Tubes, again

Sweet little Sam had to get tubes in his ears again. One of the tubes came out at a visit to the ENT last year and the other was still there but trying to come out. Every visit to the ENT (every 6-8 weeks at this point) brought news of fluid on his eardrums and machine tests would show he wasn’t hearing much. However, at every hearing test (where they put you in the sound proof room) he would pass with flying colors so I wasn’t too worried about hearing. In September I asked if we should go ahead with a replacement because I was terrified of going in to the winter with a newborn and a three year old with constant ear infections. They didn’t want to rush things and suggested we wait. Eventually they decided it best to replace them.

Yesterday was the big day. Unlike last time, we had to wait until 1:00 for his surgery. He couldn’t eat anything after midnight and he couldn’t drink anything after 9:00 am. He was so good about this. He only told us once that he was hungry and even then it wasn’t a complaint…it was just a fact.

We had to arrive at 11:00 so he played lots of games to entertain himself. After taking the pain medication they took him to the treasure box. He picked out two airplanes that turned in to robots. He played with them the full hour we were in the pre-op room.

He also watched a little Max and Ruby while we waited. He told Lance he wanted him to take him back to the operating room. But once the nurse came in and said it was time to go he changed his mind. He wanted me to carry him there. He did get down once so he could push the button to make the doors open.

He did so well. He did exactly as he was asked. I told him the night before everything that would happen and showed him pictures from the blog post I wrote from the last time so he was pretty prepared. He was a little nervous the whole time but never once fought to do anything. When they put the sleepy mask on him his little face looked like it wanted to cry. Finally he was asleep and they walked me to the post-op room. About twenty minutes later they wheeled him in. He slept for about twenty more minutes.

His head rolled off the pillow and his eyes shot open. He immediately reached out to me with wild eyes and started to stand up. I picked him up and he ripped the blood pressure cuff off of his arm. He was done! He woke up a lot easier this time than he did last time. He asked for a milk shake (which Lance had promised earlier). We told him he had to wait for the ride home to get that but that he could have some apple juice and a snack. He finished the apple juice very quickly and ate some peanut butter crackers. Finally we could leave and by the time we were to the car you would have never known he had been in surgery an hour before. He had a great afternoon and by dinner time he needed to be outside running around. He had a lot of energy that had not been released. He slept great last night and is at school now. He just amazes me!