Life Sans Tonsils

Katherine had her tonsillectomy last month and has fully recovered. She did return to school after a week, much to her surgeon's chagrin when we saw him for the follow-up. No, we hadn't asked permission for her to go back to school, but after a week she was down to a sore throat, off her pain meds, and suffering a massive case of cabin fever. It was time and we all knew it. The doc acknowledged that she had a quicker and better recovery than a majority of kids her age. Apparently the older you get the worse the recovery from a tonsillectomy.

She no longer snores, thank the heavens. And while she doesn't sleep more hours at night, she's achieving normal sleep which effectively has doubled the amount of rest she's physically getting. Dreams/nightmares are a periodic occurrence, not an all-night-every-night affair. She falls asleep easily. She wakes easily. And she stays awake during the day at school. Last year, all these things were challenges.

There's so much to Katherine, it's impossible to pigeonhole what is really going on with any aspect of her being. The tonsillectomy was a physical fix, clearly one of the easiest permanent things we could do to help her out. We'll continue doing what we can. She's such an amazing kid, full of potential and possibility. While there's a long road ahead of her to being comfortable in her own skin, she's come so far in the past year it's remarkable. Her story is still being written and I have no doubt the tale will be nothing we could have imagined.

It'll be better.