Hospitality
Published 18 years, 1 month pastCarolyn’s been eating a lot of ice cream and watching a lot of videos the past few days, and we’re sort of concerned that she’s going to get entirely too used to both.
This is all happening because on Thursday, she had her tonsils and adenoids surgically removed. I imagine that it’s never easy for a parent to have a child go into an operating room, but it seems like there’s something extra difficult when it’s a little girl who’s not yet three. I know that much younger children go into operating rooms every day; my sister underwent her first operation at the age of six months. As I grew up, visiting hospitals became a regular feature of my life, and I have little fear of hospitals or doctors to this day. Needles, yes. Those terrify me. But not hospitals.
It’s just as well, because last Tuesday, I ended up in the emergency room with a broken big toe. This was the result of an unfortunate interaction between my foot and the island in our kitchen, and at first I didn’t even think it was serious. There wasn’t much pain, no swelling or discoloration, and I could still move my toe just fine. One of the lessons I learned as a child is, “If you can move it, then it must not be broken”. Turns out that’s wildly incorrect. It’s entirely possible to move a broken appendage and not even have it hurt that much. At first. Eventually, though, the toe stiffens up and it starts to hurt like there’s no tomorrow.
So I went on crutches two days before my daughter went in for surgery, less than a week after Kat came off crutches, which she’d been issued after breaking an ankle a few weeks back. She’s still wearing an Aircast most of the time. It’s been a laugh a minute in our house, let me tell you. (Though I must admit I’m jealous of her Aircast. It totally looks like a jet-boot from Star Trek, right down to having what look like little reaction boosters on the back.)
So now Kat and I are hobbling around, whereas Carolyn is just about back to normal. In fact, she was running around laughing, singing, and playing pool within a few hours of the surgery. We figured we’d have to go back to signing with her while her throat healed, but nope, no need. The original plan was to keep her in the hospital overnight for observation, but about six hours after surgery, the doctor told us to go home. They’d never seen anything like it, they said, and especially not in a child so young. Sometimes I think she just might be a superhero-in-waiting, kind of like the invincible teenager on Heroes, most of which I watched on the emergency room’s TV while waiting to have my foot examined.
I suppose most every parent thinks their kid is super, but seriously, she’s an ironclad trooper. In a weird way, I’m inordinately proud of her, which is kind of like being proud of her for having brown hair, but there it is anyway. I fervently hope she rebounds just as powerfully and positively from all life’s injuries.
Anyway, given that she’s technically in recovery and we’d already planned for cold soft foods and lots of videos, we just went with the plan. Now we’re all caught up on recent episodes of The Backyardigans and have been through most of her Signing Time videos (her choice!), and are starting to think about how to wean her back to one show every third day or so. We’re currently hoping that going back to pre-school does the trick. Wish us luck.
Comments (10)
i learned the same thing when i was kid. “yeah, as long as you can move it, it’s fine.”
not always the case.
in college (as a music major) i was helping out at a recital and rolled a grand piano onto my big toe!
being the manly man i am, i shrugged it off, sat through the recital and walked all the way back to my dorm.
was it broken? i don’t know, i never got it checked (because i’m stupid).
but i had one bloody shoe/sock/toe by the time i got back…
sounds like your family is very resilient! must be good genes! :)
best of luck to you all!
Fingers crossed.
She’s playing pool? And she’s not yet three? I’d say a little parental pride is quite in order.
My daughter, the BatPup, is similarly invulnerable. The other day she was playing with something long and whippy and hit herself square in the eye. She blinked, looked vaguely non-plussed, and then went back to playing. She didn’t cry. And she’s all of 18 months old. This sort of thing happens all the time.
Superhero, I swear. She’ll be flying around the living room before long, and be demanding to be allowed to pop out to the Antarctic Ocean and dive-bomb Japanese whaling ships from low orbit. I shall, of course, tell her she’s not allowed to do that until she’s finished melting the tyres of every SUV and four-wheel drive in Australia. A girl’s gotta get her chores done before she can have fun!
Ouchouchouch. (Though the Aircast *does* sound cool.) I hope everyone at Chez Meyer recovers quickly and completely.
It was Thomas the Tank Engine and Backyardigans for us too – our three year old was pretty out of it for a few days after the good drugs wore off, and he was relegated to motrin/tylenol.
We can’t wait – 20 new Backyardigans starting in a week or two!
Speedy and complete recovery to all of you.
Ah, Signing Time. My daughter loves it too, and has learned much from it. And of course, one of the reasons we started teaching her signs was because of stuff I read right here. Been meaning to say thanks for that, so, well, thanks!
I am still amazed by her quick recovery. You guys should count your blessings!
Maybe it’s something that wears off AFTER three. Our 5yo boy was showing 3yo girl how his battery-operated helicopter could fan the hair on the back of her head. Naturally, the rotors caught her hair and ripped a bunch out, with a bit of blood spilled. She gave one quick shriek and came to find Daddy so he could “take this helicopter off my head, please”. Then she went back to playing. 5yo was still completely trauatised hours later, unable to even look at the helicopter again. She was last seen comforting him, telling him “The helicopter wasn’t bad.”
Wow, sounds like you’ve got a little trooper there. But I think most parents do think their kids are generally rough, tough, and better then the average kid.
But ouch a broken toe, *squint* sorry to hear that. But I realized the, little if you can move it thing was wrong in high school. In P.E. I ended up getting kicked in the hand, while playing dodge ball. After a few days my hand was swollen up to the size of a softball. I edned having a hand cast for breaking 2 of my fingers and having my thumb popped out of socket. And boy did I ever use that as an excuse to get away without do my homework for like a month and half. *grins*
Our 2yr old daughter had tubes put into her ears a few month ago becuase she had a massive amount of fluid that had collected. It was both frightening and a relief when she went into surgery because we knew she heard very little of what we said. Or at least she wasn’t hearing the corret pronounciation and therefore could not repeat it. It was affecting her and us because she wanted to communicate more complex things but her language wasn’t quite there to do it. She used some sign, but was limited to really basic things. She would usually end up on the floor screaming and crying.
On the ride home from the hospital everything was “Loud!! Oh, truck loud!!” The improvements in her language were almost immediate.
Best wishes and a speedy recovery to all.