Surgery....

Austin had his tube surgery on Friday morning.  The morning started pretty early, we had to be at the hospital by 7 for check in.  He wasn't able to have any solids or milk after midnight and no clear liquids after 6am.  We got some apple juice in him until we left for the hospital.  The procedure was performed at the Children's hospital Denver, south campus.  My parents drove me over, while Noah and Daddy went to a movie.  I felt pretty good, and so did Austin for the first hour of the morning.  Around 8am he started getting pretty cranky, asking for a bottle and pulling at his ears.  In the days leading up to the surgery we suspected that he was getting another ear infection because he was really cranky unless on ear drops and Motrin.  While he was playing in the hospital crib he jumped and hit is chin on the side of the crib.  This triggered a pretty bad BHS.

This is him in his little surgery outfit.

We had what seemed like 10 people come in the room asking all kinds of questions about his condition.  They wanted to know what his seizure history has been, what kind of BHSs he has on a regular basis, they weighed him, measured him, etc.  He wasn't very thrilled and I was ready to get the show started.  Once we were all ready the Dr came to check in with us.  Since his normal Dr was not available today, we used the on call Dr that day which was Dr Friedman.  I hadn't met him, but he seemed nice enough.  He wasn't convinced that this surgery would help his condition, but could see the urgent need for it.  The nurse said that he had lots of fluid in his ears, so they would clean that out during surgery.  At 8:50 I was dressed in my not so cute outfit and I carried him to the OR.  They decided not to take out his adenoids, so he was just on general anesthesia.  They asked me to lay him down on the table.  When I put him down he was very angry and started to have a BHS.  At 8:59 they put the mask on his face, which caused him to go into a full BHS.  It was hard to see him struggling, when he finally took a breath in the anesthesia made his body convulse which I was sure was the start of a seizure.  They reassured me that this was normal and escorted me out of the room.  I went to change out of my outfit.  By the time I got back to the lobby I had time to call Adam, cry a little and then it was 9:08, and the DR was looking for me, to tell me that he was done!  The surgery went well although he was already on his way to another infection. The picture above are of the tubes they put in each ear. I was able to walk back to see him immediately, he was already awake drinking some water.  When he saw me he was very angry.  The nurse decided it was time for some Tylenol.  Once that kicked in, he was his happy little self.  We were on our way home by 10:00am, and that was it.  He had been a completely different baby ever since.  There are so many daily decisions we make as parents, I can say the decisions to give him surgery is the best one we have ever made.  He is now happy, he will play by himself, and acts like a normal happy child.  We received the best gift for Christmas, our happy baby boy.  I love seeing him grow, and explore his world on his own.  Now that we can actually put him down he loves to play, and he is so animated.  He has such a cute personality.  We have been BHS free since Friday, and you can tell that this is a new beginning for us as a family.  We are so much more relaxed and happy.  Lets hope we keep this good track record, and our little boy will flourish in his new environment.  All I want for him is health and happiness, I just love him so much.

We are getting tubes!

We don't know when, or if they will help but we convinced the ENT to give them a try.  Austin had a hearing test, a fluid test, and an overall exam.  Everything looks normal, and the antibiotics are doing their job.  The ENT is not convicted that this will fix our overall issues, but agrees it is worth a try.  If they get in and see that his adenoids are swollen, they will also remove them at the same time.  They also ordered a sleep study for him in the near future, to see if he has any spells in his sleep.  The bad news is we don't know how soon we can get in for the procedure.  It is minimally invasive, however, considering Austin's history, they would like to perform the surgery at the main campus, just in case he has any issues.  The Dr we saw doesn't have a normal opening until February, which is not acceptable.  At least he agreed that we should get in sooner.  He did say that we could try to get in on his "on call" day on January 12th.  He also mentioned that someone else my have an opening sooner, so now we wait for his assistant to call us in the next few days with an opening.  He said that he was going to recommend that this was emergent, so we hope it will help.  At this rate I would spend our Christmas in the hospital if it meant we avoid Austin feeling bad again.  Good news is we still have antibiotics until next Monday, so at least I know we will have a happy boy until then.  The plan is to schedule the surgery as soon as possible and continue to treat him with ear drops until then.  I just hope he is happy and healthy through Christmas.  I know that tubes will not be the answers to all of our issues, I just hope to give my poor little guy a break.  I am sure there will be more BHS and more Seizures, I just hope we can make life a little easier for him.
 His blood results were also returned today - Iron, Feritin, Hemoglobin are all normal.

Here is a video of his hearing test.  It was pretty cool.  They would give a certain low pitched sound from a box in the room.  If he looked at it, a monkey or puppy would light up in the box as a reward.  This was one test that he actually enjoyed!

And here is a picture of our happy boy on meds, it is so nice to see him on a constant basis lately.  He has such a funny personality!  He is also eating like crazy.  He loves to eat food, feed himself and he has almost doubled his intake of formula per day!  Lets hope we can put some pounds on him while he feels good.