Another One for the Books

Another life experience is done and over for us!

Emma's hernia surgery yesterday was a complete success and I literally cannot say enough about the doctors and nurses at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for the amazing experience that we all had! From the minute that we walked in, everyone we encountered was so nice and went out of their way to make Emma, Rory, and I feel comfortable and relaxed. We knew it would be a long day, but it turned out to be faster and easier than we predicted and we were able to be home and back to "normal" by 2 pm! 

Our longest wait was waiting to go back for pre-op care!

Vandy has volunteers that work the surgical floor and give the kids colors,
play doh, and beads to make jewelry! How sweet is that?!

They even let you color all over your bed! We had to make sure
she understood this was the ONLY place you can do that ;)

Dressed and ready to go! The Child Care lady gave E an Elsa wand to
take back with her. Everybody really was so sweet and comforting!

She was all smiles up until they got ready to wheel her into the OR

 We'd been talking to E about the surgery for about a month. It seemed to have helped some since she didn't shed a tear until they wheeled her back. She takes after her mama in her fear of any kind of pain. We assured her so many times that she would feel zero pain because all the sticks would be done AFTER she was already asleep. The nurses were fantastic in reassuring her of this over and over. I did have to hold back my tears when she started crying as they wheeled her away. There's just something about watching your child being wheeled away on a gurney sobbing...

It literally took 40 minutes from the time they wheeled her back until we were in the consultation room with the doctor going over how everything went. That was just enough time for Rory and me to grab a bite to eat at the cafeteria. I was literally signing us back into the waiting room as they were calling our name to meet with the doctor. The doctor said everything went beautifully! He gave us our instructions for post-op care and we went back to wait on E to wake up (which was about 5 minutes later). 

Once in the recovery area, the nurse assigned to Emma told us that Emma was actually awake when they wheeled her into the recovery area, which she wasn't expecting. E got to choose what she wanted to drink/eat after her surgery, so we walked around the curtain to a grin holding a melting grape popsicle. We couldn't help but laugh! We were also shocked that not one, but TWO of her teeth were gone! We had just figured out that she had a loose tooth on Tuesday night when she started complaining about her tooth hurting while eating. It was so loose that she was able to bend it almost all the way forward with her tongue! She also takes after her mama in not wanting anyone to touch her teeth, so she wouldn't let anyone pull it. The anesthesiologist explained that the tooth fairy makes quite a few stops in their OR's so she would have to make one for Emma. They didn't want to knock the tooth out accidentally and have her swallow it so they just took care of it for us :) She also explained that they had to pull the second one because the first one was holding it up! So we got a two for one deal out of that. The tooth fairy was also SO sweet to leave some money with mama and daddy so that we could put it under E's pillow last night ;) You should have seen the excitement on E's face this morning when she came downstairs to show me what she got! As much as it makes me sad that she's already old enough to start losing her teeth, I'm loving the excitement that she has!

Showing off her holey mouth!

So now we're trying to relax and take it easy for the next couple of weeks until E is back to 100%. With how she's been acting since last night, you'd think she never had anything done! We've kept her consistently on Tylenol and Motrin so she has no pain right now. I'm interested to see how she does when that stops tomorrow night. I thought she'd be my easy one to just veg on the couch too, but we're having to tell her to slow down and take it easy several times a day! LOL Thankfully, my mom is here to help us so it hasn't been too bad. 

Cuddling the bear that Teksouth sent her!
I seriously work for the most awesome company!

I'm praying that this will be the last random surgery that we'll have to deal with, but with Emma's track record, I have my suspicions that something will come up next March at her 6 year appointment. Between Emma's crazy medical history and Penny's dare-devilish tendencies, I'm surprised I don't have any grey hairs! I know they'll pop up eventually :) I guess we'll just continue to roll with the punches and enjoy each day that we're blessed with. 

Aside from Emma's surgery and first visit from the tooth fairy, things have been pretty quiet. We enjoyed a nice 4th of July with fireworks and family and now we're getting ready to gear up for school to start in just five short weeks. I'm getting to skip my first school supply shopping trip because E's school has a program where you can buy a kit that already has everything she'll need for a flat rate and no crowds to fight :) Can you say genius?

Showing off our patriotic duds before heading to the country!

I may be bias, but these two couldn't be any more adorable!

Disclaimer: Penny picked out her own shoes...

It took P a minute to get brave enough to get down with the dogs.

You got to have a porch swing in the country!

Emma was loving the sparklers!

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th and is staying cool. It pains me when I think about how hot it already is, and it's not even August yet. It really isn't even the heat. We're living in a 24/7 sauna. I feel like I need to be wearing a fresh white towel and have people hit me with branches every time I walk outside. Maybe that would make it bearable.

God bless!