Our sweet Arabella had to get tubes put in her ears this morning. And let me tell you, our kid is a trooper.
We've battled sinuses, congestion, and ear infections since she was 2 months old. When she developed her last one a couple of weeks ago (that initiated the worst she's ever felt and a reallllly long week for us), it made for 5 in 9 months time--with only a month between this one and the previous one. So and ENT referral we received...
It didn't take the ENT Dr. long at all to decide that tubes were probably our best option.
--fast forward two weeks to today (after another pre-op visit with Dr. Roebuck to answer all of daddy's "I'm an engineer and I have to understand everything about everything--especially when it involves my baby girl" questions--
But first-- Of course we had to go get a special treat last night before our big girl's big day ;)
We were the first surgery of the day meaning we had to be there at the hiney crack of dawn. Nay--before the hiney crack of dawn. We were able to pull up to the hospital and spend a little time in the very dark parking lot letting Bella and daddy gaze at the moon and stars (one of their special things they do together)... I was not looking forward to us all having to get up and going that early (and to have her awake for 2 1/2 hours before surgery with nothing to eat or drink...). But we were first and that was so nice.
 |
| She woke up with a smile on her face :) All snuggled in her car seat, ready to go! |
Not to mention we got some pretty good snuggles too...
So we hurried up and waited in the holding room. But they had a TV and we found Mickey Mouse on it, so all was well :)
Is she not the most adorable little patient EVER?!
But then came the time that Hunter and I had both been dreading--when they actually had to take her back and we couldn't go with her. It's unnerving to let anyone you love go back into surgery knowing there's nothing you can control--it's completely heart shattering when that's your baby back there. And if she screamed, we didn't know how much control we'd have over ourselves to let them take her! But let me tell you what that toddle tot did... Our sweet nurse Grace came up and said, "Ok let's go! Do you want to go find some fish?" And my little angel who had been glued to my hip all morning and was currently snuggled in on my chest reached out for that sweet nurse and never looked back. No fussing, no whimper, no scream, no reaching back, no tears. Beautiful.
So Hunter and I snuggled up in the conference room (not really snuggled so much as sat on the loveseat together...), and as promised, the Dr. and his nurse came to get us within 8 minutes time. The fluid in her ears was very thick (and there was a lot of it), and it never would have drained on its own. We received our confirmation that this had been the right decision. Now we just had to wait for them to let us go back into recovery and hold her while she was coming out of anesthesia (the other part I was dreading pretty fiercely...)
The hospital only allowed one of us to go back to recovery with her, so of course Mama got that duty. It was a very weird thing to see my little girl all spaced out and groggy, crying and whining and attached to more wires than I could ever tell you what for. Thankfully, she was doing really well and really just wanted all of that stuff off of her. I had been warned that this would be the worst part, that she'd probably be mad at me, and she would most likely be fine as soon as we walked out (and the nurse's could tell because they commented several times on how calm I was, haha). Since she was doing so well, we were able to get out of there after about 15 minutes of waiting (instead of the normal 30-45), woo hoo! And sure enough, as soon as we took off all of those wires and put her jammies back on, she started drinking (something we couldn't get her to do before that but that we needed her to do) and saying "leggo!" No more tears; ready to get outta there.
Since she was such a trooper and we were already there, we decided to head over the breezeway back to the Dr's office to have swim mold ear plugs made for her. I really didn't want to have to do bath time without them--do you know how hard it is not to get any water in someone's ears when you're bathing them?! She rocked this visit too. They didn't expect us to come because most kids are too grumpy after anesthesia for the parents to worry about it. But our AJ--she had it together. Again, no crying or fighting as the nurse pushed the clay into her ears and molded them in. Only at the very end did she start fussing, and then sweet girl would point at the door and say, "I'm all done...I'm all done". Poor thing had been through the ringer, but she came out swingin!
And now she'll be rockin' a bright blue and watermelon set of ear plugs anytime water is involved :)
For those of you who knew this was happening, thank you for your prayers over our angel. We know this is a very simple and routine procedure, but any time your child is being put under and having any type of procedure, it's nerve wracking. We appreciate you keeping us on your hearts.
We're anxious to see what all our little babbler says now--we just thought she talked a lot before!
And as for now... since we've been up since 5 and at the hospital at 6...we're taking a nap :) Goodnight!
love, angie
No comments:
Post a Comment