotional self, I knew I must trust his sound decision making. He recommended tonsils, adenoids, and tubes in the ears.
By that morning, for some reason my nerves were just shaken. I couldn't stop holding her and kissing her. Some days, I wish I could just get a grip. It made me sad when they carried her away down the hall and to watch her sweet face looking over their shoulders at me.

Before surgery: So sweet and completely unaware of what was going on.

We prayed the rosary together while waiting and made a list of our intentions to offer up the struggles for during her recovery.
I commented to John how I will always hold parents with chronicly sick children at the highest level. What a special, special cross God has asked of them. Their reward in heaven will be great.

I was expecting her to be mad, angry, confused coming out of surgery, but it was just the opposite. She never really cried or complained. She ate french fries, yogurt, pudding, grape popsicles, and drank right away. We couldn't believe it. I just kept thanking God over and over that she handled everything so well.

They monitored her for about six hours and we were home that night. The nurses never had to give her any more pain medication after surgery besides Tylenol. Today, I only gave her three doses of Tylenol because she said she was doing fine.
Her night was rough,but after about 4:30 she feel into a deep sleep between John and I and woke up happy and hungry. She played off and on today, took a great nap, drank great, and never complained except for the cold ear drops.

The nurse was so amazed that she didn't cry when the I.V. was taken out.


Personally, I think she did so well because she got to pick her choice of movie without any sibling intervention. We watched Dora, Dinosaur Train, and George all afternoon. She even enjoyed watching the Iowa Caucuses when we would slip those in "looking for George."


Thank you for the gift of this child, skilled surgeons, a kind friend who handled her anaesthesia, medicine, hospitals, my mother and sister who helped with our other children, and in great thanksgiving for her recovery.

It really is the simple things in life that are most important.