our experience with ear tubes

Levi spent his first 6 months of life ear infection free. Right at 6 months he got his first double ear infection and seemed to have one every few weeks after that. We had one really stubborn one that took a few weeks and 2.5 rounds of antibiotics to go away. We were referred to an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist at 9 months to check his hearing because he was not babbling yet (not a concern by itself, but a concern when coupled with his recurring ear infections). His hearing was in the normal range, but the low end of normal. The ENT decided to hold off on tubes and take a wait and see approach since we were at the end of cold and allergy season and he wasn't in daycare. He said to call back if he had one in the next month or two (a summer infection) or even in the early fall and we might do tubes to get a jump start on cold season. Eight days later we were back at the pediatrician with another ear infection so the call was made and surgery was scheduled.

I wasn't too nervous about the surgery since it was minor. I was more looking forward to it because I heard story after story from friends (and strangers) about how tubes helped their children almost immediately.

We had to be at the surgery center at 7 am Thursday, which meant we had to wake Levi up and leave our house at 5:50. He obviously couldn't eat or drink anything but he was surprisingly ok and not quite as angry as we expected him to be. We were called back to pre-op quickly where we did the majority of the waiting. He had a great time looking at all the different nurses that walked by and only got really fussy and over it about 10 minutes before they took him back. (side note: I really wanted to get a picture of him in the cute hospital gown but it was way too big and he didn't like it at all. Chubby baby in a diaper is almost as cute!)

I checked my phone when we got the lobby after they took him to the OR and it said 8:08. I checked my phone again when we were in the conference room waiting for the doctor to come talk to us and it said 8:17. We talked to the doctor for a minute, went back to the waiting room for a minute, then they called us back to his recovery room. Our pre-op nurse, the anesthesiologist, the doctor, and a friend on Instagram all warned us about the possible reaction he could have after the anesthesia. They said half of kids wake up acting fine and the other half of kids wake up screaming, very angry, and delirious, as the doctor called it. Of course we got the latter. Poor Levi was screaming when I got back to his room and just couldn't calm down. He managed to drink most of a bottle but that only consoled him while it was happening. After about 30 minutes he was slightly better, so we got him dressed and headed home. He fell asleep after a few minutes in the car and cried out in his sleep for the first little bit before really settling in. We drove around a little extra after arriving back in town until he woke up on his own, then we turned for home.

We got home around 10:30. I remarked to Rodney earlier in the day that I should have packed an extra shirt for myself in case he threw up on me, but it wasn't necessary after all. As we turned onto our street Rodney said, "I think if he hasn't thrown up by now, he's going to be ok." We pulled into the garage and right as Rodney started to pull him out of his car seat he vomited everywhere. Poor little guy. I got him changed while Rodney cleaned up the car seat. From there on Levi acted a little better and a little more normal and ate a little lunch.

Around 12:00 he was acting fussy so I picked him up and laid him on my chest just to see if he could rest. He instantly settled in and fell asleep. This is completely out of character for Levi. This boy likes to fall asleep by himself in his crib and barely even lets me rock him to calm down before nap.

He slept on me for about 30 minutes and started crying again when he woke up. He drank a bottle and was still fussy, so I put him in the crib for more sleep but it was clear that wasn't going to happen. I took him upstairs to play for a while until he got fussy again, so I laid on the couch up there and put him on me. He again immediately passed out. I thought for sure it would last 30 minutes again, but he slept on me from 1:30 til 3:47!

After that long nap he was much better, but still not normal. We passed the rest of the day with dinner, swinging outside, and playing inside. We put him to bed at his normal time around 7:15 and he went to bed just like he always does. He was pretty much back to normal on Friday, just like the doctor said he would be, and by Saturday he was 100% normal.

We're very glad to have that part behind us, now I'm just anxious to see what happens this fall when he starts to get colds again.