Jackson's Surgery

As most of you know, Jackson had his adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears on Friday. We had a very difficult time making the decision to undergo the surgery. He never gets ear infections, he has only had 2 or 3 his whole life. And I didn't feel like I was getting any definitive information about whether or not his hearing was being impacted. We finally decided that surgery would probably be best, we didn't want to risk his speech development at such a critical age. At his pre-op doctor appointment last week, they did a hearing test that measures the vibration on the eardrum. He basically failed the test, hardly any vibrations were able to get through the thick fluid on his ears. The results said he needed medical attention. I do wonder why they didn't do that test earlier, it would have saved us a lot of time and worry about whether or not we were making the right decision.

On Friday morning we arrived at Centennial Medical Center at 8AM for his 9:35 surgery appointment. He wasn't allowed to have anything to eat or drink, so he was a total disaster. He screamed for milk for the entire drive to the hospital. He did okay in the waiting room, but was pretty pissed once we were moved into the pre-op room. He was so upset that the anesthesiologist decided to give him something to help calm him down. Within 10 minutes, he was flying as high as a kite. At 9:30 they carried him back to the operating room (he was scared of the rolling bed, so the anesthesiologist carried him instead).

Just a little before 10, his ENT came out to tell us he was done and was being moved to recovery. Within 10 minutes, a nurse came to tell me he was starting to wake up and walked me into recovery. The next 45 minutes were horrible. He was extremely upset and inconsolable. I laid on the bed with him and held him while he screamed and hit and kicked. The nurse gave him a couple doses of some pain meds as he woke up, that seemed to help somewhat.

Friday was a pretty tough day for everyone involved. He was heavily medicated but still pretty uncomfortable. He was exhausted, but didn't want to go to sleep. We were all extremely exhausted by the end of the day.

Saturday was much better and Sunday he was pretty much back to normal. He has told me that everything is much louder now and certain sounds have frightened him (the Mustang, water running in the bathtub, etc) but I think he will adjust to that over time. We have to use special earplugs anytime he is in the water. He wouldn't wear them at all in Saturday night's bath, but he was much better on Sunday night. Maybe his ears were still very sensitive on Saturday.

The bad news is that we will likely be back in surgery in the spring. His tonsils are extremely large and are impacting his sleep. Our ENT won't do a tonsillectomy on a child under 3, she says it is too risky. So unless his tonsils quickly start shrinking, we will be back. And I know that recovery is longer and more difficult. Can't wait.

We go back to the ENT in a couple weeks for a checkup and a hearing test. I will let you know how it goes.

Waiting in the pre-op room, he was a very unhappy camper:

Friday evening, starting to feel better:

The "train" he created with all of his vehicles: