Once again, she had fluid in both ears. One had drained slightly because the doctor could see air bubbles. The other was presumably still chock full. This made over two straight months that she had had fluid in her ears at every check. Poor kid.
I wish new parents got training in how to diagnose fluid filled ears and ear infections. Think of the time/money savings in doctors appointments.
So, off to day surgery on March 3rd. This was an outpatient procedure, fasting from midnight the night before. Consequently we had to be there bright and early, at 6:30 AM. Eddie was pretty good. While in the waiting room, she started asking me for Goldfish crackers, but of course I didn't have any, and she couldn't have eaten them anyway. The receptionist was very impressed with her signing. Several times she got bored and escaped out to the hallway, and I had to carry her back in and find her something worthy of her attention - for a while that was Curious George on my tablet.
Once we were called back to preop, she entered Explore All The Things mode and I was having to chase her down every few seconds. She wasn't upset or particularly loud, just into everything. The nurses gave her some sitckers on backing paper and she promptly started "mailing" them into cracks of drawers, and then opening the drawers to retrieve them. The nurses said that was fine, except for the two drawers with syringes in them!
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| Eddie inspects the wheels on her chair. |
Daycare doesn't open till 7 AM so Martin stayed home with Dominic until daycare was about to open, dropped him off at nearly the dot of 7, and got to the hospital just in time to see Eddie before she went into the operating room. Eddie had had her kiddie Valium at that point and was starting to calm down. She didn't want to wear her gown, though, so the nurses gave her heated blankets. They let her carry her preferred "drumsticks" into the OR too - they're coffee stirrers at the moment.
She didn't object to the face mask at all - probably because of the valium. They recommend that premedication with kids so they don't develop a fear of going to the hospital. It's likely that she doesn't even remember it.
Clearly the nurses are used to kids, because they had an iPad ready with a game to distract her. As it happens, the game is one that I had on my iPod as well, and Eddie used to play it before she lost my iPod. It creates sparkles of colours whenever you touch the screen, like fireworks.
Within moments she was out cold; they handed me her coffee stirrers and escorted me out to wait with Martin. I might have been clutching her sticks a bit tightly. About 20 minutes later the doctor came out and said they were done and she was in recovery. Eddie had had a surprise! ear infection on one side (she'd been clear the week before and had shown no symptoms) and had had thick fluid on the other. The doctor had cleaned all of that out, inserted the tubes, and applied antibiotic drops, which we were to continue twice a day for the next week.
Soon after that we were told Eddie was coming around and we could go see her. She was groggily drinking some apple juice, and once it was finished she was aware enough to ask for more with signs.
Once we got the all clear, we got her dressed and Martin took her home to rest while I stopped off at the pharmacy for the ear drops, more juice and a few other things.
That was Tuesday, and today is Thursday. She does seem to be making more noises. Daycare reports she is speaking more, in her own style. And I spotted her looking around for sources of sounds that she has missed before, like a fan in the ceiling of Toys R Us. She doesn't like taking his ear drops but hopefully we'll get through the next few days of those with minimal problems, and she's got to be much more comfortable without that incessant pressure on the sides of her head.
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