Thursday, December 16, 2010

Ear tubes!






Today Peyton had surgery to put tubes in his ears. It was a tough decision, especially for me who didn't want my little boy to have to be under anesthesia, but after 5 ear infections in 8 months and many many sleepless nights up with a screaming child, we determined it was for the best. We were further justified when he went to the ENT and they tested his eardrums for movement (a measure of fluid behind them) and they were deemed "flat" basically meaning they weren't vibrating the way ear drums should because of the pressure. Everything went great. I only got teared up when they took him back and he started screaming and reaching for me. Zack came and stayed until he was released. He had a ball before the surgery with so many nurses to play ball with him, which was good since it was 6:30 in the morning and an hour before his actual surgery. That's a long time to keep a 20 month old occupied who's been not allowed to eat and drink since 8:30 the night before. Afterward he cried for about an hour or so, but was pretty cooperative. He even took the tylenol with no problem that the nurses said was not the good tasting stuff he's used to. Right before we got home he finally stopped wailing and is now back to his old self. The doc said we made a good decision because the left ear was all pus behind his eardrum (and is still draining like crazy) and the other was a mix of pus and mucus (yuck). He's showing no signs of having any ill effects from the anesthesia. The doc said he'd most likely puke at least once, but he's had a whole cup of milk and some crackers and is playing and acting fine. Amazingly, he's even keeping the cotton ball in his left ear. He's such a little trooper. I thought we'd have a lazy day sitting around watching TV, but he's not in the mood to sit still. I wish he'd go nap so we could get some errands done since he's doing so well, but he doesn't even seem tired. So it looks like we made a good decision. I can't wait until he's healed to see if there are big changes in his speech and sleep patterns.