Bethany goes under the knife....

I have always thought that Bethany had huge tonsils.  Every time I would look into her screaming mouth, my first thought was "That can't be normal!"  I wasn't terribly worried about it though, because I have large tonsils too, and I have made it into adulthood just fine.  We did decide we would talk to the doctor about it at her birthday check-up.  A few days before her check-up we took her to the dentist and he told us about some the problems tonsils can cause other than sore throats.  Almost all of them fit Bethany, we just didn't realize her tonsils were the cause. 

Anyway at her dr. appt a few days later we got a referral to go to an ENT at Primary Children's Hospital.  That appointment was the 10th of Nov...  At first when the Dr. came in he looked at Bethany's history and realized she'd never had strept, and only a few bad sore throats.  He started talking about the risks of surgery and that it isn't an easy thing, there is pain involved, etc.  It was almost like he was trying to talk us out of it.  Then he started to examine her. 

The fist thing he said was "WOW! Those things are HUGE!  Can she eat without gagging?"  The tone of the conversation then completely changed.  It went from trying to talk us out of it to talking about how soon we could do it.  He said he thought his first openings were in about three weeks, and we should schedule for as soon as possible.
Fast forward to today....

My mom came over at 6:20 this morning to stay with the other kids while we took Bethany to the hospital.  She was so excited that she got to go all by herself.  She has been anxiously awaiting since we scheduled the surgery, but even more so since we attended a pre-surgery class last week.  I must admit though that we made it sound exciting, and skipped the whole pain afterward part...

We got all the paperwork stuff done and then it was time to get her pre-op health check done.  She changed into a gown (and was adorable BTW) and then the nurse practitioner came in to check her out. 

She was perfectly fine with everything, and I was pleasantly surprised.  No tears, no refusing to cooperate, nothing.   The only thing she was even hesitant about was the little pulse-oximeter- she wasn't quite sure about the little red light on her finger,

  We had to wait for awhile once all of that was done.  At one point we were the only ones in the pre-op waiting room, so a child-life specialist came in and started talking with Bethany.  It was basically the same stuff from the pre-surgery class, but Bethy was excited because she got another hospital buddy.  That is a little doll that is dressed in a hospital gown just like she was.  The lady also helped Bethany picked out a wagon to ride back into the OR.  They filled it with a bunch of toys, including a little Tinkerbell spinning wand.  She was so enthralled by it she barely even noticed when it was time for us to separate at the "see you later spot"  I KNOW I had a harder time at that point than she did!    

 The doctor came to talk to Tim and I in the waiting room about 45 minutes later.  He said everything had gone really well and that he was again amazed at the size of her tonsils...  He said that her tonsils size was 9 out of 10, and that her adenoids were an 11 out of 10.  He also said that she would soon be able to breathe better than she ever has in her whole life.

This is my sweet Bethany asleep after the surgery.  We hung out at the hospital for a little while and then they released her to go home.  We were home before noon...

Alix and Miriam were so concerned about their sister, and were very sweet to her all day :)