Well, today started out bright and early for me and Oliver. (Or should I say dark and early? since the sun wasn't up yet.) Today, Oliver got tubes put in his ears. We left the house at 6:00 am, so that we could arrive at the hospital by 7:30. I'll admit, I was little worried about how long it would take to get the hospital. It usually takes about 40 minutes, but I was counting on traffic being heavy. I discovered that traffic is actually much lighter at 6 am than it is in the middle of the afternoon. We got to the hospital in record time. 6:25, I was parked in the parking garage. We stayed in the car for a little bit. I tried to get a little more sleep, but Ollie was not having that. At 7:15, we checked in. We sat in the waiting room for a little bit, then went back to sign papers for insurance purposes. Then we went back out to the waiting room. A few minutes later, we went back to a different room where a nurse took all of Olivers vitals, and medical history. (You would think they would have all of his medical history in his file right? Why did every nurse and doctor who walked through our door have to ask all the same questions?) Ollie did great during that!! He didn't fuss to much about getting his blood presure taken. He held his foot pretty still for the blood oxygen test, and just stared at the nurse and sucked his fingers while she listened to his heart. We waited in that smaller room for a little longer, then the anesthesiology came in to talk to me. After a few more minutes of waiting, a different nurse came in and played with Ollie for a few minutes. After Oliver was comfortable with her, she picked him and took him back to the operating room. I was ushered back to the large waiting room. I quickly went to the bathroom, then went and sat down to read my book. I opened it up, found my place, read three sentences, and then was called. This time they took me to a consultation room where I waited for the doctor to come in and tell me how everything went. Again, I sat down, opened my book, read the SAME three sentences, and then the doctor came in.
Olivers surgery went well. The fluid in his ears was super thick. The Doc said it clogged the suction thingy a couple of times. He is a little concerned about the tubes clogging because of the thickness of the fluid, and continued to stress the importance of using the ear drops he was sending home with us. After that, I went BACK to the large waiting room. I didn't bother pulling out my book. A few minutes later, I was called back to the recovery room. Oliver was just waking up from the anesthesia, and was having kinda a hard time. The nurse really wanted him to take his bottle, and he wanted NOTHING to do with it. The poor boy I think was just SOO tired. He didn't want to be held, he didn't want to be put down, he didn't want his blanket on him, he didn't want to let go of his blanket. I rocked him and walked him and sang to him for about 10 minutes with him crying off and on. Finally, they came in, took his vitals one more time, then sent us home. (He didn't cooperate at all with the second set of vital taking) I buckled him in his seat, gave him his blanket, and got in the car. I didn't get out of the parking garage before the little tyke was out cold.
We were home by 9:30. Ollie slept until 10:30. Then went down for a 2 hour nap at 1.
It has been fun to watch him adjust to being able to hear better. Things like the popcorn popper and the garbage truck were holding his undivided attention. He also needed to learn to balance again. The first 5 or 6 times he tried to walk today, he only was able to take one step before falling on his face. But by tonight, he is able to walk as far as usual.
We are hoping that with the tubes in place he will soon be walking and talking up a storm. I love my little man so much!!!
