Monday, January 19, 2009

With Flying Colors




Sunshine had new ear tubes put in and adenoids out on Friday.  Here he is all set for surgery in his "funny pajamas" and then afterward, watching CheeseBob and enjoying his orange popsicle.

He did just great!  Six months makes such a difference.  Yes, it was only June when we had the first set of ear tubes in and it was all we could do to keep him in the prep room that time.  Both of us!

This time I took him alone and he was perfectly entertained and calm while we waited the hour and 15 minutes to go to surgery.

A note on the tubes.  His first set was meant to last one year.  They made it 6 months before they both fell out in November, probably due to the cold he had then.  The one ear drained its first and only time during that cold (the other never drained, at least not visibly).  

He's kind of an enigma with his ears.  The surgeon mentioned after this surgery how very retracted his ear drums are and that the hole from the previous tubes hadn't closed after the tube fell out of his left ear.  He said Sunshine will likely have problems with these tubes also and with his ears for several years to come.  Taking out the adenoids is supposed to help the ears drain.

The funny thing is, he hasn't had an ear INFECTION the whole time he has been home (he came home with a double ear infection, but nothing since then).  He just has constant fluid in there.  It has affected his hearing and he has made significant progress with his speech since June, I assume due to the tubes.

It will be interesting to see how these new tubes (supposed to last TWO years, so the dr. is banking on them staying in at least one, since the ONE year tubes lasted six months) and the adenoids out make a difference.

In any case, he was a little subdued on Friday, but he only woke at 1:30 and 5:30 for Tylenol in the night.  Saturday night he slept through and Sunday night he was awake at 3 am with a fever (to be expected, they said).  

Today I kept him home from school, because of the fever, but it seems to have subsided again.

He is quite a little trooper!


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