Ruby's Ears All Better

On January 22nd I took Ruby into the doctor for a "well baby" visit and 15 month check up.  The good news is that she is reaching all of the developmental milestones for her age and continues to grow and develop.  In fact, she is now up to 94% percentile of height and about 65% for weight.  I was glad for an excuse to have her checked because she had been coughing and was snotty.  She hadn't been fussy though and was still sleeping great so none of it was a big enough concern for me to take her in to get checked.  I was shocked to find out that she had bronchitis and double ear infections.  The doctor reviewed her records and saw that she had been diagnosed with ear infections in June, November, December and now in January.  Because of how frequently they had occurred, he recommended that we see the ENT to discuss her getting tubes.  In December I had thought about getting her evaluated, but then decided that maybe I was just overly worried.  Seems like I was right to have been concerned.

The ENT, Dr. Robins, was able to get us in the next day.  Both he and his physician's assistant were quite shocked at how bad her eardrums were and could not believe that she was not screaming from the pain.  Dr. Robins was great at explaining the procedure and let me take pictures of the tubes to show Tim - they were so much smaller than I had envisioned which made me feel much better.  He recommended getting it done as soon as possible, so we got on the schedule for Tuesday, 27th and started saying our prayers that all would go well.

We checked into the surgical center at 8:00 a.m. and didn't have to wait too long until it was Ruby's turn.  Once we were there I started to get a little nervous, it all became real and I just wanted to protect my baby.  The staff was super great with her.  Ruby was excited about her new Lion, but I think was little suspicious about all of the attention.  Both the doctor and the anesthesiologist came and talked to us, then it was time for her to go.  The operating room nurse had me wrap her in a warm blanket and carry her to the door, then we said a quick goodbye and he took her.  It kind of broke my heart because she started to cry and had such a scared/confused look on her face.  

 We were told the procedure wouldn't last long and it was not quite 15 minutes from the time they took her, until they came to tell us she was awake.  We had been warned that they have a hard time when the come out of the anesthesia, but it was still really tough to see.  I could hear her crying before we got to the room and found a nurse trying to hold her while she was thrashing around, eyes closed, screaming.  I sat down to rock her and the combination of a bottle, her blankie, the piggie and me and Tim seemed to soothe her.  She had intermittent burst of crying, but overall did well.  The doctor came in and told us that he cleaned out a lot of thing goopy fluid which ad likely been there for a few months.  I felt awful to think about her being in pain for so long.  The nurse gave her a little Tylenol for any discomfort and about two hours after we arrived at the surgical center, we were released.

My dad was kind enough to come stay with Luke while we were gone.  They didn't do much playing because Luke didn't wake up until about the time that we got home.  Both kids were thrilled to see him and by the time he had read a couple of stories, Ruby was pretty much acting herself.  

The doctor sent us home with antibiotic eardrops which we had to use for four days.  She hated them and it was a complete struggle to pin her down and get them in.  I think Luke was more traumatized by it than her.  He kept telling me "Ruby's ears all better" to try to get me to stop.  Hopefully, they really are all better now and she won't have any long term problems from the repeat infections.