Visitors & Ears

My mom flew in to visit. She brought my niece (Nikki's daughter) with her. Kiara is so cute. They were here during the time that Alex had his tubes put in. That was VERY nice. With Kiara here, Brenton had someone here to help entertain him. He loved playing with his cousin.

Alex had tubes put in his ears on March 5th. The procedure went really well. After we got to the hospital, and were settled in, the nurse told me that children do not usually wake up from anesthesia well. The majority of the time they are really upset and inconsolable. I understood what she was telling me, but in the back of my mind, I thought that I'd be able to console him.

The procedure itself was VERY simple. They didn't even put an IV in him, they just put them under general anesthesia. They let me go with him into the operating room. Once back there, the anesthesiologist put the little mask on him. (They warned me before hand that they really fight that, also.) It was really hard to sit there while strange adults held my baby down and put the mask on him. After Alex was asleep they had me leave. That was such a difficult thing to do.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, the nurse came and got us. The Doctor met with us. He said it went well. His ears now had tubes and were free of fluid. Alex would be waking up in a couple of minutes, and they'd come and get us when he was awake.

We sat down, and about one minute later, a nurse came and got us again. He was awake. As soon as the door opened to the recovery area, I could hear Alex crying. When we got back to our little area, I took Alex from the nurse, hoping that he would start to calm down. It didn't help. He kept crying, screaming and throwing his body around.

After about 30 minutes, the nurse came back in and said he'd probably calm down if we took him home. So, after receiving the instructions on how to care for his new ears, we took him outside, crying, screaming and all. Putting him in his car seat was terrible. The poor valet even had to help. Our drive back home was about 30 minutes long. Alex finally stopped crying when he fell asleep about three minutes from home. We called my mom (who was at home with Brenton & Kiara) and told her we were going to drive around until he woke up.

He slept for about an hour and then we headed home. After we got home, he ate a HUGE meal, and then started acting better than he's been in months! It was amazing. Immediately he started walking better (he'd been walking since December but he still stumbled a lot). He also started babbling. Since that time, he's learned about 15 words that he can say. ex: shoes, eat, kitty, etc..

We have had some stress since that time. Brenton and Alex both got a nasty virus just days after Alex had his tubes put in. Instead of Alex's tubes draining like they're supposed to, they got plugged. Since his ears couldn't drain off the fluid, he got ANOTHER ear infection. For some reason the anti-biotic drops we are supposed to put directly into Alex's ears hurt him (no idea why), he was again on another oral anti-biotic. Eventually his tubes unplugged. He was doing well for a while, but we are once again in the same situation.

Both Brenton & Alex have colds AGAIN, and Alex's ears are not draining. Unless they start to drain by Alex's ENT appointment tomorrow, I'm afraid he's going to have to start another oral anti-biotic. I'm starting to get frustrated. I thought the tubes were supposed to take care of this. He been on almost constant oral antibiotics since December.

For those of you who have been through this, I'm open to any advice you could possibly give me. I just want my boy to be well.

I have no idea how parents could possibly go through a child being really ill. Mine have only had viruses and colds, and it's emotionally draining. I can't imagine having to watch them suffer through a major surgery or difficult medical treatment. For those people who are dealing with chronically ill children, you are in my prayers. What strong parents you must be. You are truly heroes in my eyes.