Drew's Surgery - Wednesday, June 3rd

Drew has had ongoing problems with his ears, mostly frequent ear infections, since he was a baby. He has previously had 2 other sets of ear tubes placed, one set at 15 months, and the second set at 3 1/2 yrs. old. When he is "in between" tubes, he gets ear infections back to back to back. Most recently, he had four ear infections from March through May leading up to the surgery! And, at his last ENT appointment, he had a hearing test which showed some mild hearing loss. This is most likely caused by the fluid sitting in his ears that can't drain when his tubes are out.

This time, because the doctor said he shouldn't still be having such problems at his age, he has to get a new set of tubes and his adenoids removed. Removing the adenoids is supposed to help with the constant runny nose. Whenever the nose starts, I know the ear infection is coming! So, hopefully, no runny nose, no ear infection!

Here are some pictures from the big day!

In the prep area

Getting the "giggle juice"

feeling good . . .


feeling really good . . .


gone!

He was just being silly and wanted to hide under the warmed blanket. :)

The surgery went very well. He did not like the IV that they had in his hand when he woke up, and he let us know about that! He was coughing a lot from the tube that had been down his throat, and was disoriented from the anesthesia. But, after I rocked him and sang to him, he got a few doses of pain meds, took a rest, and finally felt ok enough to head home after about an hour and half recovery.

Once we were home, he rested for awhile and surprisingly wanted to eat. We were told to encourage eating as tolerated to help keep his jaw active so it wouldn't get sore from being held open during the adenoid procedure. He also wanted to drink and did not complain of pain in his ears or throat. He was prescribed pain medicine, ear drops, and an antibiotic.

By Saturday morning he seemed to be feeling much better, though he did have a slight temp of 99. We had made plans for Uncle Mark and Aunt Beki to take him out for the day since he had been cooped up and to help me out too since Gee-off was at a workshop in the morning and was going out that night. Well he had a great time, but didn't want to eat when he got home. Unusual.

At first, I was sure he was just exhausted. But then I noticed his eyes were pink and he was warm. Turns out he had a temp of 102!! So I had instructions to call the CHOP ENT if he got a temp over 101.3. The ENT seemed to think he had a virus not related to the surgery. I called the pediatrician and he agreed. So we treated the temp with Tylenol and it came down slowly by Monday.

He is feeling fine today, no fever, and got to go back to school today too. He was so happy to get back!

Me too! :)