Under the knife

Sweet Olivia has been congested for years. Ben is convinced it is because we live in south Texas, but whatever the reason, our poor Livi constantly has congestion running down her throat and nose. She has gotten to know Dr Raney at Texas ENT well, just like Isabelle, and after being on drug after drug we finally consented to a major sinus surgery in the middle of August.

Olivia was brave as she had blood drawn and has gotten quite use to Dr Raney numbing her nose and then sticking a vacuum up her nose and down through her mouth. She gags and her eyes water but when he is done she smiles and almost always cracks a joke. She is a good little patient and handled all of the pre-op appointments like a champ.  And just like her sister, is considering a career as an ENT.

Ben and I have put our girls under anesthesia both multiple times before. We've paid for 3 sets of ear tubes, 2 frenectomies and an adenectomy between the two of them but the sinus surgery was the worst by far. Dr Raney ballooned all 4 of Olivia's tiny sinus cavities and then removed small amounts of bone from her lower two. Meanwhile he removed her adenoids and vacuumed out lots of mucus and puss. After nearly a whole hour under the knife, Olivia was finally done and had a terrible time waking up. She was confused and in A LOT of pain as she came to. She ripped out her IV and had blood gushing out of her nose. She screamed that the surgery didn't work and Ben and I did our best to comfort her and help her wake up. They didn't want her to lay flat because of the amount of blood but she wasn't awake enough to sit up. The nurses could not give her more pain medication since she had ripped her IV out until she was awake enough to swallow so our poor little girl sobbed and sobbed in pain. It was a rough hour or so and all three of us were SO glad when she finally got some good pain meds and could recognize us and where she was. Olivia was even more thrilled when they released us to go home.


After a rough 48 hours, our little trooper was up and about and doing her best to feel normal. We were told the recovery would take a few weeks before her sinus swelling would be gone and until then, she would feel like she had a bad sinus infection. Olivia was sadly used to the uncomfortable feeling though and was her chipper self in just a few days. We are grateful for a good doctor and are REALLY praying that this is the solution Olivia is in desperate need of. Fingers crossed!