Over this past autumn and winter Elaina has continually been on and off antibiotics for middle ear infections. She always seemed to have fluid in her ears and the infection was just ending or beginning. The pain she experienced from her ear infections kept her awake at night; which also kept Mommy Megan and Daddy Dave awake at night.
We experienced the same series of ear infections with Zach which caused issues with his being able to hear. Stick your fingers in both ears and then talk - that how Zach was hearing. All mumbles and unable to hear words properly enunciated. So once we hit five ear infections with Elaina we made an appointment with the ENT to see about ear tubes.
Before Elaina was seen by the ENT last Thursday (Jan 19) she had two more ear infections which brought her to the "magic number" of seven ear infections.
This morning we brought Elaina into the Midwest Surgery Center in Woodbury at 6:30 AM. Her surgery was scheduled for 7:15 AM. The surgeon was running a little late this morning so we brought Elaina back into the surgery suite at 7:30 AM. I held her in my arms and everyone in the surgery suite sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with me as the anesthesiologist placed the mask over her nose and mouth. Elaina fell asleep in my arms. I then laid her on the surgerical table and left the room. I posted to Facebook at 7:35 AM that Elaina's surgery had begun while waiting in the doctor's consult room. I didn't even have a chance to flip through 20 pages of the magazine I was paging through when the surgeon came in. She said the fluid in Elaina's ears was thick, goopy, snot like pus and the worse she's seen in awhile. She then said we made a good decision in having tubes put in because she'll now be able to hear much better. Although, this made me feel bad that we didn't get her in for surgery sooner. But you can't go and get tubes after only two or three infections it needs to be several. Elaina will need ear drops for the next week three times per day in each ear because of all the goopy icky junk in her ears.
I left the surgery consult room and returned to the main waiting room to wait for Elaina's name to be called so I could go back to the recovery room to see her and comfort her. I picked up my coat and sat down and then posted to Facebook at 7:44 AM that Elaina's surgery was done. So it was really done by 7:40 AM or so. Yes, it is that quick!
My name was called just a few minutes later to meet Elaina in recovery. She was crying in the recovery room and reached her arms out to me when she saw me. I picked her up and she snuzzled her face into my neck and continued to sob. She smelled like "hospital" which I presume to be the left over anesthesia smell. Poor baby! I sat down with her and rocked her while giving her a bottle of apple juice which she drank fast and wanted another bottle of apple juice. After drinking half of that she snuggled with me a bit more then we were ready to venture home.
As I sit here typing this entry Elaina is playing on the floor with puzzles in the other room with Dave as if nothing has happened. Kids rebound quick!
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