Thursday, December 4, 2008

Tubular Day


I really, really hope this is the last sedation for a long time. Nolan is quite perky and happy now, but the food deprivation separation from mommy was not a recipe for toddler happiness.

We were up at 4:00am to load the car and get everything ready for our trip up to Buffalo Children's. The car ride takes about two hours and we had a 7:00am registration time, so a pre-dawn departure was necessary.

Nolan didn't mind the early trip, but once up on the 9th floor for the same-day surgery, he started to get uneasy. He's been there before, and I don't know if he remembers it or not. He definitely was less playful the second the nurse came to get us. They had to return the toddler sized gown they brought out and find an infant sized one (at 19 pounds, he's very small for a 15 month old). Normally PE tubes are done in the special procedures unit on the fourth floor, but since he was squeezed in as an "emergency" case, it had to be done in the main operating room.

The nurse took him from me and he screamed from that point until they knocked him out with gas. When he woke up, he screamed until we were finally released and opened the door to leave the hospital. This was definitely stressful for him- not so much for the procedure, but for the separation from mommy.

The real negative of all the ear infections and Dr. visits is that he is becoming very shy about his ears. Any time an otoscope comes within 3 feet of him, he totally wigs out. I feel sorry for our audiologist at his next appointment for impressions...

I have my fingers crossed that this set of tubes will remain in place and functional for as long as possible!

3 comments:

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Oh Leah, I'm sorry it was a rough day :0( Glad it's over.

VBnBama said...

I understand the lack of food. Gage stood at his hosp. room door shouting "I can't stay here all day with NO FOOD!!! Doctors are mean people." He had to stop eating at midnight and then it was 1:30 the next day before he went back for his PICC line! Not a happy camper. But I understand, they were taking all those younger babies first....been there done that...not fun

Anonymous said...

Glad it's over and he did so well. Those tube procedures are so hard on them. Being under for just a few minutes is a lot harder to recover from than being under for a few hours. Our recovery nurse was awesome even though Ethan projectile vomited and screamed relentlessly. She said you can always tell the tube procedure kids, they're the ones acting the craziest during recovery.

I love Nolan's red hair btw. What a cutie pie!