Biddle Buzz: Bre's Brave Day

What a busy day Breanna and I experienced yesterday! After about 3-4 hours of sleep, the two of us ended up waking up a little after 5am to get ready for Bre’s surgery. Kevin had to work the night prior, so he ended up staying home with Nicholas and also go Caitlin off to school. He did get up with us to see us out. I think that helped Breanna out as well. We left the house around 545 to start our journey to Beaumont. We checked in at 630 and began the waiting process. Why is it that they Army’s famous line of “Hurry up and Wait” must even play a vital role with the children? We sat in her room until a little after 10 before heading out to the OR triage room. Bre went into surgery around 11 and was out and in the OR recovery room by 1145.

Before the surgery she held herself together a little too well. She acted like it was no big deal. She had a room with another little girl, Caitlin is her name. She is seven. She went to the surgical floor before Bre. As soon as the nurse came into get her, she just broke into tears. It crushed me! She too had to undergo a tonsillectomy. Following her leaving, Breanna and I sat in the room for a good while longer waiting. She colored and watched her tv. We talked. She ended up getting pretty restless and tired of waiting. I can’t lie, so did I. Once we were on the surgical floor and in her triage area, Breanna just melted into tears, which you all know, broke my heart. I hate seeing any child cry, but especially my own. She told me that we needed to just go back upstairs, let her get dressed and leave. She didn’t want to go through with the surgery. I ended up putting the side of her bed down and crawling onto the bed with her. We sat there just talking. I explained to her why this procedure was necessary and how the first few days would suck. However, I also told her that she could have as much ice cream, popsicles, frozen yogurt, applesauce, and anything else that is soft that she wants. That seemed to help ease her fears a little. I also explained to her how much better she will start to feel in the weeks to come. The doctors and nurses were in and out of her area, asking her questions and explaining a lot of what all was going on. They had her take her inhaler again to help keep her airways open. Then the time came to take her back. This is when the tears really started to come. Of course, when they pulled her away, so did mine. It was such a long 45 minutes of waiting.

The surgery went without complications. She did great throughout it! Following her surgery, the doctor pulled me from the waiting room and explained to me all the details concerning the surgery and how her recovery should fall into place. When we reached the recovery area, Breanna was pretty loopy. She was fighting with the nurses, not wanting to be messed with at all, and being a total pain. Haha. When she realized I was standing there, she sat straight up, put her arms out, hugged me, and said “It is so good to see you again, Mom”. Lol, I could not help but to laugh at this comment. It had not even been an hour since we last saw each other. It was too cute and made me feel pretty good. At another time she was almost asleep when she shot up and told me Caitlin is nothing but a liar. I asked her where this was coming from. She proceeded to tell me that Caitlin is a liar because Caitlin told her that she would wake up talking like this….. This ended up sounding like a dying frog. Needless to say, Bre had a voice. After about 15 minutes of sitting there she told me that she had to go to the bathroom. We had to call the nurses over, who told us that never before had they experienced a patient needing to urinate that soon after a surgery. Leave it to my child to pull this one! Lol. We had to get the head nurse to approve her getting up so soon after the procedure. Yes, she actually had to go! After that, she told the nurses she felt real sick to her stomach. They ended up having to give her phenegran. Which knocked her out! She was completely asleep when her eyes popped open; she looked at her left arm and asked, “Whoa. What is that? Take it out because it is hurting my hand”. Breanna had just taken notice of her IV. She kept trying to pull her IV out because she just didn’t want it in. Talk about a fight we all had on our hands until the morphine and phenegran finally hit her. Then she slept for almost three hours. Typically they keep people in that area for about 45 minutes to an hour before sending them back to their room on the 6^th floor to be monitored for a few more hours there. As I said, we spent almost three hours in the OR recovery area. This happened because her oxygen levels stayed kind of low when she was asleep so they wanted to monitor her more there. A lot has to do with her asthma and lung development. She stayed between 88-92 on her own, so we had her hooked up to oxygen which kept her between 94-98 for the most part. Once she was able to start keeping her levels up on her own, we headed back to her room, where we sat for about another hour or so. She slept for the most part, except when the nurse came in and mentioned ice cream.

As we were preparing to leave, Breanna asked me if we could still go to Hobby Lobby for some wooden dolls she wants to color. (She also sat up in the OR recovery area and asked me about this. She actually asked a few times.) She was dead set that we were going to Hobby Lobby. The nurses said if she felt up to it then there was no reason we couldn’t go in, but only for a few minutes. Of course, we stopped by for her to get a couple of the dolls. Following this, we headed home. Once at home, she took a few naps on the couch, which is where she slept all night. Except when I woke her up to take something for the pain before it got out of control.

Today she seems to be feeling okay. Bre is just in more pain than she was. We told her tomorrow will probably be the worst, which is typically is. Then by Monday, she will slowly start to feel better. She just needs to remain patient and take it easy. Of course, she loves the fact that she can eat as much ice cream as she wants! She sent me out for more ice cream last night. She has more popsicles than I really think she knows what to do with, as well as a frozen yogurt and applesauce. She made an attempt to eat mac and cheese last night, but learned she is just not ready for it yet. So, she went back to juice, water, and the easy things to eat!

Thank you for all the prayers, love and concern! We all truly appreciate it all. Breanna is doing great for all that she went through. She’s a strong little trooper! Thank you for all the text messages, phone calls, comments & emails on FB, and any other way you have been in touch throughout this! We love each of you and are very blessed to have you in our lives.

Before the surgery. We were waiting to go to the Surgical Floor