Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Connor gets ear tubes again


On Thursday morning, at 5am, we got up to take Connor to his second ear tube surgery. He had his first surgery in December of 2009 when he was 2 years old (http://babyvernon.blogspot.com/2009/12/tubes-for-connor.html). Since then, the tube in his right ear fell out and has filled back up with fluid. It hasn't drained appropriately and he was not able to hear properly out of it for some time. His left ear tube was still in, and sometimes we'd be able to see visible drainage, so you knew it was working. They typically don't stay in for more than 6 to 18 months, so it was good that they'd stayed in for as long as they had.

His hearing has been pretty bad for a while now and Andrea had multiple appointments throughout the summer to get it taken care of. She took him to the ENT multiple times and really struggled to get him a new ear tube surgery scheduled before he had to go back to school. With only two days to spare, she got him an appointment and on Thursday morning we took him to the surgery center.

The plan was to remove the remaining tube, clear the fluid out of his right ear, and put in semi-permanent tubes. The new tubes do not fall out on their own and are designed to stay in place until a doctor removes them.


Connor was an absolutely perfect little man at the surgery center. They got him an armband and dressed for the surgery. He liked the comfy red socks very much. When the anesthetist came to get him, Connor went right on back with him, blew into a "balloon" and was knocked out.


The surgery went perfectly and the ENT came out to talk to us about 15 minutes later. He told us that he was glad to have done the surgery and that the fluid in Connor's ear was like molasses and there was no way he could hear properly with it in his ear. We went back to sit with Connor as he woke up and we expected him to cry and be groggy. Instead, he woke up in a good mood and drank some apple juice and talked to us.


Without much of a wait, we were released to take him home and we got home before most people were even at work. We'd expected Connor would sleep some throughout the day, but he was wide awake and went the entire day just fine. He can definitely hear better since the surgery and I'm very thankful I've got a speech pathologist for a wife that is so good at taking care of this kind of thing.

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