Sara got her first ear infection in early March and just couldn't get rid of it. After several rounds of antibiotics and several weeks of infections our pediatrician sent us to a ear nose throat specialist. The pediatric ENT confirmed she had fluid build up and infections in both ears, he also found that she had enlarged and infected adenoids. We scheduled a surgery for the next week to get ear tubes to help drain the fluid from her ears and her adenoids removed.
We were hoping for a very early morning surgery because they can't eat or drink before surgery. Unfortunately surgery was scheduled for noon. So we had to keep Sara occupied all morning with no food or drink or nap. Then of course the OR got behind and we got pushed back to 1 pm. The surgery took just 20 minutes and then we got to go back to see her.
Holy Cow was she mad. I mean really mad. Madder then I've ever seen her times two. We we got to post up they had 3 nurses trying to calm her down. She was not having it. The nurses tried their whole bag of tricks including a giant 4 foot tall bubble light machine to try to distract her. It worked for 5 seconds. She screamed for an hour then fell asleep for 20 minutes and then woke up screaming again. We couldn't get her to eat or drink and her breathing started to get worse requiring her to be on higher levels of oxygen. The doctors tried more pain medication hoping to calm her down and inhalers but nothing helped. Around 5pm they started to discuss admitting her for the night. They laid out everything to put the IV back in so they could admit her. Finally the nurse decided to try sucking out her lungs. She cleared out a ton of junk, breathing improved, she calmed down and in 10 minutes she was eating and drinking and even gave a smile.
The doctors think her recovery was much harder than most because she was an early arrival and a NICU baby. Even though her lungs seem fine normally early babies lungs still are not as mature and struggle with anesthesia.
We owe a big thanks to Grandpa John who stayed the whole week and watched her so she could rest at home instead of daycare. We teased him that we weren't sure if he was brave or stupid staying home with a sick 11 month old for 5 days. Either way we are grateful for his help. They had a great time walking dogs and playing.
Sara is feeling a lot better and is quickly returning to her happy self. It was a rough surgery but much needed as she had two very infected ears filled with fluid, two infected adenoids so enlarged they were blocking 3/4 of her ear tube and a ton of infected junk up there.
Dad holding Sara before surgery
A week after and all her energy had returned
Feeling a lot better
