If You Need To Lose 4 Ounces Really Fast...

Have your tonsils and adenoids out.  No, really.

Av had hers done yesterday.  It's the end of a long journey of borderline sleep apnea, constant trouble breathing through her nose, and a couple of bouts of tonsilitis.  I can already tell a difference in the way she breathes, and her voice is a little different - higher and sing-songy.  Was it difficult watching the burly anesthesiologist carry her off to the O.R., with a Buzz Lightyear doll clenched in each little fist and a trepidatious slant to her mouth?  Well...

I went out for coffee, while GW stayed behind in the waiting room.  On the way back in the van my coffee cup exploded for some reason - lid came off as I picked it up to take a sip and all 24 ounces of vanilla soy frapp (thank goodness it was cold, not hot) spewed all over the inside of the car and all over me.  Yeah.  So I swung into Rite Aid to buy some paper towels, thinking I'd try to clean up a little, but by the time I was finished at the checkout I was feeling a distinct urgency to get back to the surgery center.  So I bagged the clean-up, raced back and found out my instincts were on target: GW had already been called back to the recovery room.  I hurried in, directed by the nurses.  I heard the horrible sound of some poor child screaming at the top of his or her lungs, a really primal, angry, traumatized sound.  As I got closer I realized it was my kid.  I pulled back the curtain and found her flailing on GW's lap in a reclining chair, howling, her eyes blank and staring into space.  They had warned us about this in pre-op.  It still kinda made me wonder if they had actually given her the anesthesia before the surgery.  Anyway, I just wrapped my arms around her as best I could and tried to soothe her, although it quickly became apparent that she needed to do this crying and raging, and after a few minutes I was glad she was doing it.  She was clearing out the ballast, and letting the world know how super-pissed she was that this had happened to her. There was a little bleeding, which pissed her off even more; now she was messy on top of everything else.  She yelled at the nurse who tried to wipe her face and batted the cloth away.  GW tried to restrain her a bit to let the nurse do her job, and Av yelled at him, too.  I translated for everyone; she was howling out her words and no one could understand her but me, for whatever reason.  She started screaming that she wanted to go home.  GW told me later that when he'd been called back and they were taking her off the gurney and putting her into his lap in the chair, one of the nurses had suggested she hug her "Moo Moo" (referring to the stuffed cow she had brought from home along with her Buzz Lightyears).  Avery bellowed at her:  "HIS NAME IS MOO COW!!!" You go, girl. We just did the best we could to keep her comfortable.  After a bit they gave her a shot of hydrocodone, and she fell asleep.  She woke up twenty minutes later completely herself again and drank a bunch of Sprite.