Operation Tubes; A Success

I will start this post by saying that we are so blessed to have two healthy children. Sure, Nathan had a small procedure today, that went extremely well, but I can't help but think about so many little children out there who are so sick. There's a young boy from our church who is just starting cancer treatments, following what was supposed to be a routine tonsillectomy. And I can't even imagine the exhaustion that those parents must be experiencing. I was completely drained after this whole ordeal, and it wasn't even that big of a deal! I know there were a lot of people thinking about Nathan today, so I'll give an overview of what all went down.

We arrived at the Surgicenter at 7:15am and got all checked in. Then we began the waiting game. Luckily there was a very nice play area for the kids. Nate was pretty cranky at first, and he was really hungry, but we were able to distract him with some of the toys. It wasn't until after 8:00am that we finally got called back into the Pre-Op area where we met with a nurse. We signed all the scary papers that say all the scary things that could happen and had Nathan change into some cute, purple hospital PJs. And we waited some more. Then the anesthesiologist came in, asked a few questions, asked if we had any questions, and then left. More waiting. Then our ENT, who also did the surgery, came in and did the same. Wait. The nurse came back in with some medicine for Nathan, which consisted of a sedative and Tylenol. It didn't seem to affect him too much, but I'm glad they gave it to him when they did because he was starting to get so antsy and angry! He became calm and then the nurse came to get him to take him to the OR. That was hard...seeing them take him away. That was about 9:10am. We went to the waiting room, had a cup of coffee, and literally 10 minutes later we were told to go to the consulation room to meet with the ENT, since they were all finished. He told us that there had been a lot of thick fluid in Nate's ears, which probably would've turned into an infection. He gave us some drops and told us to follow up in 2-3 weeks. Then we had to wait about 10 more minutes while they were waking Nathan up in recovery. When we walked into the recovery area, I could hear Nathan screaming. He was so upset. Actually, he seemed pissed! He just didn't know what was going on and what had happened to him. I've never been under general anesthesia, so I don't even know what it feels like. I'm sure it was scary for him. Joe and I tried to hold him as he writhed around. He cried for about a 1/2 hour straight. Nothing we did could comfort him, and that was hard. But, finally, we were discharged, and Nathan calmed down once we were in the car.

When we got home, we sat on the couch and watched "American Idol" and he snacked on some graham crackers and drank his juice. Then we was back to his old self. Running around, pulling out toys, dancing...you wouldn've have guessed he had had surgery earlier that morning. Ella was at my parent's house for the day, which was a huge help. It was nice to be able to give my full attention to Nathan when he really needed it.

So that's done. Hopefully now we will be free of ear infections. Now it's time to relax and take a deep breath, and see who got kicked of of "American Idol."