Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Ear Tubes and Adenoidectomy

Tyler hasn't been able to hear properly since May. It's November. He's done being deaf and I'm done hearing "what?" after everything I say. The doctor recommended the adenoidectomy as well (as long as he's in there, might as well). I was more nervous than Tyler. We told him that he gets to stay home from school, eat jell-o, popsicles, pudding, and ice cream instead of real food, play video games, stay in his pajamas all day, and watch movies in his bed. What could be better than that?! We also explained that he wouldn't feel anything. They would give him some medicine that would make him fall asleep and when he woke up, it would be all done. That's the easy version. We decided not to tell him that he would feel like crap when he woke up. Here's our little guy waiting for his turn:
Thank goodness for video games. He was scheduled to go into surgery at 11:15. It was almost 12:30 before he went in. He hadn't eaten since 8:00 the night before. I'm glad we had something to keep him distracted. They finally took him back and I went off to find Ben and I a sandwich. I had barely finished half my turkey and swiss before the doctor came back and said it all went well and we could go back to the recovery room in a few minutes. It was a huge relief to me.
When the nurse came to take us to him, it was all I could do to walk calmly behind her. She said that our faces would be the first thing he saw when he woke up. Not true. I heard him coughing and crying while we were still walking down the hall. I wanted to push her aside and run to my little boy! But when we got there, he was still pretty out of it and disoriented. He had a sore throat from the breathing tube, but mostly just wanted to go home. The promise of popsicles and spiderman tattoos helped.
He needed a little oxygen, but that's okay. We told him it was like a Darth Vader mask. That made it a little more tolerable. (The blue wrap is covering his IV)
Daddy even took a couple hits of the oxygen. Crazy Daddy will do anything to make his little boy laugh. I think he's secretly been working on his Darth Vader imitation, it's getting pretty good. He kept asking when we could go home. After a little while they took out his IV, we put on his spiderman tattoos and put his pajamas back on. The nurse wheeled him out in a wheelchair. On the way home he asked if we could stop at Burgerville for a milkshake. That's my boy.
We dropped off his prescriptions and came home. He went in the house and I got his backpack out of the car. When I walked in the house I saw him dribbling his soccer ball all over the house. I think he's going to recover quite quickly.
We've been home for about an hour and he's already had a milkshake, a cup of jell-o, 2 popsicles, and a pudding cup. I'm glad to see he's feeling better and has his appetite back.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. It's much appreciated.

3 comments:

Emily said...

Aidan had that done about..oh wow...a year and a half ago. ..he also came home and acted like nothing happened. I'm constantly amazed at the resiliency of kids.

mom/grandma debbi said...

What a trooper!

David and Sara Lenz said...

Way to go, Tyler! I am glad everything went well. :)