Mr. Jensen's Tubes

Our little guy had surgery last Thursday to implant his ear tubes. We had to be at the surgery center bright and early on Thursday morning, so Charlotte (much to her pleasure) got to spend Wednesday night with Grandma and Grandpa. Brian and I took advantage of having only one toddler and took Jensen to a little pre-surgery dinner at Spring Creek. I would like to say we had a pleasant evening out; however, Wild Man was escorted out of the restaurant by his mommy for shrieking at the top of his lungs (leaving almost an entire dish of ice cream behind). Sigh. Parenting is hard.

That would be a roll in one hand and a fistful of mac 'n' cheese in the other. Yes sir, that's my baby!

This was probably 30 seconds or so pre-shriek.

In the morning we woke up a groggy Jensen and arrived at the surgery center at Cook Children's at 6:50 a.m. We were soon checked in and escorted to our room, where Jensen changed into this very fashionable hospital gown and blue socks:

One of the nurses asked what kind of toys he liked and returned with a monster truck and little construction set. I cannot say enough good things about the staff at Cook's; you can tell each person who works there truly enjoys working with children and also cares about making the parents as comfortable as possible. Jensen, of course, was thrilled with his new toys and got right down to business.

When it was time to get started, a nurse came in and gave Jensen some nasal spray that they called, "Happy Juice". He did indeed begin to get a bit loopy (there was even some drooling going on). After about ten minutes, another nurse came to get him and he was off to surgery. I know getting ear tubes is a very minor procedure, but there is something about the sight of your baby being wheeled down the hall on a hospital bed that is terrifying and heart-wrenching. Despite my best efforts, I got a bit watery-eyed and sent Brian to get some coffee for us so that he could have a bit of a distraction.

Probably less than five minutes after they wheeled Jensen away, the doctor came to tell us that he was all finished! Everyone told me how quick the procedure was, and they were not exaggerating. The doctor told us that Jensen did great and that he did indeed have lots of fluid in each ear. A couple minutes later they wheeled a very disoriented and displeased Mr. Dude into the room. As he was thrashing about, the nurse told me to sit down and she would hand him to me. As soon as she did, Jensen snuggled his head into my neck and calmed down almost immediately. The nurse noticed and said that even though Jensen was still feeling the effects of the anesthesia and not quite sure what was going on, he could smell his mommy and knew that everything was okay. Brian was standing right beside us and told me later that indeed Jensen had been sniffing away at my neck! Sweet boy.

I held Jensen and he gradually he woke up and began to calm down and figure out where he was. One of the nurses brought a popsicle, which Jensen quickly enjoyed before asking for (and receiving) another!

Once he was fully awake and had proven that he could keep the popsicles down, we were headed home (another cute touch about the hospital: they pulled Jensen to the car in a red wagon!). Aside from the fact that I think Jensen was feeling a bit nauseated, he was okay. Once we got home he looked at fire truck pictures with Daddy...

...then settled in for a nice long nap. When he woke up, he was completely back to normal. We've noticed him messing with his ears a couple of times since the surgery; maybe they feel different or maybe he it's odd to him to be able to hear well with all that fluid gone. We have actually already noticed a slight difference in his speech...he is pronouncing a few words more clearly and we're hopeful that the tubes will eliminate the need for speech therapy, but we'll see. For now we are just incredibly thankful for the uneventful surgery and recovery.