Surgery #2

Miss Kat went bilateral today! Everything went very smoothly. We were at the hospital at 7am for a surgery start time of 8:30. They got us back within 10 minutes of our arrival. Miss Kat watched Spongebob and cuddled up with her Hello Kitty pillow, doll, blanket, nightgown and even shoes. By 8am the pre-op area was swarming with doctors and anesthesia came and gave Miss Kat her Versed (God bless this miracle drug!) and talked over the plan with us. Last time Miss Kat's face was super itchy from the narcotics when she woke up and the nice anesthesia man wanted to avoid this, so he drugged her completely through her IV, (and he totally succeeded!) At 8:32 they wheeled Miss Kat back into the operating room and Daddy, Grammy and I went to wait.

The surgery was scheduled to be finished at 10:45 but at 10:15 the surgeon called and let us know that everything went beautifully. The electrode was fully inserted, no complications and he didn't even need to remove the middle ear bone that he needed to last time. (Which wasn't a huge concern, I figure if he needed the space, TAKE IT, better that than having a facial nerve injury! But at least now she can take advantage of an future technology in that ear.) Everything went very well.

I was allowed to go back into the PACU (which they don't generally allow, but I played the ASL card, and they let me in!) And was there for Miss Kat waking up. It was much gentler this time, and she was less upset, but she was still pretty mad. She was upset that she couldn't lay on her ear, and she let me know that she thought Daddy should have been the one to come back, and that she wanted her scrub hat. (They let her pick a really cute hat in pre-op and promised she could take it home, and she was pretty indignant when she thought she didn't have it.)

After about a half an hour we went to her recovery room and Grammy and Daddy joined us. The nurse asked if she wanted a Popsicle or a soda and she turned to me and asked if she could have both, and I told her "Of course!". So, we watched a little more tv, and Miss Kat ate two Popsicles. Just as we were preparing for her discharge, Miss Kat got really nauseous and threw everything up....exactly like last time (on the way out the door). But, after that she felt much better and we headed home.

At home she got sick again, but after that she ate, and felt so much better. We all laid down and took a nice long nap, and when she woke up, Miss Kat was nearly back to 100%. We walked down to Redbox and rented a movie, headed to get some french fries and now we are sitting down to watch our movie.

It has been a long tough day for Miss Kat, and this morning I was questioning my decision, but really, it could be so much worse! She is up, walking around, playing with her happy meal toy, and in a few week, she'll finally have usable hearing in both ears!