R-man's Ear Tube Surgery

I am so happy to know that R-man's ear tube surgery is over and that it went well. I am thrilled to know that he will finally be comfortable and pain free with hopefully no more jell-o like fluid in his ears.

Today, our day began pretty early. We were instructed to arrive at the Lakeview Surgery Center in West Des Moines at 6:15 a.m. R-man must have realized that something was happening today because he woke up at 4 a.m. crying and hungry but we were instructed that he not have anything to eat or drink after mid-night. This didn't make for a very happy baby so I tried to distract him by playing with toys. We turned on the living room light and got out his box of toys and played until 5 a.m. Dave and I needed to get ready so we put his Johnny Jumper in the bathroom door for him to jump away while we got ready.

R-man being his normal self before the surgery.

We arrived in West Des Moines shortly before 6:15. We sat in the waiting room until around 6:40, then filled out some admissions paper work, and were shown to our pre-op room. The pre-op room looked like a normal waiting room but R-man didn't seem to like it much because he was hungry. He was letting Dave and I know that he wanted food!

R-man waiting for surgery with Mommy & Daddy.

A nurse came into the room shortly after we arrived and asked us several questions about why we were there and how R-man was feeling that day. We were all decked out in our ISU gear so we had a good conversation about ISU because her husband went to school with Paul Rhodes, the football coach at ISU. Before she left she told us the Anesthesiologist would be in to speak with us. The Anesthesiologist came in shortly afterwards and thoroughly explained to us their process on how they put the babies under using anesthesia. Essentially, they put them under with a “gas mask” but he assured us that he would wake up about 2-minutes after the gas mask was removed.

R-man with his $5K dog.

This was probably the scariest part of the procedure for Dave and I. We hated knowing that they were going to intentionally put our little man to sleep. He assured us that R-man was in good hands and that he was only going to be under for a short period of time.

Dr. Douglas Schulte arrived shortly afterwards to check on R-man and to let us know that the room was almost prepped for his surgery. Shortly after he left a nurse came and took him away to the surgery center. Dave and I were instructed to go to the waiting area and a nurse would come get us after the surgery. We were literally only in the waiting area 10 minutes and a nurse came and took us to the area where Dr. Schulte would talk with us.

Moments later, Dr. Schulte came into the waiting room and told us that everything had gone very smoothly and that R-man was already awake. The first thing he said is, how do you think his ears looked? I honestly thought his ears were filled with the thick fluid like they told me was in there last week but he said it was infected this time. He said that if adults had infected and thick fluid in their ears like R-man they’d probably be screaming. He also said that him and R-man had a conversation about becoming a Hawkeye fan before his surgery. I quickly responded, I bet he didn't understand you because you said his fluid was so thick that he could hardly hear. He didn't know how to respond to that. I was actually surprised I had a quick comeback as tired as I was from getting up so early.

Dr. Schulte assured us that R-man should now be able hear more clearly. Dave and I were so relieved to hear that his surgery was a success and couldn't wait to go see him. We waited in the waiting room until we were brought back to the recovery room. As they opened the door we could tell he wasn't a happy camper. We could hear him screaming and we both felt so bad for him. It's crazy how quickly a Mom can detect her child's cry among all the others.

As we approached the room, I made sure I had his bottle ready so I could quickly feed him as soon as I had my little man in my arms. He quickly drank all 7-ounces in the bottle. He was still crying afterwards and threw up a little because he seemed so upset. He clearly didn't like the anesthesia. We waited in the recovery room for about 15-minutes until we were released. As soon as we put him in his car seat, we knew he’d quickly fall asleep once the car got moving. R-man was asleep before we got to University Avenue so Dave and I decided to pick-up a cinnamon and pecan roll from The Machine Shed for breakfast.

When we got home, we couldn't wait to see little-C. We are thankful that Dave’s parents are retired and can help us out when needed. They came up on Monday night and stayed so they were here when little-C woke up. She was thrilled to know that she got to play with grandpa and grandma until Mommy and Daddy got home. We got to hear about all the fun things that grandma helped her do while we were gone!

I want to thank everyone for all of the prayers for R-man’s surgery today and the wonderful care we received at Lakeview Surgery Center.

The staff that helped with R-man's surgery today.

We were thankful that he recovered quickly and was back to his normal self this afternoon. Now, when you say his name he turns his head a looks. He’s no longer in his own little world. Maybe he’ll say ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’ now!