Tonsil Recovery: Guess who is feeling better!

It has been a week since Alex's surgery and he is finally on the mend! These last seven days have been hard, tiring, frustrating, and a little scary. Alex really struggled all through the weekend and early week with eating. He ate a single can of chicken noodle soup over the course of 3 days. :( It is a bit un-nerving to have a conversation with your ten year old about not starving himself. But we finally cleared a food hurdle and now he is back to 3 meals a day of soft food. yay!

Casey is taking Alex to his post op appointment in about an hour. My week has been packed with school and work (which I have today as well) so Casey has been on full Daddy Duty and has done great! Looks like I handle surgery and the immediate days following really well and he handles the recovery days like a champ. We make a good team.

Alex has gotten a bunch of cards from friends and family and let me tell you, he LOVES them. Those cards and gifts have done more to make him feel better then most meds. Thank you everyone, you gave Alex a dose of the best medicine ever! Love * I know super cheesy, but it is true*

We should get the go from the doctor today to have Alex return to school next week, but he will most likely still be out of PE for another week. He also has a completely different voice because he is talking through his nose right now. The upper palate muscles are tight from the scabs which makes him talk in a nasal tone, he has to repeat a bunch of words for us everyday, but it gets in talking practice.

Thoughts on Surgery and Recovery:

• Have help, don't try to do it all alone.
• Happily go to the grocery or pharmacy while help stays with the sicko, you need a break too!
• Sleep as much as possible! Naps will be your friend for both the sicko and caretaker.
• Movies in bed at 3am are a blessing.
• Invest in soup and Popsicles.
• Be prepared for throw up, Alex just stopped throwing up on Tuesday.
• Have a small stockpile of gifts for the kiddo to distract them and get them out of bed. Lego sets worked for us. Alex got 7 between us and gifts. LOL
• Set a pain management routine. Alex would take his meds, get in a warm bath and lay there while sucking on a Popsicle, then out of the bath into bed with a movie or just to nap. This routine got us through the first 72 hours of recovery. We also fell back on it in later days when the pain came back.
• Be prepared for the pain to get worse before it gets better. Seriously Alex's worse day for pain was 2 days after surgery.
• Most importantly, just be there to comfort, that did more than anything for Alex.