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Tubes. In my pre-momma days I remember hearing a lot about these things. Never fully understood it. And if I’m honest? A little bit of me wondered why parents couldn’t just keep their kids healthy enough to avoid tubes.
There was a lot of logic in those thoughts, clearly.
We are just over 2 months out from getting tubes. And I am here to tell you that they are THE BEST THINGS SINCE SLICED BREAD.
Because oh my lands. From about August through December we were in the pediatricians office once or twice a month with an ear infection. Life went something like this:
- G get’s a stuffy nose. I take note and cross my fingers.
- G wakes up in the middle of the night screaming.
- G runs a fever.
- We take G to the doctor. They give her antibiotics. She is better in a day.
- Rinse and repeat times one million
So when her Pediatrician finally said, “I’m going to refer you to an ENT” I broke down crying.
Let’s just pretend that’s the normal reaction.
I was just so relieved that we were finally moving toward doing something that would make my baby better. There is nothing – no. thing. – worse than a sick kiddo.
We went in for our first consult with the ENT a few days after Christmas. We met with the audiologist first and she failed the hearing test with flying colors.
That made our decision easy. Tube-city, here we come.
I knew I wanted to try to do the surgery on a Friday, so that I could just take that day off of work with her and then give her the weekend to recuperate. So when the scheduler called me I asked for the earliest Friday that they could fit us in.
She responded with G’s birthday.
Well, shoot. I hadn’t considered that. I wrestled that in my mind for a few minutes before agreeing to it. On the one hand: she would have no idea it’s her first birthday. On the other hand: Is that really how anyone should spend any birthday? With surgery?
Be gone, momma guilt, I thought to myself. This is what we are doing because it is what is best.
As it turns out, this surgery is a breeze. I’m not sure how you measure time, but she was in surgery for exactly as long as it took me to go to the vending machine and stress-eat a Snickers bar.
At 7 am. Breakfast of champions, baby. Don’t judge me.
When we went back to see her in the recovery room she was being held by a sweet nurse – and she was HANGRY. I nursed her in that room and she dozed off, letting me hold her like I did when she was a newborn.
Then when it came time to leave a nurse came around the corner pushing a wheelchair. I just had to laugh. A year before, I had left a hospital in a wheelchair holding her, and we were about to do it again. What a way to spend her birthday – with a heavy dose of deja vu.
G was back to her usual antics by the next day – and was in full on party mode for her birthday party that Sunday. The recovery was remarkably fast & easy.
The improvements we have seen in her are many and were immediate. Her balance improved and that has helped her walking. Her speech has improved drastically. She passed her hearing tests with flying colors…which means I know she’s just ignoring me when I ask her to please not do something.
And, most importantly? Not a single ear infection since.
Hallelujah amen.
Bev Barger
So delightful! so sorry that G had to go through all this but glad she is doing good!