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It's been a bit stressful at my house this week and I am finally breathing a bit easier. 

I'm not the only one.  My daughter, who is not yet three, had her adenoids out this week.  I know, adenoids.  Not that big a deal.  But any surgery is a big deal and my family does not have a great track record when it comes to this stuff.  And Amy is not only young but small for her age, she weighs in at a measly 26 pounds.

We took her to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), which you might recognize as being ranked #1 in the country for pediatric hospitals by Child magazine.  We are so glad to live near such a great hospital.  When my oldest daughter was born, she had a crushed vocal cord due to a difficult delivery.  Apparently, the crushing usually occurs on the one side and this time, it happened on the opposite side.  This concerned the staff at Hospital at University of Pennsylvania (where I delivered) so they had her tested at CHOP, our first experience there.  She had an MRI as a newborn and was seen by multiple doctors over the next few days while in the NICU.  The doctors were amazing - and years later, it is just a bad memory.

That's why, when Amy's doctor recommended that we consider having her adenoids out, we went straight to the Ear, Nose and Throat department at CHOP.  We used the same doctor as before (Dr. Steven Handler) and felt very comfortable about the surgery.  Well, as comfortable as we could.  All signs pointed to her needing her adenoids out.  She had been constantly sick, she was not breathing well and she did not sleep well at night.  The X-rays showed that they were enlarged (the surgeon later referred to them as "huge" and "grossly infected").  So, we scheduled the surgery.

It was odd being at CHOP.  It put things into perspective for me.  While I fretted away about my own child, I listened as a family consulted with a surgeon about their child's open heart surgery.  I saw several children that were clearly cancer patients.  And while on the elevator, my husband commented, quite somberly, that you had to wonder what was going on with the one child that would bring an entire family of Mennonites to CHOP. 

And so, I know that my daughter's surgery was but a blip on the radar that day of all of the things to be done at the hospital.  And yet, they were still terrific and attentive.  I know why Child magazine gives CHOP such accolades - they totally deserve it.