Tubes In

Yesterday afternoon, we took Will to have tubes put in his little ears. Everything went fine and he was back to his usual self by dinner time. It was pretty awful though. The ENT gave us the option of doing outpatient surgery and, although it would have been less scary for Will, if we could avoid putting him under general anesthesia, we wanted to do that. And making Will not eat and wait in the hospital a while before the surgery would have been very confusing for him - as would the waking up and having to stay in the hospital for a little while until they discharged him. So, we did it at the ENT's office. The whole procedure took all of like 10 minutes, but man it was grueling.

Will was in a great mood before the procedure, playing and laughing with us in the room. Dad stayed in the room when the doctor put the tubes in, but I had to leave because I just knew I wouldn't be any help if Will saw me shaking and crying. From Ellis's description of the whole thing, I think I made the right choice. But I stayed in this little room around the corner and I heard every little scream from that poor little boy's mouth. Needless to say, I was in and out of tears, pacing and biting my nails, praying it would be over soon.

But Will was a very brave boy. He cried until the car got moving on the way home and then slept the whole way home. After some juice, he took a good 2 hour nap. And when he woke up, he was back to his old self. Even though the whole thing was scary for all of us, especially Will, I do think we made the right choice to do it in the office with just local anesthesia.

So, hopefully we have said GOODBYE to ear infections.