Tanner Gets Tubes

Today Tanner got tubes put in his ears. Earlier in the week, I assured Mike that Tanner would have an early surgery because they always try to do the little ones first right? I obviously forgot that at PCMC most of them are little. We didn't have to be there until 10:30 and his surgery was scheduled for noon. I was totally freaked out about not being able to let him eat until noon. It actually didn't turn out to be that bad except one sad moment. Tanner was able to drink juice until 9 am and then we were in the car running Landen to school and Gage to the sitters. About halfway to PCMC, Tanner started crying and signing the words "more" and "eat." That broke my heart. I couldn't even look at him.

We first went to check in. Mike took care of the paperwork while Tanner and I went and sat down. They had a huge fish tank and toys to play with. Tanner however knew something was up. He immediately started waving and saying, "bye" in a sad little voice. That's what he does when he's ready for the doctors to be gone. After a few minutes, they took us back for the nurse to take vitals and weigh Tanner. He immediately started crying and clinging to me. The nurse said she wasn't even going to attempt a blood pressure because it wouldn't be accurate anyway. Then, the nurse practitioner came in and tried to assess him. She suggested giving Tanner some Versed to help calm him. Downside of it is kids usually wake up from anesthesia angry but it helps them forget the whole event.

This is Tanner right after the nurse left.

Tanner was much calmer after they gave him an Elmo sticker to play with and left the room.

Down went the Versed and it started working pretty quickly. Tanner sat on my lap and let the anesthesiologist examine him. He did cry when I handed him over to her, but I think it would have been a lot worse without the Versed.

We went into the waiting room and checked in with the receptionist. She looked at her list and said it wouldn't be that long of a wait. Some parents came in after us and checked in. The woman was crying. The receptionist looked at her list and said what they already knew. The surgery would take awhile and to let her know when they came and went so she could update them with any information she received. At that moment I realized how blessed and fortunate I am. My kids have been extremely healthy and I am so grateful for that. Every time I go to work I recognize what I have, but having my child go through a surgery at the same time others were going through extremely serious and lengthy procedures hit me. It almost wasn't fair what they had to go through in comparison to me.

It was literally five minutes later when Tanner's ENT came into the room and said everything went great. He said the fluid had cleared up and the retraction had improved as well. I was able to go back to PACU and be there when they woke Tanner up. He looked so small lying there. He was pretty sleepy so they had to use a washcloth to get him going and he immediately asked for milk. He gulped down two sippy cups of apple juice and we were transferred out of PACU into another transitional area. This is when the Versed started wearing off. Tanner became a mad man and nothing would calm him down. Tanner wanted more juice and freaked out at the sight of crackers and I ended up with pudding all over me. The nurses didn't want to give him more juice because he had already drank so much and feared he would throw up. He started arching his back and screaming. The nurses finally offered him more juice, but it was too late. Tanner wanted nothing to do with it. All we could do now was wait until the Versed was done. Tanner threw up all over me and then fell asleep. A few minutes later, the nurses said we could go when we wanted. They said to leave the pj's on him and I could bring them back when I worked next. They were afraid the mad man would come back if we tried to change him.

Thankfully we left the pj's on because when we got to Bountiful Tanner threw up everywhere and everything. We had to stop at Mike's grandparents house for a cleanup. He drank way too much apple juice. Good thing I'm a nurse and kept wanting to give him more.

Tanner is now sleeping comfortably. Hopefully we will have far fewer ear infections.