New Ear Tubes

I was suppose to be heading back to Idaho with the kids the day after Madison was admitted into the hospital because Statton had another ear appointment with the ear/nose/throat doctor. Because of her being admitted we had to postpone our visit home until the next week and I was able to get Statton's appointment rescheduled for the following monday. He had two previous checks on his ears when I was home in March but he still had too much ear was to see the tubes and with tests they could tell that his tubes they put in when he was 2 were no longer functioning. Doctor Mayes wanted to wait about a month and try some antibiotics and mineral drops to see if they could get the ear wax cleaned up enough to see for sure what was going on. On Monday we went in and still no improvement. He still had too much wax and the fluid was still there. We then did a hearing test and it showed that his right ear was showing a significant hearing loss. I know he had been saying "what!" a lot but I thought he was being a typical little boy. So the doctor thought the best course of action was to redo the tubes. He had an opening that Wednesday for surgery he could do it then and then see him again about 3 weeks after surgery. So we scheduled the surgery for May 2nd. 

Here Statton is being so brave and not caring about going to surgery. He wasn't nervous and when the nurses came and got him he was totally fine going with them. We had to be at the hospital in Twin Falls at 6:30 and his surgery was scheduled for 8. My parents were gone on vacation so I went and stayed the night at my brother Carl's house where his wife Andrea was nice enough to watch the girls for me that morning while we went to the hospital. It was either stay the night and leave from there or drop the girls off at 5:30 in the morning. We opted for the first. 

 These last few pictures are after he got out of surgery. It was super fast less than 10 minutes to get him back there, knocked out, ears cleaned, tubes in, and back to me. They didn't even have to put in an IV they just knocked him out by having him breathe through a mask that administered him some gas. He was pretty groggy still and a little out of it when he came back. He was moving around a lot in the bed just whining because he was uncomfortable. Doctor Mayes came in and said it was a good thing we redid the tubes because as soon as they took the wax out of his right ear a bunch of puss just came oozing out. They also had fluid in both ears. Poor kid never said anything to me about his ears hurting this all started with just seeing the doctor for a routine check-up for his first ear tubes.

So after an unexpected month in Idaho again (I was just there in March for a month.) We went back to see Doctor Mayes 3 weeks later and his ears looked great and his hearing test was showing things were back to normal. Yeah! So if anyone is keeping track this is our 3rd Hospital stint for the year! It's expensive having kids! Just glad for modern medicine and all the things we have to keep our kids happy and healthy.