T's and A's gone.

Well Griffin had his surgery on Friday.
We arrived at 7am as requested, in the aftermath of the Cape Town flood.He was calm and cheerful, and didn't seem to notice that he'd been given nothing to eat or drink. I took him straight from bed and left him in his pyjamas, so I think he was still quite sleepy. He was quite excited about being at the hospital, and would happily tell anybody he saw that he was at the hospital because the doctor was going to make him better.

We went into the children's ward observation room and the anaesthetist came through to check his breathing and lungs, and pronounced him to have the healthiest sounding chest all week. He was weighed at 15.3kgs. We went into the ward, where we were to be 3rd of 4 ops by our ENT.

The 2 girl before us were getting grommets, and the little girl after was also having tonsils & adenoids removed and ears drained. Griffin was second youngest, but they were all under 4. He was very chuffed and happily settled into the Jail-like cot hospital bed. He lay down and got under the covers and everything.

After a while he was given 'Stopayne', and I was told to keep him still. Of course he then no longer wanted to be still so I took him to the play corner where he started playing. He suddenly got very clumsy, and started falling over and stumbling etc. I realised the 'stopayne' had been spiked with something stronger, and put him back in his jail. By this time he was really drunk, and was giggling madly. This got me laughing, and we both found each other very funny for a while. A nurse came past and said, ' I also want some of that', to which Griffin giggled and said, ' I ALSO want some of that!'. It was all quite silly.

We were eventually called to go up to Theatre at about 9am. I was allowed to carry him up while a porter brought his bed along. While waiting for our turn the nurses gave him a balloon, each child gets a balloon with their name and an adjective on it. His was 'Cute Griffin'. After nearly dozing off from the pre-med he perked right up and started playing with the balloon. Eventually he was out the bed and running around like a lunatic...


We were called in just before 9:30,and I carried him into the theatre and sat on a stool with him in my lap. I was told to put the mask over my face to show Griffin, and the anaesthetist then did the same - I had visions of both of us passing out on the floor like in that bed advert! I then placed the mask over Griffy's face, he sat still and smiling, and 'smelling the mask' while the gas was cranked up slowly until he quietly closed his eyes and drifted off. The doctor said, 'if there was a textbook way of doing that, that was it!'.

I was asked to lift him and place him on the operating table. The ENT told me to kiss his cheek, and then he took me out telling me exactly what he'd be doing and what was going to happen. He told me to go have some coffee and come back at 9:55, which I did. I must say the whole process was made very calm and friendly.

Pretty much on the dot of 9:55 the ENT arrived back saying he was done, and everything was fine. He said the tonsils and adenoids looked pretty bad, and were very fibrous. He said Griffin had had more infections than I realised. He also said his ears were filled with thick, gooey, fluid and took some time to clean out. He told me they were waking him up and making sure everything was fine and then they'd bring him to me.

Sure enough 2 minutes later a nurse appeared holding him in her arms, he was crying and sounded very miserable. I gathered him in my arms and sat on a chair and rocked him. He was clearly not happy and his first words were, ' Mommy I want to go home'. It was heart-breaking. I carried him down to the ward and sat in a lazy boy chair. After 10 minutes he fell asleep and had a good sleep. He woke up once or twice and cried a bit more and then asked to sleep in the bed. He had a long sleep. At 2pm he was offered some ice-cream and jelly. He was not interested in either at all. The nurse wanted him to eat or at least drink something before we went home, and preferably wee too. We offered him juice, yoghurt, and custard, but he still wasn't interested...

Then he suddenly said, ' I want some bread', and he was adamant. So the nurse brought him some buttered bread, which he wolfed down and then demanded tea! They were very surprised...

The doctor declared him fine and sent us home. That night he ate 2 more slices of bread and half a roll of rolos. He does get sore if he goes too long without Myprodol, but once he's taken it he can eat pretty much anything. He is already breathing better and sleeping more soundly at night, and after hearing how 'vrot' his tonsils were I am very glad we went ahead with the op.

I must say spending the whole day just being with him was lovely too. I literally just sat and held him for hours, and that night Quinn was away sleeping over at a friend so I just sat and held Griffy on the couch, with no bedtime or any routine, just being. It was lovely.