Ear Tube Surgery

On Thursday, Chase had ear tube surgery.  We ultimately decided to go ahead with this surgery to help reduce all the antibiotics he's been on over the past several months due to these recurring ear infections and to get rid of all the excess fluid in his ears which has been causing Chase some hearing loss which has also caused some minor speech delays.  I have been super nervous about the surgery, but the more reading I did on the procedure and hearing feedback from folks about how much the surgery helped their kids, I was actually looking forward to getting this over with already.

The surgery was scheduled for 10am at Baptist Germantown Surgery Center and our ENT, Dr. Naidu, was going to be performing the surgery.  Baptist provided a great facility with great nurses who made us all feel at ease and Dr. Naidu is a fantastic doctor who came highly recommended from our pediatrician.  I highly recommend both of them. 

I was really nervous about the 10am start time of the surgery, since that meant Chase couldn't have anything to eat from midnight until after the surgery.  The night before we had "Operation Stuff Chase's Face".  We kept him up until about 9pm and kept giving him snacks and milk until he ready to pass out.  We were hoping this would cause him to sleep until about 8am and not be hungry the next morning.  Well, he woke up at like 6, but he never did complain about not having anything to eat that morning.  He was a trooper and we were so proud of him!

We got to the hospital at 9 and Chase played in the waiting room for about 20 minutes.  He loved the receptionist lady (I think her name was Ms. Mary).  She would play peek-a-boo with him from behind her desk area.  He had lots of eyes on him that morning and he was totally showing out.  He didn't have a care in the world.

After the waiting room, we went back to the pre-op area and changed him into his little gown, answered some medical questions, met the nurses, Dr. Naidu, and the anesthesiologist.   We were happy to learn that the anesthethic Chase would be given was only a gas and not through an IV.  That made us feel better since that was what we were most concerned about.

We waited in the pre-op area for about an hour.  Chase had a ball playing with the nurses and exploring this new area.  They had a little TV and we watched Toy Story for a little while to distract him when he realized he was getting hungry.

At around 10:15, the surgery nurses came back to take Chase to the surgery room.  Chase went back with them without crying at all.  Drew and I started getting a little nervous as we headed back to the waiting room where we were to wait until called back after the surgery.  Once I sat in the waiting room chair, I looked at the clock and it was 10:15.  At exactly 10:25, the phone in the waiting room rang for us.  Chase was out of surgery and the doctor was waiting to speak with us already!!  People have always said this surgery is quick, but goodness gracious that was quick!

Dr. Naidu said the surgery went great and that he had to remove some excess fluid from his ears that had remained from his previous ear infection a couple of weeks ago.  Our post-op instructions included only giving Chase some ear drops to prevent infection for the next 7 days.  Also, Dr. Naidu told us to be quiet around Chase for the first few hours.  His hearing returned to normal once the fluid was taken out so sounds were going to seem much louder to him than in the past.

After speaking with the doctor, we went back to where a nurse was rocking Chase after the surgery.  When we walked in, Chase still looked pretty heavily sedated, but was coming to very quickly.  The more he started to wake up, the crankier he got (which is totally normal we were told).  He was miserable and we hated having to see him like that.  The whole time I kept thinking that this was just awful for us to watch and I couldn't help but think of all the parents that have to really watch their kids go through something a ton more serious than this and thinking that I don't know how they do it!  It was one of the worst 30 minute periods of my life watching him be that miserable.

After the 30 to 40 minutes in the recovery room, the nurse let us go.  Once the fresh air hit Chase's face, he was almost 100% again.  He moaned and groaned a few more times, but for the most part, he was back to his old self!  He took a 3 hour nap once we got home, and woke up giggling and laughing...well until we had to give him the ear drops!  Those drops are going to be awful!

 

Just a couple days past surgery, we have been amazed. Chase is saying consonant sounds we haven't heard in months.  Just yesterday, he said "baby" for the first time!  We can't wait to see all the new stuff he can do in the coming weeks!