Ear Tubes

Double-posting today with a quick ear tube update. The ear tube procedure yesterday went very well. We arrived at 6:30 am, sat around for a longish while trying to prevent our slightly irritable, fasting child from boarding the elevators or pulling a garbage can onto himself, and finally got called in for surgery prep. They talked to us a lot about the anesthesia and post-surgery guidelines, had us dress Quinn in some nifty hospital pajamas, and then it all began. We stayed with him while they put him out. That was a creepy thing to watch. They restrained ("hugged" in the doctor's words) him, put the mask on his face, he struggled a little, and rapidly fell asleep. This was a creepier anesthesia experience than we had for the MRI, because for that procedure, they gave him an oral sedative and a little flashlight toy to play with. It worked much more slowly, and with the toy, he looked like a teenager at a rave, which added some comic relief to the experience.

Anyway, after he fell asleep, they sent us away. We went down to the lobby to get coffee to go, and a few minutes after we sat down with our coffee in the post-op waiting room, the doctor told us the procedure was done. About ten minutes later our little guy was awake. He was cranky and cuddly. Once they made sure his vitals were all normal, he was discharged, around 8:30 am. At home he insisted on eating great quantities of food even though he was supposed to take it easy to prevent post-anesthesia nausea. By mid-afternoon, it was impossible to get him to "rest" as was recommended in the discharge instructions. He was HAPPY and wanted to play, play, play.

So all went well. It's too soon to say if this has had any effect on his sleep, hearing, number of ear infections, or speech development, but he was full of joy all afternoon yesterday, and all day today. More updates to come after further observation. Thanks for the positive thoughts, everyone!