Charleigh is doing great! She is happy, bouncy and back to normal, well except that she can hear now!

For those interested I’ve highlighted the events of Charleigh’s Yesterday.

We left the house at 5:45 AM. Charleigh was very excited that we were going somewhere “In the middle of the night”. She counted stars all the way to Amarillo.

We arrived at the Surgery Center at 7:30. Upon registering the lady asked if we would be paying in full, I told her I needed to talk to Rita because we had a payment plan arranged. She gave me a blank look and informed me, “Rita is in Dallas, and we don’t do payment plans”. I hid my inner explosion with a sweet smile and informed her that the Doctor had assured me a payment plan would in fact be happening. She got up to consult a supervisor and returned with a smile. Yes, arrangements were approved and my $50 down would be just fine. (Thanks Mom and Dad) I gave her my proposed payment plan of $50 a month and she decided that $61.25 would be more appropriate. Ok, fine. I handed over a $50 dollar bill and Charleigh then handed over a shiny new penny to add to the payment. The receptionist took a penny out of her pocket and added it to the total thus making our remaining balance $735 even. Charleigh was overjoyed that the pretty girl had given her a penny to pay for her surgery.

The sweet lady then let Charleigh stick little labels on 12 envelopes that would be used for the monthly payments. Charleigh decided right then that this place must be a great place to work if you get to stick stickers on stuff. She told the receptionist that she would come back and help her more some day.

We then made our way to the waiting area. Charleigh found the toys immediately and I settled in to a chair prepared for a long wait. I placed my coffee nicely on the table beside me, and then put Charleigh’s teddy bear and sweater on the floor beneath my chair with the 12 envelopes and the book I brought along to read during her procedure. I then kicked off my sandals, pulled my legs up in my chair and sat cross-legged. I placed my gianormous Bible bag on my lap, pulled out my journal and pen from the side pocket and unzipped the bag thus allowing my Bible to completely cover my chair. I was set, prepared for the long haul after all this is not our first surgery in this family and I knew that when they said 7:45AM they really meant around 9:00. That very instant a man walked through the doors and called out Charleigh’s name. She looked up in surprise, but not as much surprise as I did! I struggled to zip up my Bible and gather my things. While uncrossing my legs I dropped my journal and then I couldn’t find my shoes. It took us a good 3 minutes to gather all our stuff all the while Charleigh was explaining to the inhabitants of the room that she didn’t get to “wait” in the waiting room. Once I finally gathered the teddy, sweater, book, 12 envelopes, journal, Bible and coffee we followed the nurse down the hall.

He took us into a room to prep, Charleigh was so excited she couldn’t stop giggling. She put on a cute little gown covered with Tweety Bird and Bugs Bunny. She was so impressed with the little socks they gave her, she kept asking if she would get to keep them after we were done. I told her I didn’t think so.

While we waited in our little cubicle “Tammy” walked by. She popped her head in and looked at Charleigh “Wasn’t I there when you were born?” Charleigh replied, “I think I remember that!” Charleigh was quite impressed that Tammy was so smart she would recognize her even from when she was a baby. I didn’t explain that Tammy had since assisted in two of my surgeries and that she had attended our church on a few occasions. Of course even if she hadn’t she probably would still remember Charleigh. Charleigh has that affect on people.

The room was pretty busy with lots of nurses, assistants, anesthesiologists and students coming in and out. Charleigh was sure to smile at each one and carry on conversation with everybody. Each time someone asked if they could do something she’d tell them “Whatever you say, you’re the one who works here.” In no time they were rolling her off to get her tubes. She gave me a big wave and blew me a kiss. I was escorted to a different room and told to wait. I decided against pulling all my stuff out and moving in so I just grabbed the book instead. About 5 minutes later the Doctor came in and told me he was done. What! They charge that much for something that can be done in 5minutes! Why could we not have done that in the office? Oh well, this is the world we live in. I was informed that she had done just fine and she would be in recovery for a while and they would bring her in when she woke up.

She was soon rolled back in and she was not happy! Apparently she reacts to anesthesia the same as her mommy. Emotional doesn’t quite describe her state of mind. They put her on my lap and I tried to calm her down and she told me she was “too fuzzy”. I asked if she needed to throw up and she said she did. She then vomited for a good 30 minutes. The nurse had told us we could leave whenever we were ready but Charleigh just wanted to get back in bed. They said we could stay till we were ready which pleased me. (This is not so at all surgery centers, I have been kicked out of bed before I knew whom I was or even how to walk) We didn’t stay long though, Charleigh was mad that they didn’t have pillows and that they were too noisy. I gathered all of our stuff up and she rode out to the van in a wheel chair. The wheel chair ride lightened her spirits a bit.

I drove to Wendy’s bought some chicken nuggets and parked so Charleigh could lie down and rest for 30 min or an hour. We had to go to Wal-Mart for earplugs and I didn’t want to take her in there while she was still loopy. As soon as I parked Charleigh situated herself for a nice long nap, she took off her sandals an put on the hospital socks (they did let her keep them) After she went to sleep I got out my book, once again thinking I would actually get to read. Nope. She laid there for about 3 min then she hopped up and said she wanted some chicken. She ate my remaining nuggets and asked if I’d buy her some of her own. By the time I backed up and made it through the drive thru she was back to her bouncy happy self. She felt fine! No pain no nausea just unbridled energy. She’s been fabulous since.

Some time during the day Amy called and told me that I had $100 dollars donated towards Charleigh’s procedure. She had put up a post about my baby on her blog and created a pay pal donation button. So very exciting! Thank you! Thank you Amy and Debbie!

Janae bought us lunch and gave Charleigh a pretty pink necklace and a glittery get well card. Or maybe I should say NaeNae gave them to her. That’s what my kids call Janae.

We headed home after that picking Joshua up on the way. We got back to town in time to pick up Kaleb from school and Charleigh got to play with her best buddy Kali for 30 minutes. Today she is back to school with buisness as usual; only today she can hear what the teacher is saying.