Tubes

Jason has always had problems with his ears. His ear problems go all the way back to his 6 month check-up. He's 3 3/4 now so these problems have been ongoing for over 3 years now. If you want the full rundown or need a refresher check the label ears and all my previous posts about his ears will come up.

We had a reprieve last winter and he only had 1 ear infection the whole winter. I thought maybe we were done with ear infections, maybe he'd just grown out of them. Unfortunately I was wrong. He got his first ear infection in September and by mid-December had been on 5 rounds or antibiotics. Finally I got fed up, switched Drs, and asked the new Dr about tubes. The new Dr said he would recommend tubes now given his history. So on December 20 we got a referral to an ENT.

Now being so close to the holidays I figured it would be after the first of the year before we could get in for a consult. Imagine my surprise to find out that they had an appointment available December 29! I didn't have to think long on that one. We met the ENT who said Jason was definitely a good candidate for ear tubes and said to go ahead and schedule surgery.

When I talked to the lady who schedules surgery for this dr I told her the next available appointment would work great and mentally began thinking about time off of work, a sub for Dan and all those details that I obsess over. I was shocked when she said he had an opening January 4. Not the most ideal way to spend our last official day of break but it also meant no one had to take time off of work. Dan was slated to return to work on January 5 but I didn't have to go back until the 9th.

Our report time to the hospital was 7am. Oh boy was that hard for us. We were on vacation. We had grown accustomed to going to bed at 3am and getting up at 10am. Never the less we made it, very tired, to our check in time.

Jason got all hooked up and dressed for surgery and then he got to watch some cartoons with his trusted friend Froggy. The whole surgery was super quick. We spent more time waiting in the room before and after surgery than he spent in surgery. Everyone Jason met was so enamored by him. He had his sweet, charming personality turned up to 10 that morning.
After surgery he came back to the room complaining that his ear was hurting. Poor baby he couldn't understand or process why his ear was hurting so much. We had to stay an hour after the surgery was done just to make sure he didn't have any complications from the anesthesia. Once we were clear we headed home and all took a glorious nap.

Jason woke up from his nap just as happy as could be. If you didn't know he had surgery you never would have guessed it. He was chipper and joyful the rest of the day. He has his two week post-op appointment today. I feel like things are going well but we'll see what the Dr says. He is also going to get custom ear molds made so he can take baths again. Right now we are stuffing his ears with cotton when he showers. Maybe ear molds will work better??? Dan said they didn't work for him but I'm willing to try, after all technology has come a long way since he was 3.