Hanna's Surgery

December 18th Hanna had her tonsils removed. The picture above is before we left for the surgery and the ones below are after we returned home.

Hanna is very interested in medical things. She loves to watch shows like Mystery Diagnosis and although she was scared about the surgery, she was also intrigued to find out what it was all about. Her surgery was scheduled for 9:00 and we were to be there by 8:00 am. She wanted to have a couple of sips of water in the morning so she got up at 5:30 am. We arrived at the hospital a bit before 8:00 and it wasn't long before they had us settled in her room. She checked out the sparse furnishings and put on her hospital gown. She was pretty shocked that it was open in the back :). At about 8:50 the nurse came to get Hanna and they walked down the hall together to the room where she would be prepped for surgery. We watched her walk away from us, she never even looked back, just followed the nurse down the hall, gown flowing freely behind her.

We got coffee and went back to Hanna's room to wait. I was sitting there thinking that maybe we shouldn't have done this - maybe it wasn't really necessary when the door suddenly opened. I had a clear view of the clock on the wall in the hallway behind the doctor that was standing in the now open door. It was 9:08 - I immediately thought something was wrong. I checked the clock again and it really did say 9:08, I asked what was wrong. He said "We are done!" - What???? Oh my goodness, how amazing it that? They can put someone out, perform a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy and come to see the parents all in a matter of less than 20 minutes?

She was so brave and really has done great recovering. She has done her best to do exactly as the doctor told her to do. Drinking something every 30 minutes, eating lots of soft foods (read ice cream, jello, shakes, Popsicles, mashed potatoes etc...) and trying to do only quiet activities.

Apparently, Holly also had her tonsils out during the procedure... Hanna wrote her a letter asking Holly to forgive her because she did not know that they would also take Holly's tonsils - poor girl felt so bad for the little elf!


Rylee really just did not understand what was up with her sister. We all tried our best to explain to her that the doctor went in Hanna's throat and took out her tonsils and that Hanna has a sore throat and has to rest because of it. We were pretty sure she was still not really getting it. The first time we had someone visit, Rylee told them "My sis have surgery - da Doctor take big knife and cut her throat (using hand motions to draw her finger all the way across her neck)". Hanna and I just stared at her for a minute - pretty much speechless! "Oh my goodness - Rylee not like that!!! Inside her throat!" Yikes!!!

Our corrections don't seem to have any effect, because she is still telling everyone that we see the same details. Maybe she likes the totally shocked responses that she is getting!