Ear Tubes Placed – 5 AM is Not an Acceptable Time to be Awake

I remember coming across a meme that said something like, “I’m not a night owl or an early bird. I’m a perpetually exhausted pigeon.”

We had to be at the ambulatory surgical center at 6:30 this morning for Rowan’s ear tubes. I looked something like this.

I am glad we were the first people on the docket this morning. Since Rowan couldn’t have anything to eat or drink for a while it had ben a rough morning. He usually sleep nurses off and on all night /morning and he was very cranky to be told “all done!” at 4 am.

I added insult to injury by taking off his coat. I figured he must be hot. Last night his coat was in his crib when Zach came back into his room with his toothbrush. Rowan stood there holding the coat up like, “please put this on me?” And he absolutely lost it when I tried to take it off of him.

He did the same thing in pre-op as I was getting him into his gown.

Don’t I look sexy in my bunny suit? Like I’m ready to go work in a fish-packing plant or something. I wonder if poor Zach was having c-section flashbacks.

I was allowed to walk him back into the operating room. As soon as we crossed the threshold into the OR suite Rowan lost his shit. I don’t know how he knew something was about to go down but he did, and he was not happy about it.

I held him while they put the mask on his face.

Nurse: If you start getting a whiff of that gas, you just turn your head to the side.

Me: I mean, I could really go for a nap right about now.

He thrashed and screamed until the gas kicked in and he surrendered. I lay him on the table, gave him a kiss on the forehead, and went to join Zach in the waiting room.

Maybe 20 minutes later they came out to tell us he was done. The doctor came to give us ear drops and the rundown of what to expect and then we were taken back to him.

He was angry. Hulk smash angry. He would start to nurse and then scream and arch his back. Then he settled in and ate. He stayed a little annoyed at the world until we got home and got some food into him.

Then he was a completely different kid. I’d say he was back to his old self but he was probably even happier and more playful than ever, which is saying something.

He danced and drank pretend tea and took a million selfies on my phone.

The surgeon said he suctioned out a lot of infected fluid, which is interesting since he did not appear to have any infection a week and a half ago when tehy saw him.

I’m still hoping this is some sort of magic sleep bullet.

For now, I’m going to go take a nap while he does. I’ll write up more details about the actual process and what to expect on the Hand to Hold Blog pretty soon.