Ear surgery

On Friday, March 21st, Logan had ear surgery. He had ear tubes placed in his ears, and removal of his adenoids (adenoidectomy). Like his surgery last December on his "boy parts," we were somewhat hesistant to go through with the surgery. Even in the last week, Logan seemed to be talking even more, and we were starting to have second thoughts. The ENT and his pediatrician both said he was on the fence. But we had talked with so many people who told us that it would be a good thing and not to put it off too long. And the ENT was slightly leaning more toward the surgery than just observation (of course, he's also the one who gets paid for it). So we showed up at the hospital at 6:45 am yesterday. Logan once again surprised us by being in a good mood when we woke him and even wanted to get dressed rather than staying in his pajamas. He didn't really ask for food or drink (he couldn't have any after midnight), and happily played with us and watched TV in the check-in area. This day was yet another day where every person who saw him went on and on about how cute he is! The first nurse or intern who took us back, a male, had Logan step on the scale. Logan grunted like he was climbing up a mountain or something; the guy said "that was so cute!", then as we walked down the hall, he saw another intern and said, "Did you see what he did? That was the cutest thing!" Then every nurse who came in said several times how cute he is. But we knew that already. :-)

We had to wait over an hour and Logan did great until it was time for the nurse to take him to surgery. He did not want to go with her. It's so hard to leave your crying child with a stranger taking him away. I wonder if he remembered the December surgery and what was going to happen. I think that was the worst part -- not being able to be with him during that scary time. Justin and I went to grab some breakfast in the cafeteria and took it to a bench just outside the waiting room to eat. The surgery went much quicker than we realized it would, because the waiting room receptionist/relative finder person came out looking for us; we had missed the doctor's consultation but she said he would find us later. It had only been 20-25 minutes since we left him. We went back to the recovery room and they brought him to us; he was sobbing-crying. They said he wanted the I.V. out (I would, too), but they couldn't take it out just yet. The nurse handed him to me and I immediately noticed he had a big scratch under his eye. I asked if they knew what it was but nobody did. I sat with him in the recliner they had and he was squirming, crying, trying to get the I.V. out (which by now was all tangled around us). He kept repeating something which we thought was "no water" but we finally figured out he was saying "no water bag," referring to the I.V. They brought us a cup of water (we requested water instead of juice -- we think juice made him vomit after his last surgery) but it was in a styrofoam cup without a lid, just with a straw. Really smart. That ended up all over him, so I started taking his gown off and the nurse questioned why, did he ask to take it off? I told her it was wet from the water. At least three different nurses kept coming in trying to see how they could help or to give him his pain medicine; finally one came back to take out his I.V. That seemed to help a little, but I quickly realized that the reason he wouldn't calm down was because of all the activity and possibly the noise level. Once one of the nurses turned off the light, he laid his head on my shoulder and drifted in and out of sleep. We were also able to finally get his pain medicine to him and we put the water in a sippy cup I had brought with us.

Somewhere during the recover the doctor came in to tell us how it went. He said the surgery went great. He found a lot of "thick, gelatinous fluid" in Logan's ears; in fact, he said he had to use the largest suction they had to get it all out. And his adenoids were quite enlarged. He said he thinks it will be a very successful procedure for Logan. That all helped to justify the surgery for us. It should be interesting to see how his next hearing test turns out (in about three weeks).

Thirty minutes after he took the pain meds, they told us we were free to go. So we got him dressed and into the wheelchair with daddy, and home we went. He was groggy on the way home but the ride was otherwise uneventful. As soon as he walked in the door at home, he said "eat." So I quickly made him a PBJ sandwich and chips and he ate his entire lunch, then two popsicles. He played for a couple of minutes then we read stories and I put him to bed (Justin was out getting his prescriptions filled). He took a nap for about 3-1/2 hours. I took a nap, also (more about my sleep that day will be in the next post). After he woke up from his nap, I think he was in pain again, but I gave him his medicines and we finally decided on a snack that he wanted. After the snack we watched the "Bee Movie" that Justin had rented (just okay). The rest of the evening went pretty well and he slept all night, just maybe a little restless. This morning when he woke up he said "hurt" and his voice was pretty raspy; he also had a new spot by his lip that he must have bitten or something. So we had a bit of a rough start to the morning, but it ended up being fine. (Justin had to work today.) He's taking a good nap this afternoon and we plan to color Easter eggs after Justin gets home. We're trying to take it easy today and hopefully go to church tomorrow morning for Easter Sunday. We'll just have to see how things go between now and then.