Two for One

For a year or so, every single time the kids went to the dentist, he would comment on the size of Leah's tonsils and suggested taking her to an ENT. I asked our pediatrician and he said that as long as she's not sick a lot or having episodes of sleep apnea, we shouldn't be too concerned. To be honest, we didn't know much about how she slept at night because we never have our kids in our bed and rarely sit and watch them sleep! Fast forward a bit and at Joel's first dentist visit, he also commented on his tonsils. I figured we'd go ahead and check in with an ENT just to see what he'd say. Sure enough, after nightly observations and a short checklist of other symptoms, it was clear that both kids would need their tonsils and adenoids out. 

The first time we did this was with Caleb, shortly after he turned three. It was right at the beginning of summer and the entire experience was one we weren't thrilled to repeat. He had to lay low for several weeks, which isn't easy to do in the summer. We knew we wanted to do it in the colder months this time around so that the kids didn't have to miss out on any of their summer. In order to make sure they didn't miss much school, it just made sense to schedule it at the beginning of Christmas break. Of course, the doctor only does these surgeries twice a month, so December 23 was the best we could do. So, we braced ourselves for the worst and hoped that Christmas wouldn't be too terribly bad this year. Thankfully, we had a much better experience this time around. Right away, the kids were eating and drinking way more than we remembered Caleb doing. What helped was the round-the-clock Motrin and Tylenol rotation. With Caleb, we had to give him Tylenol with Codeine and it was awful...tasted terrible, made him feel nauseous, and overall was bad news. We are thankful that the procedure and recovery plan has changed a bit over the past four years....because this went a million times better than we had expected! We are also thankful for the many prayers, visitors, yummy treats, and gifts that people blessed us with throughout the recovery!