Anxiety

Yes, that is what I will call this post because that is what I have been dealing with for the past week! I always say that having sick kids is one of the hardest things about being a parent, but having my child go in for surgery is even worse!
Last week we took Bradley to an ENT to see about getting tubes in his ears. Well, the doctor looked at his tonsils, and we talked about some of his other symptoms, and he decided that he probably had sleep apnea. Yes, I say had because he will no longer deal with that problem. Yesterday Bradley got his tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put in his ears.
I don't know why I have been given the blessing/curse of being a worrier, but I feel like that is one of my lots in life. Ever since the appointment last week I have been having all sorts of anxiety. First, I couldn't decide whether we should do all three or just the tubes, and then, once we decided, I couldn't stop stressing about the surgery.
Not only did I let myself stress about the surgery, but I started worrying about Halley and Connor and babysitters, and the list goes on and on. If anyone has any ideas for a remedy to being a worrier, please, let me know.
Anyway, so far everything has been fine. They gave Bradley some special "relaxing medicine" before they took him back. This is how he looked when I got to the hospital.
Yah, he was totally out of it. I don't think he even realized I came in the room. It was kind of weird to see my child on drugs. I was actually wishing they could give me some of it! He was sooooo calm.
Anyway, so the surgery went really well. They got a whole bunch of junk out of his ears, and we can already tell a difference in Bradley's hearing. A couple of times during the day today he told me that everything is loud.
When the other kids and I got to the hospital, Bradley was doing really well. He wanted to get out of bed and play - so they did. They played with the balloons Wes' parents had delivered to Bradley's room. They were all laughing and having fun -even Bradley! Of course, he was still on drugs . . .
The picture at the top was taken at this same time. I think Bradley was really excited to have all of us there. We even went for a walk to the fish pond in the hospital.
And this is a way cute picture I got of Connor in those same few minutes! Connor has been having a rather difficult time with all of this. In fact, I told Wes he will probably have to come home and take Connor to lunch tomorrow. Connor is craving some major one on one time!
Wes spent the night with Bradley at the hospital. Neither one of them got much sleep, but Bradley is sleeping very soundly right now. He ate really well today too. I was very surprised. He even wanted to eat some of my Cheetos! The doctor told me he probably wouldn't even want solid foods for a week. We mostly stuck to popscicles, water, ice and soup, but he was starving and wanted a bit more so we let him eat other stuff too. He just took small bites and was fine.

All in all, things have gone so much better than I thought they would. My biggest concern now is that I have to wake Bradley up every four hours and give him medicine. He hates the medicine, and it's difficult enough to convince him to take it when he's wide awake. We shall see. The recovery is supposed to be a week or more. I know it could get worse, but we will keep praying and hope things stay about the same. He has had a very good attitude, and I am so glad we decided to do it now!
If only they could come up with a way to go in and remove my anxiety gland . . .