Since there are so many great stories from the past 10 months of Elliott's life that haven't made it on to the blog yet, I am starting "Flashback Fridays" to share some of those moments in Elliott's life to date that are too precious (or too momentous) to leave behind. So, since I mentioned last week that Elliot got tubes in his ears, I though that would be a good place to start.
To give you a bit of background - Elliott got his first cold back at the beginning of January. He was still incredibly happy while sick, but since he was super congested (and I was a nervous momma), I decided to take him to the doctor. We discovered that he had not one, but two ear infections. Between then and the end of May we were at the doctor almost every other week. Any time he got a cold, and even when I thought he was fine but was just taking him for a check-up, the doctor would say he had an ear infection. She was concerned since continued fluid on the ear can impair auditory development, and each time she put him on antibiotics to clear up the infection.
After 5 rounds of antibiotics the doctor recommended that we visit the ENT to discuss tubes. We were already familiar with Dr. Braganza since we visited him when Elliott was 4 days old and tongue-tied. He is a great doctor, so we knew Elliott would be in good hands. He scheduled us for surgery the following week. The good news is that we took him for a hearing test before the surgery, and his hearing wasn't impaired. The doctor giving the test even said Elliott was one of the most responsive babies he had ever seen.
On June 6, we drove the 6 blocks back to Cottage Hospital where Elliott was born to check him in to out-patient surgery. Thank goodness they had coffee in the waiting room - I look tired!
Once he was admitted we were taken back to the pre-op room. Elliott wasn't allowed to eat for 5 hours before the surgery, so he was a little antsy.
Look at my sweet little guy. I knew we wouldn't be allowed to watch the surgery, but was surprised when we didn't even get to be with him when they put him under anesthesia. The nurse just swept him up and carried him down the hall to the OR. We might have been concerned, but trusted Dr. Braganza so much hat we didn't worry.
The surgery went very well, although Dr. Braganza said his ears were infected again while he was inserting the tubes. Elliott was pretty upset when he woke up from the anesthesia, and we had a difficult time calming him down. Thankfully there was large fish tank in the recovery room which caught his attention and eventually brought him back to the happy state he normally lives his life in.
After the surgery we were back on the peace corps bathing schedule for about a week since we didn't get earplugs right away. Finally we decided we needed to do something, and threw him in the new shiny kitchen sink to hose him down.
While the word "surgery" has a scary connotation, especially when it involves a 9 month old, the whole experience was really a positive for us. We've been doctor free for the last several weeks - and it's amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing!