We began having trouble with ear infections when Parker was about 8 months old. He had a cold and got an ear infection. He had allergies and congestion and got an ear infection. And so on and so forth. By February, he'd had 4-5 infections in 4-5 months. I began asking questions about when P would be referred to an ENT in December and alerted his doctors to the frequency this was occuring. They agreed that we needed to go in if it continued. By late January, my mind was set and we went through the referral process.
He saw an audiologiest and e.n.t. specialist in late February and had tubes placed in early March. Our experience was ah-mazing! We couldn't be happier with his doctors, the staff, the facility...everything! Every single person he came into contact with spoke directly to him, touched him in a nurturing kind of way, and was overall super child-oriented! Because we've seen so many doctors lately with Gabby's situation, it totally stands out when you walk into a place (we are at a children's hospital) that is totally geared toward kiddos. We are so thankful places like this exist and, even though we don't have kiddos that are dealing with life threatening forms of disease, our experience here really made Shaun and I talk and consider donating to this hospital instead, or in addtion to, other charitable things we are a part of. It was just so wonderful! To my school friends, imagine a preschool teacher and assistant that are doctors. Wonderful!
Back to Park, so we arrived at the hospital early the morning of his surgery. Our biggest fear was not being able to give him anything to eat or drink. You've seen the boy. Eating is sorta one of his strong suits. Have no fear, however. Our P suprised us, as always, and did great!
"Okay, I dig this."
"Umm...why am I wearing a dress that's open in the back?!? Seriously guys, I have my jammies on. Do I need the dress thingy? Can we go back to that jeep?"
"Okay, this playroom is awesome! I was a little worried with the whole gown thing, but I guess I can pull it off. I can't believe they have all these toys at the hospital! Staying in that little room would have been torture, but this, this is nice!"
"I heard them saying this was the holding area. Umm...heck ya! Hold me here all day! I'll just ride around and check everything out. Oh wait. What do you mean they are ready for me? Ooh, I can ride my little car back to the OR? Tubular man!"
Okay, that was my attempt to quote my kiddo. I have a friend who's blog posts are hilarious and she does that all the time. Anyway, he rode his little car back to the OR with me. I held him while they put a gas mask over him. He did some serious flopping around and then was out like a light. And, even though its hard seeing your baby put to sleep and laying on an operating table, he had his doctor, 2 anesthesiologist, and several nurses by his side.
They came and got me about 18 minutes later (no, of course I wasn't counting). In recovery Parker was really upset. I rocked him for a good long while. After 30 minutes the gas is mostly out of their system. Like they said, 30 minutes of holding and rocking and my Parker was back to normal. Once home, we put him in his bed and he slept 5 hours! All in all, the surgery was successful and our P did great! One more punch in my mommy card I suppose. Let's just hope this one helps my little man for many month to come!
*As a side note, it is a little aggressive to do this. We could've waited longer. However, P has already been on 4 antiobiotics. The combination of possible antibiotic resistance and possible loss of hearing/delayed speech was, for us, reason plenty to go ahead with the procedure. As of now, Park doesn't have any hearing loss, delayed speech (child is plenty verbal, let me tell ya!) or antiobiotic resistance. We will go back in another 3 weeks for a final recheck!
So glad you posted about this! Jenna will get tubes in 1.5 weeks. I'm super nervous and even rethinking the whole thing. But, like Parker, she has had 5 ear infections in 3 months. Her ear infections don't seem to bother her too much (which makes me wonder if she's had them before without me realizing) so I keep debating on whether or not she needs the surgery, but the fact that she didn't do so hot on her hearing test and hasn't been able to clear the fluid in her ears for 3 months makes the doctor feel it's necessary. After reading your post, I kind of wish we were going to children's. If it weren't for our best friend being an ENT in Norman, I would totally switch. Thanks for the post!
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