I'm glad that's over.

We had Alpha's surgery for her ankyloglossia done today. I'm not sure who it was more traumatic for, her or me.

We arrived at the place about 30 minutes early. Alpha read a Family Fun magazine while we waited. (The only others were People, Seventeen, and Car & Driver.)

We get back to the room, and Alpha is just fine while they are slapping monitors on her. She seems relaxed and not nervous at all. Eventually, they called in a male nurse to get her IV started.

Yep.

An IV.

On my baby.

Oh the horror!

Anyway, the nurse sprayed something on her arm that was supposed to get cold and numb the area. When it started getting cold, she started crying. He then tried to jab the needle into her arm.

Big mistake.

Alpha nearly shot out of the chair, grabbed the guy's hand, and tried to pull the thing out. Meanwhile, me and another nurse are grabbing her hands to keep them away while she cries. Unbelievably, I held myself together. It was the same type of situation as when Beta had to go to the hospital for that asthma attack last year. I had to be strong. I had to hold myself together. If I didn't, I knew my daughter would lose it.

Luckily they grabbed some nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and put it on her. Why they didn't do this the first time, I don't know. Come on, people! She's 7!!! Once they had the gas on her, they tried again and she didn't even flinch.

They then escorted me out and said they'd come get me when they were done.

Wow.

I've undergone plenty of procedures in my life as a patient. But never any as a mother.

This was hard.

I didn't cry, thank goodness. I had tears in my eyes but I didn't break down. Jim was waiting for me. He had wanted to come along and I reluctantly agreed. Boy, was that ever a good thing! He helped me hold it together while we waited. Later, he helped carry Alpha to the car and then into the house. His presence was such a blessing! I love him more than words can say sometimes.

We had trouble waking her up from the anesthesia. We finally got her awake and she started crying again. Who can blame her? Jim went to the pharmacy for medicine while I took Alpha home.

Her recovery has been remarkable! Upon returning home, she immediately requested a popsicle, since she had been told she could have all the popsicles and pudding she wanted. It hurt to eat it so we put it back. Not 2 hours later, she asked for it again. She opened it and immediately licked the entire length of it from the bottom to the top. I was like "what are you doing???? Be careful!!!" This made her cry again. *sigh*

She never went back to sleep once we got home. The tylenol with codeine must have made her hyper b/c it sure didn't knock her out. She sat zombified in front of the TV all afternoon with no nap.

As for her mouth, it must be ok. Here is what she's had to eat:

4 yogurt cups
2 or 3 pudding cups (lost count)
an entire pint of yarnell's strawberry ice cream
2 or 3 generous helpings of mashed potatoes
4 or 5 popsicles.

I think that's more than she'd eat on a normal day! While we were watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, she got up and got another yogurt. I told her that was her last one and asked if she was really that hungry. (She'd had the huge mounds of mashed potataoes for supper.) She said "I gotta find out if I win!" The stupid yogurt carton had a contest to win $20,000 and she kept eating them to open the lids and see if she'd "won".

*sigh* *again*

She's asleep now. I gave her a lot of advil like the doctor suggested. She cried some at bedtime, but I don't know if it's because everything really hurt or if she was just remembering the events of the day. Probably both.

Hopefully the recovery will be quick. Everyone I've mentioned it to says it will be.

And I hope I don't have to take either of my girls for any traumatic medical procedures for a long, long, long time!

Update: A clarification. When I said "sigh", I didn't mean it like "oh geez here she goes again!" I meant it as in "my poor baby! I'm doing all I can to help her but I know I can't make the hurt go away." I feel so sorry for her. I know it will all heal in time, but the first couple of days will be rough.