Grateful

September was brutal. It was one of the most stressful months I've had in a long time.  So, I was more than ready for October to get here. October HAS to be better than September!  I suppose Charley and I are technically still in the process of recovering from her surgery last week. Actually, we're recovering from the last few weeks in general. We've had a lot going on, between Charley's visit with her dad and grandparents and her recent surgery, and even though we've both had ample time to rest, I think we're still both in recovery mode.

Probably Charley's favorite
part about getting surgery. I
finally let her make a
Build-A-Bear.

As many of you know, Charley had surgery at the end of September. She had her tonsils and adenoids removed, and her second set of ear tubes placed in her ears. Prior to the surgery, I heard all kinds of horror stories about recovery from tonsillectomies. A few of my friends had kids heal very quickly, but the vast majority told me of long recoveries, and long nights. So, going into surgery I really didn't know what to expect in terms of the weeks following the operation. I'm not sure anything could've prepared me for what I had coming.

There are times in life when being a single parent is more challenging than normal. It's always a challenge, don't get me wrong... There's never a break! But with a child going into surgery, I definitely felt the stress of doing it on my own. Fortunately, I have great support from my family, so I wasn't alone in taking Charley to the hospital. My dad and step-dad came along to sit with me. I likely would've had my whole family there, but my mom had surgery the week prior, and couldn't drive the rest of the crew to the hospital. Regardless, I was grateful for the support from my family.

Charley was incredibly brave about going to the hospital, and even going into the operating room. When she came out, though? I wouldn't say she was brave. More angry than anything else. Very angry.  Apparently it's normal for kids to come out of anesthesia kind of agitated and confused, and a Charley definitely fit into that category. As she was wheeled into her hospital room room, Charley glared at me and wailed, "I want to go home NOW!!!!" then yanked at her IV and shrieked,"Take this thing off of me! I want this off of me, NOW!!!" I climbed into bed with her and tried to calm her down, as my dad frantically tried to figure out how to distract her. He ended up running to my car to get her blanket, and by the time he got back, she was in slightly better spirits. Just after my dad had left the room, the nurse removed the IV, and at that point Charley was significantly less irritable. Phew. Two hours after surgery, Charley and I were back at home, and resting.

Later that day, I began offering Charley some food from the stash I'd created in the fridge the previous weekend. Of course, she wanted nothing to do with any of it. "Is this all I can eat?" she asked, "I just want dinner." I actually didn't have much real food around, because I wasn't prepared for her to refuse treats. So I did some scrounging around, and after offering some suggestions, Charley insisted on eating tuna-noodle casserole. Weird, right? It surprised me, but she ate it, and went to bed on a full stomach. She wasn't a fan of being woken up in the middle of the night to take medicine (that feeling was mutual), but she did it, and really didn't complain of much pain.

Preventative pain control really was effective. The second day of recovery was much like the first day. Charley actually ran around the house, wanted to play, asked to go to the store... Really, she didn't seem like a kid who'd just had surgery. But I was more than happy to go along with it! Then, the third day hit. BAM! Suddenly, Charley was beginning to feel some pain. It was hard for me, because I knew she wasn't feeling well, but at the same time, that little bit of pain encouraged her to rest and give her body some time to heal. Since then, Charley has been on a physical and emotional roller coaster, and I've just been along for the ride. I apologize to anyone who's head I might have bitten off in the last two weeks....To say I'm tired would be a gross understatement, and I don't handle being tired well... Ha!

I took four days off from school (which meant four days of sub lesson plans...yuck), but really didn't want to use up a large portion of my sick days in the first three weeks of school. So my aunt, who has been my savior several times in my life, flew in from Denver to stay with Charley for a couple of days, so I could get back to work. Charley wasn't initially thrilled to have someone other than me staying with her all day... But by the second day of my aunt's visit, Charley was her biggest fan. She was only here for a couple of days, but that couple of days made such a difference for me.

When I went back to work last Tuesday, I had no idea what I was walking into, but I was glad to be back. School has been in session for less than a month, but I already missed the kids I work with. I was surprised to realize how much they'd missed me, too. One little girl walked into my classroom, saw that I was there, and an enormous smile filled her face. "That's who I couldn't wait to see!" she said. She bounded across the room, an gave me the biggest hug. I almost cried. It was so sweet, and so genuine. Those are the moments that make the challenging times in the classroom totally worthwhile. It didn't just make my day...it made my week.

The rest of the week was kind of crazy. Charley started back to school, and although she did fairly well, she had some pain and didn't want to wake up after nap time. Her little body was exhausted. But she was happy to be back to school and back to her routine. I was, too. She's almost there, as far as getting back to normal. She's still waking me up between 1am and 3am, because her throat hurts (which is impacting my sleep significantly more than hers...ha!), but overall, I'm pleased with how she's healing.

I was thinking this would be kind of a slow weekend, and we would catch up. Well... That's my plan for tomorrow, because it certainly wasn't the case today. This morning, Charley and I went with the team girls from the gym to do a surprise send-off for Olympic hopeful, Maggie Nichols. It was fun to see the girls and my fellow coaches, because I've barely been in the gym in the last month or so! After that, we went home for a short time, before one of my friends came to pick Charley up for a playdate. Charley went along with her family to the apple orchard and had the BEST time. When she got home, Charley and I got dressed up and went to a wedding reception for a long-time family friend. The day was packed, to say the least. But it was probably the most excitement Charley has had in awhile, and she enjoyed every moment of it. With that said, I'm hoping tomorrow will be a little bit less exciting. And I'm saying a little prayer that Charley sleeps past 6. It's wishful thinking, but a girl can dream, right? On that note...It's time for bed. Fingers crossed for a restful Sunday. Goodnight!

She loved the apple orchard!