Your First Surgery

After nearly a year of fighting incessant ear infections, we finally scheduled your 1st surgery to get ear tubes as well as to remove your adenoids (which is supposed to help clear up all the congestion problems). After the surgery was postponed once due to another virus, you were well enough to get the surgery on Sept. 6. I wasn’t all that nervous about it because I had heard so many times how common the procedure is and how much of a difference we would notice in the reduced number of illnesses you would catch in the future.

We took you to the Cy-Fair Surgery Center at 6:30 a.m. They called us back to get you dressed for the procedure, and I was surprised to see a little toddler-sized hospital gown set aside for you. It was just like the adult ones with the ties in the back, but it was purple and had little dinosaurs on it. Once I put it on you, it was precious! Your little diaper and chubby thighs were poking through the backside as you waddled around to check out the waiting area. So cute! And of course, the nurses were quite charmed by you with your blond curls and angelic face. When they took you away to the operating room, you just happily sucked on your pacifier and never uttered a sound. You were the model patient!

Dr. Lui, the ENT specialist, came out about 25 minutes later and told us you did great with the procedure. Another 10 minutes went by, and they finally came to let us sit with you in recovery. When we went back there, you were trying to wake up but were still feeling the effects of the anesthesia. It made me cry to see you because you looked so out of it – you were a bit combative and were making these funny sounds from your throat like a seal (caused by the breathing tube from the surgery). I held you and gave you your pacifier, which instantly calmed you down. You drank a little Pedialyte but you didn’t want to wake up fully. It reminded me of when you were born; you didn’t want to cry, you just wanted to sleep!

After another 30 minutes, you had your eyes open and we departed for home. When I pulled into the garage at home, you were fully awake and even uttering some sounds. But I knew you needed to rest, so I carried you upstairs to put you in your crib. By the time we made it upstairs you were asleep already! You ended up sleeping for 3 hours that morning and another 2 hours in the afternoon. But by the time your Dad returned from work that evening, you were back to your normal self.

The next day, your Dad stayed home with you to make sure you were recovering well. That morning, you went to the hardware store and the grocery store. At the grocery store, your Dad put you in one of those racecar-shopping carts. He said you loved it so much that you were shrieking in laughter the whole time! I was so glad to hear this because of all your previous whiny behavior and temper tantrums. Could it be that the surgery would help you feel so much better that your former self (laid-back, mellow, and happy) would return? Only time would tell…