Autumn’s Ear Tube Surgery

This past Thursday, May 31, 2012, Autumn had her Ear Tube Surgery. For those who don’t know much about the procedure, they basically place these teeny tiny little tubes in the ear canal to help properly drain the fluid that can back up in the ears. Autumn was a candidate for the procedure because she was up to 7 ear infections in a 7 month span, meaning she gets an ear infection every 4 weeks!!!! Poor kid, right? I am so sick of giving this poor girl antibiotic after antibiotic so I am very hopeful this is the answer to her chronic infections. Owen had this same surgery done when he was 18 months and he has not had a single ear infection since he had his tubes put in, so we are very hopeful that it will be the same outcome for Miss Autumn.

We arrived to the hospital bright and WAY to early at 5:30am! We felt much more relaxed this time around since we have been through this same ordeal with Owen a couple years ago. Thank goodness for my amazing Mother who offered to have a sleepover with Owen so we didn’t have to drag him out that early with us. Once we got all registered for the surgery they called us back to pre-op at about 6:15am. We got her all gowned up for the procedure and basically hung out until they came to give her some ‘Pre-Sleepy’ medication, which was about 7:00am. About 5 minutes after they gave her some medicine to relax her before putting her under she was definitely feeling the effects of the medication. It was pretty sad to watch her in this state it looked like she was on some crazy drugs, but at the same time it was a bit funny because she was acting hysterical. Anyway, at 7:30am the anesthesiologist came and got her to take her back for her procedure. The hardest part in my opinion because you have to just hand over your child to an unfamiliar person who is going to put your child to sleep. It’s a terrible feeling as a parent because you basically have no control from this point on. You are stuck in a waiting room praying for peace and guidance for the doctors hands. So after 20 minutes they called us back to come see our baby girl. Thank God everything went perfect, as expected since it is such a minor procedure. I just hate the thought of my kid having to be put to sleep. We spent about 20 minutes in the recovery room waiting for her to fully come out of anesthesia, which is not a fun sight, and then we were released and ready to take her home. It was a very early and exhausting morning, both mentally and physically, but we are so thankful for the tubes to be put in and that everything went so well.

Since both our kids have now gone through this, I am going to show some side by side comparisons of Owen & Autumn’s surgery experience.

 

Here they are waiting for Mommy to finish registering them. 2 Differences to point out; 1) Owen was 18 months and Autumn is 22 months and 2) Owen is a morning person and Autumn is not (can you tell by her face?).

The Ankle Bands

They are both very active and energetic kids so they loved walking the hallways in Pre-Op area and they both had all the nurses oohing and ahhhing over them. Little stinkers.

Mommy loving her babies to calm the nerves on both ends.

Since we have been through this once before we knew what to expect while waiting so we came prepared with entertainment; the iPad and Books. Things are so much easier the 2nd time around!

The iPad was a lifesaver but I can definitely go without seeing another Team Umizoomi episode for a long time.

Autumn in her ‘felling good’ state after some relaxing medication. So Sad :*( She was hilarious though. At one point, Brandon was tickling her back and she looked up at me with this glazed over face and said, “ooh, that feel good mommy.” hahaha. She was also laughing hysterically at absolutely nothing. 

The drive home still feeling a bit sleepy.

Autumn fell asleep on the ride home and stayed asleep about 45 minutes after we arrived home. It worked out perfect to help let the anesthesia  wear off. Once she woke up she was mainly back to her normal self.

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Bath time the day after needs to be with precaution so they don’t get water in their ears because it can lead to post-op infections….

Its pretty funny to look back after having 2 kids and realizing how paranoid you were as a first time parent. With Owen I was so nervous about getting water in his ears after his surgery so I bathed him in the kitchen sink, with Autumn there were no worries at all so I just let her bathe like normal just with cotton in her ears. Hahaha.

 

So thankful everything went well and so glad to finally have the tubes in. Now we pray for NO MORE EAR INFECTIONS for the Burgess Kiddos!!!!