Surgery!

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Ever since Noah turned six months old, he has been suffering with one ear infection after the next. In all, it was only three infections, but because several of the antibiotics he took never took care of them, they were stretched out. For the past three months he has been waking up every few hours most nights, often screaming in pain. The third infection was the final straw. His pediatrician had told us that if he got one more infection he was referring us to Children's. Sure enough, about a week and a half later, he was back on new medicine.

We had to wait a couple of weeks for our appointment, but last Monday we saw an ENT doctor, who recommended putting tubes in Noah's ears. We also had a pretty neat hearing test done on him, which showed him as on the low end of the normal range. Not bad, but we didn't want him to lose any hearing, that's for sure.

We were shocked when the doctor said he would like to do the surgery as soon as possible, and asked if Wednesday would be okay. Of course, nervous as we were, we were so excited at the prospect of the light at the end of this long tunnel.

Justin and I both took off work, and we had Hannah spend the night at Grandma and Papa's the night before. We had to be at the hospital at 6:15 for his 8:15 surgery. One of the hardest parts was that he couldn't eat any solids after midnight, and I couldn't nurse him after 2:00 am. I set the alarm for 2:00 exactly and fed him, in an effort to keep him full as long as possible. We had a lot of pre-surgical prep to go through, and they explained the whole procedure.
He had to go under general anesthesia, but with a mask, not an IV. That made me happy. But, since he is under a year old, we were not allowed to go back with him when he went to sleep, and we had to wait until he was awake before we could go back to see him.

It was so hard to hand him over to the nurse. By the time 8:15 rolled around, he had been crying for a good 30 minutes because he was so hungry and tired. I had to hand over my hysterical baby to a nurse. I couldn't watch her walk down the hall with him. I just turned to my wonderful hubby who hugged me and watched them go himself. I kept looking at this incredible painting they had right outside the surgical unit, and it gave me huge comfort.

We couldn't believe the surgery only took 10 minutes, but no sooner had we sat down in the waiting room than the doctor came out to tell us he was done and they were just waiting for him to wake up. The next 15 minutes, though, seemed like days.

Finally they came to tell us he was awake. As we rushed back, I fully expected to see him in the jail-like hospital crib, and they had warned us that 99.9% of the babies are screaming from the strange feeling of coming to. Instead, we found him snuggling with a nurse in a rocking chair, calmly drinking a bottle of pedialite. It was a comforting sight, and she later told me it is her favorite part of the job. I love Children's Hospital. The nurse quickly handed him over to me, and when I commented that I'd never fed him a bottle, she told me I could nurse him.
I did, and when he was done we just sat and cuddled. He never did cry. That has always been Noah, though. He never really cries, with the exception of those darn ear infections! Now we are just ready to have our happy, healthy little man back. Oh, and we're hoping he may finally sleep through the night!