Hannah's Recovery

It's been a week and 2 day's since Hannah had tubes in her ears and got her tonsils out. It's been a long week and a half in many ways, but I'm glad we did it. She did fairly in the hospital, but that night and many nights thereafter were HORRIBLE. I didn't know when you get your tonsils out your nose is really runny and stuffy. This was especially bad at night when she was laying down. She couldn't breathe through her nose so she had to breathe through her mouth. This of course, hurt her throat even more, the poor girl. So for the first 3 or 4 nights she would walk up crying after about 4 hours. She was generally still so sleepy and out of it that we couldn't get her to take her medicine. This made it all the more challenging and tiring for everyone. Luckily the really bad stuffy nose only lasted for about 5 days and then she was able to sleep.

The days have been much better. She's definitely not herself yet, but she's doing much better. Once we convinced her that the yucky tasting medicine actually does help her feel better, things have been much easier. She's still on her pain medicine every 4 or 5 hours, but that should go away as the scabs start to fall off. She's a lot grumpier than normal and a lot whinnier, but I think every day she's feeling better.

Her appetite hasn't been the best, but we're doing what we can. My parents came to visit on Friday night and took us to dinner at Chuck-A-Rama for Kenny's birthday. We choose this place because it has a lot of soft food for Hannah and it was a wise choice. She ate like crazy, everything from mac and cheese, french fries, ham, ice cream, and many others. It was so nice to see her eating and drinking so much. Hopefully once her throat heals she'll be eating and drinking more. Until then, maybe we should try Chuck-a-Rama again.

As far as her hearing and goes we've noticed a few changes. The day after her surgery I had taken the other 3 kids to the store and left Hannah asleep with Kenny. Apparently while we were gone they were sitting on the couch and the fridge kicked on. You know the sound of the fridge when it kicks on, it's very soft almost not noticeable sound and probably something most of us don't ever really pay attention to. Well, Hannah looked up in surprise at Kenny and pointed to the kitchen. Thinking about it, she's probably never heard the fridge kick on. She apparently thought it was us coming home so if she thought it was the garage door opening it must have been a significant sound to her. Also, this morning before we went to speech I started the car in the garage. When it was time to go I opened the door and Hannah put her hands over her ears, said 'loud, loud' and pointed to the car. I've noticed lately normal everyday sounds are considered loud to Hannah. I bet it must be strange to all of a sudden be able to hear. I wonder how long it will take her to get used to it.

Her speech is about the same. I have noticed she's using air in her throat a little more. Her B's and G's are becoming a little more clear (something her speech therapist also mentioned today so I know it's not just in my mind.) I'm so excited to start hearing good, clear words from her. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for her to not be able to talk.

All in all everything is starting to fall into place. We saw Dr. Hanks on Wednesday and he said she looks wonderful. Her throat is healing great, her ears are dry, and everything looks as it should. I feel very blessed that everything went well and that Hannah can now hear and will hopefully be able to talk soon.