The hardest day of his life

It was a little after 9:30 a.m. when the hospital nurse handed my son over to me today. He was dazed, a little apprehensive and on the verge of tears.

His reaction was to be expected after all. He had his first surgery today.

For months we had been struggling with the fact that he had occasional hearing problems and that his speech development seemed to lag behind his school mates.

He had a couple of ear infections, but not with enough regularity to make us worry too much.

We tried speech tests and in the end, his speech was in normal range.

Truth be told, all that time, he was suffering from a persistent problem of fluid in his ears that receded occasionally which gave him brief opportunities to catch up in his speech progression and to respond and hear normally.

The hearing difficulty persisted and we finally had him tested, and sure enough, through the 2 months that we tried to get an accurate hearing test, he had fluid buildup nearly the whole time.

Just as with everything else in his life, I thoroughly researched the matter, interviewed other parents, read some of the scientific literature.

It just made perfect sense to have a surgeon insert ear tubes.

Ear tubes are not uncommon and as surgery goes, the procedure is brief, not terribly invasive and effective in draining the fluid. The only downside was that it was surgery, after all, and he would need to undergo general anesthesia.

We decided not to discuss the subject until a couple of days ago. I read a book about Grover going to the Sesame Street hospital, then told him, point-blank, he would be going to the hospital too. The doctor needed to fix his ears, I explained.

The fear factor didn’t really set in, though he made it clear to me that he didn’t want an X-ray. No problem. Not required for what you need.

We woke up early to get him to the hospital by 7:30 a.m. for a 9 a.m. operation. The morning went smoothly. Though we were hustled from one room to another and another and another, and I signed a ream’s worth of forms, it went well. He didn’t freak out and he enjoyed several little gifts from the hospital staff (2 stuffed animals, a Hotwheels car, a coloring book.) Then he spied our gift to him, Scrambler from Bob the Builder.

It was the perfect distraction.

The big moment came when the surgical nurse took him behind the big doors where we couldn’t go and we were sent to a very tiny waiting room. Sitting there, I allowed myself a moment to cry.

Five minutes later, the surgeon returned and said the procedure went well and gave us our post-op instructions. Another 10 minutes later, my boy was back in my arms.

Recovery went well. We gave him some Motrin, which did well to dull the pain. It was only when the Motrin faded that he complained about his ears.

He said they had fireants in them. Only a Florida boy would say something like that.

The ears bled a bit, more than I expected but this is normal as long as it subsides by tomorrow.

We spoiled him a little today. We bought him and chocolate and sprinkle covered donut on the way home. He watched a lot of TV and even got some chocolate ice cream.

But the patient did well overall so I can’t complain.

And his hearing does seem to be better today, so hopefully this has all been worth it.