This week we had some fun with personal hygiene. I put a baby toothbrush in Sage's stocking at Christmas, but until now it has gone unused. Tuesday night I smeared a tiny bit of children's toothpaste on it and she loved it! Then I made the mistake of saying "brush a brusha brusha," and she started brushing her hair with the toothbrush covered intoothpaste. Whoops!
I figured I would take the opportunity while one of her hands was occupied to trim her fingernails. This has been a traumatic experience lately, so I just started by clipping one nail and making a big deal about how pretty it was, then trimming one of my nails. Then I did one more nail, then my own again. Then I asked her if I could cut the rest of her nails. She thought about it, then nodded, and I was able to cut the rest of her nails with no fight!! When I was done I gave er the clippers, and she uncovered her foot from under her towel and started tapping the clippers on her toes. So cute!
Sage had surgery yesterday to probe her blocked tear duct (finally!!!). We arrived at the hospital at 5:15 AM after a slippery drive in the freezing rain. They brought us straight in and weighed her and took her temperature. She had lost weight since her last doctor appointment when I got in trouble for her chubbiness! Guess all that crawling on her hands and knees is a workout!
We went into a little hospital room and the nurse took her blood pressure. She HATED that. Then the waitig game began. We waited about 40 minutes and finally people started coming in to get things rolling. First, a nurse came in and brought some toys and a breathing mask like the one Sage would have to use to get her anesthesia. The nurse showed Sage how to use it on a baby doll and on herself. After she left, we showed her on ourselves too so she wouldn't be scared. I thought this was really nice and Sage seemed to like the nurse and feel a little more at ease with the toys and books. We also watched Disney Jr. on TV while we waited.
After a while the doctor and some nurses and a medical student came in and talked to us about the surgery. Then the anesthesiologist came in and asked me questions about Sage's health history. She cried when he talked to her, confirming what I had told the first nurse about her being scared of men, and leading him to order a sedative to give her before they took her to surgery.
A nurse came in soon after that and used a syringe to squirt what I later learned was morphine up Sage's nose. She seemed to be calmer and a little groggy after that. At about 10 till 7 we put her in her hospital gown and at 7 the friendly nurse, the surgical nurse and the anesthesiologist came to take Sage to the OR. The friendly nurse had an iPad and she pulled up a video or Mickey Mouse to watch while they walked. Sage was hooked and didn't even notice we weren't with her as they walked her away.
Matt and I went to the waiting room, where they had monitors with a list of patient numbers and status updates. Ours just said "in OR" the whole time, while others said little messages reassuring families. I'm guessing this is because our surgery was relatively short, only about 30 minutes. I tried to read some for my class, but I just kept looking at the monitor for updates. The doctor came out soon and said that she did great. They put a balloon in her left tear duct because it didn't want to stay open and went ahead and probed the right one as well. They brought us back to the same hospital room to wait for Sage to wake up.
After a few minutes, they wheeled in a wheelchair. A nurse was sitting in it holding Sage. She looked so tiny and pathetic in her hospital gown, hair all crazy, eyes closed and chugging a bottle of Pedialyte. She didn't even open her eyes until she was in my arms, finished her pedialyte and garbled something, handing me the bottle and passing out again like a little drunk. About a minute after that, though, she realized that she had a heart monitor taped to her finger and the IV in her other hand and she started raging and trying to pull them both off. She managed to get the heart monitor off while I held onto the hand that had the IV. I kept shushing her and she fell back to sleep. She whined a little when the nurse took out the IV, and then she was out, barely waking at all as we dressed her and took her home.
At home she slept until 2 PM. When she woke up she had a little bloody discharge from her eyes and nose and was a little puffy and groggy, but she was in pretty good spirits! She slept through the night and has been great since! I'm so excited for her to not have all that annoying gunk irritating her eyes anymore!
