One surgery down, one to go

Although Emily's ear tube surgery was almost cancelled because of her asthma acting up, we got her healthy enough to go through with surgery. Everything went smoothly and she was back to herself within hours. It was nuts, she even went to gymnastics class just 2 hours later and did all of the exercises without trouble. I was a nervous wreck, but she was fine.

This was her 3rd set of ear tubes and operating room procedures have really changed since her last set of tubes. Since she's older now I was trying to prepare her for what was to come and I explained to her that she would need to change into a hospital gown, that mommy couldn't go into the operating room with her and that the doctor was going to put a mask on her to make her fall asleep. I told her that I would be there when she woke up and that we would have to stay a little while until the doctors said we could go home. She was okay with all of that.

Almost nothing I prepared her for happened the way I explained it. They didn't have her change into a gown. She went to the OR in her clothes and shoes! I carried her into the OR, and stayed with her until she was under anesthesia. Then I went to the waiting room for about 10 minutes before the doctor came and got me and said she was in recovery and I could go see her. She was still asleep, but woke up about 5 minutes later. As soon as she woke up she wanted me to hold her and immediately said "I didn't cry mommy!". The nurse looked at me and said I could take her home. My jaw must have been hanging open because she explained that she was holding her head up on her own and was carrying on a conversation so as long as I was comfortable with it, I could take her home. We were literally on the road headed for home just 20 minutes after I walked out of the operating room so they could start surgery. Wow, things have really changed!