Community Voices for Health

By:  Jessica DiRamio

As I write this blog post, I am sitting in the parent waiting room at the hospital.  My youngest daughter, Jenna, is in surgery to remove her adenoids and I am teetering on being a complete wreck and a cool, calm, and collected “frequent flyer.”  The complete wreck side of me is super easy to explain: I’m a mom and my baby is under anesthesia with a doctor removing part of her body.  Granted, those little adenoids were a troublesome pair, but a part of her body nonetheless.

Frequent Flyer

The frequent flyer side of me is thinking about how we’ve been to the hospital three other times for similar surgeries with our other daughter and that this one is going to be a breeze.  I feel as if I could perform the surgery thanks to the hours of internet research (just call me Dr. Jess) on chronic sinus infections, snoring, adenoidectomy and more.  This side of me is the one who went into the operating room with Jenna to hold her hand before going under.  I did this part once before, too, and that time didn’t go so well.  I was definitely not prepared to see my then 4-year-old middle child go limp as the anesthesia kicked in.  The doctors said it was all normal, but I don’t think any advance notice could help a mom’s reaction to this.  This time, even knowing the potential reactions she could have while going under, I could barely hold it together.  I tried to pretend she was just falling asleep like any other night.  It worked, and this mama didn’t shed a tear!  Walking out of the operating room, I saw my husband waiting at the door with a box of tissues in hand.  He knows me well.  This time, I didn’t need them.

Fast forward a few hours and now we’re home and in recovery mode.  Jenna came out of surgery great and despite a little grogginess, she’s feeling awesome!  I can’t wait to see if the surgery was a success!  Our other daughter had to get the adenoids removed two times thanks to a little regrowth, but has been sinus infection free ever since!  We’re hoping for the same prognosis this time.

So here’s to clear sinuses and our 4^th and final visit to the hospital!

Fingers crossed….