Crayon removal a success

This weekend Addie had to perform "surgery" on her animals.  It seems they all managed to put crayons in their ears.

That is the actual crayon post-removal today.  I was trying to give you an idea of relation of size. That's a nickel.

Addie was a champ up until they wanted to give her Versed, which is that loopy juice which makes separation from parents easier.  She was brave for the first taste and then decided she hated the flavor. Now that wasn't an unfounded response, but she needed to take it.  By this point, the little bit she had swallowed was coming back up with loads of spit and snot. Not a pretty picture. She was climbing up me, cringing.  After her screaming continued for 30 seconds, the nurse was like "Ok, mom, I'm just going to get the nasal spray of it" which is what Addie had when she got tubes in her ears 2 years ago.  She had a really bad experience coming out of that at that time, so I was trying to avoid it if possible.  Giving her the option made all the difference.  She definitely didn't want anything squirted up her nose, so she opted to drink it...mind you, amongst the spot and snot factory.  Of course one sip into it, and she said she had to go potty, which is her way out of all things less than desirable. After she drank it all down, I took her to the bathroom where she continued to chastise me about how much she didn't want to take that yucky medicine.  After she calmed down, I asked her if she was going to sing for all of the nurses and doctors. The "I can get attention for something" bell went off in her mind and she was a performing queen. She belted out "Tomorrow" from Annie for anyone who would listen.  There were approximately 30 OR docs, nurses, residents and students all around the gathering area smiling and dancing along.  Applause soon followed.  Eventually the anesthesiologist said he was ready whenever we were.  Addie wasn't quite loopy enough in my mind, her head kept drooping down but she was still singing her heart out.  They strapped her onto the bed, while seated and they wheeled her bed out to the OR, past her adoring fans who were all listening as she waved like the queen mum in a parade, all while singing.

She was out 15 minutes later, sans crayon.  The doc said she had a little bit of a "high-spirited" spell, where she went from singing to crying to screaming back to singing, but she was fine otherwise. When the anesthesiologist came out afterwards, he reported that once Addie realized I wasn't with her, she said "I need to call Mommy!" So he handed over his cell phone and she proceeded to tell everyone in the OR our phone number. That made me laugh.

The great news is that when she woke up from this anesthesia, she just sat straight up. She wasn't crying at all. She was a little confused, but was calm.  This is a HUGE improvement from last time. She still managed to sing for each person who came by her bed in the recovery area.

Just as we stood her up to change into her clothes (she opted to change into her Ariel dress from last halloween, plus bracelet and necklace of course), the nurse said, "it's not uncommon for a child vomit after surgery, even up to 4 times."  Well you guessed it, that cued the vomit.  All over her dress, Brian's arm, my arm, her bed, etc.  So then we had to clean up and sit still a few more minutes.  Eventually we were good to go.  Total time in the hospital this morning: 2 hours! Incredible.

She did throw up again just as we got home when I went to unbuckle her, I couldn't figure out why Rosetta Pickle's dress was pink, and then I realized there was pink medicine spewed all over the back of my seat and coming out of Addie's mouth.  That was it though.  We kind of hung low all day, just lazed around, while she got her legs about her.

I know Guppy said he was surprised at how small the crayon was, but if you just keep in mind how tiny a 4 year old's ear canal is, it makes sense.  The doc said her ear drum looks perfect so she didn't perforate that, luckily!

In total coincidence, Addie just relayed the following to me:

"You know what that man did to me? The man who got the crayon out. He put a mask over my mouth and I didn't like it."  So we just discussed what happened and what he said to her. He told her to keep singing, but she didn't want to because she didn't like the mask. She told me the medicine in the mask tasted gross, and she just got a taste of it again. Interesting that she remembers that!