The no good, rotten appendix

Remember in August when we spent 4 days in the hospital for Lucy's burst appendix and infection?

And then she had the drain placed? (bubble)

With the promise that they were going to remove said appendix in 6 weeks.

We didn't forget.  Lucy started school and had a rough go for the next 6 weeks.

So much anxiety over so many things, you could tell that a huge weight was on her shoulders.

In early-mid Sept. we were able to set the date for her surgery.

She asked when it was and I told her, she put it on her calendar.

And we talked about it A LOT.

I tried to compare it to my upcoming c-section and Clay's previous sinus surgery.

The day before surgery we dropped Zoey off with Grandma and it was date night with Lucy.

We went to Leo's place and had pizza for dinner and then played on the arcade games.

Leo's is pretty much her favorite place.

And then we stopped off at Cold Stone for some ice cream.

Once we were home her realities began hitting her and she was of course terrified.

My favorite sister bought her a minky couture blanket that she absolutely loved! 

http://www.softminkyblankets.com/

So we broke that out to try and cheer her up. It did. :)

But reality soon hit again and Bella had to cuddle her and look at me with evil eyes. "Why are you torturing my puppy?"

It was well past bed time and she was heartbroken , but I remembered that it would be a good idea to take a bath since it would probably be a while post op.

I had just washed her hair the other day and I wasn't willing to deal with long,wet locks that late in the night.

So I had her wear a shower cap, which she thought was hilarious.

I called it Lucy's dorky hat.

The next morning we were up bright and early, like 4:30 am early, eww.

No tears tho, so that's a good sign.

Her biggest concern was the IV.

I had been told that they would place it before surgery, but while there they said they would do it after she was put out, bonus!

My Mom, sister and I had collected random toys, activities to keep her busy while we were at the hospital and healing at home.

We had about two hours to kill before surgery so that's what we did.

And as we got closer to surgery they had her put on another dorky hat!
(So glad I did that the previous night and made it into something funny.)

The Dr. had told us the surgery would last about 1.5 hrs, he hoped, maybe longer.

So Clay and I went down and bought some breakfast and started coloring a picture for her when she woke up.

I can't remember how long surgery was but it went by wicked quick, like 45 min? I was totally not expecting it!

He said it looked really good in there and that's why we wait for 6 weeks of healing.

He took pictures for me!  Seriously best Dr. ever! Well if he had let me in the surgery that would have been better but we'll take what we can get right?

Only one parent could go back and be with her while she was waking up.

Clay didn't have a choice, I went back there. Poor fellow married a control freak.

The nurse led me around the halls and as we got nearer I heard lots of yelling and knew exactly who they belonged to. :(
She was completely hysterical.  I sat with her and the nurse and I tried to calm her down, eventually some pain and chill meds were given to her and she calmed, I think that took longer than the actual surgery tho.

Here we are waiting in recovery to go home.

Bless her Dr. Dr. Lemon he closed the wounds up with super glue so we didn't have to worry about bandages.  The drain had bandages and that was a nightmare.

So I was very grateful to not have to deal with those again.

I took a picture of her abdomen to keep track of the incisions to make sure they weren't changing but she made me promise not to show anyone.

So don't tell her I showed you,

Just kidding! I'm not THAT bad of a Mom.

She now has 4 scars on her belly. A round eraser size one where the drain was placed on the right side, and the other 3 are under an inch long. One above her belly button, one on her left side (Where the bully appendix came out), and the other down closer to the pubic bone. They've healed up beautifully!

You can see that the weight has physically been lifted from her shoulders, she's still a crazy 6 year old but so much happier knowing she doesn't have to do that again.

Her surgery was on Thursday and she was back to her normal antics but Saturday.