Much better

Thanks for your well wishes. Andy seems much better. He took a long nap Monday afternoon (so long I even kept checking in to make sure he hadn't died from the anesthesia. What? What's so weird about that?) Since then, he's been chipper and quite darling. Well, he's still 2 11/12 so he has his moments, but he seems to feel pretty good.

The nurse instructed us (well, me, Bjorn doesn't do baths in our house at the moment although that might have to change in a couple of months) to put cotton in his ears just until he gets the all clear in a couple of weeks that the ears have healed properly. Unfortunately, I can't seem to master getting a little cotton ball into his ear without it promptly falling out once he hits the bath water. He is also supposed to be getting antibiotic ear drops for the next couple of weeks. The instructions say five drops in each ear twice a day, but Andy is dead-set against them so it's more like two drops in each ear, each day. Oh well.

As you can see from the picture, he seems to be feeling pretty good. Here he managed to take the furnace air filters, carry them upstairs and proceed to "make a train." I'm not sure what he was envisioning exactly, but it's clear he has an imagination. He loved playing with those filters so much that I finally had to remove them under the cover of night to get them out of view. I love how strange and active his mind is right now.

Surgery

Today was Andy's surgery for his ear tubes. I was nervous, but it all went quite smoothly. In fact, the folks at the Fairfax Surgical Center were exceptionally throughout and efficient. Quite an operation.

7:00 a.m. - Leave the house for Fairfax City.

7:15 a.m. - Walk in the doors for an 8:30 a.m. surgery, slightly off the 1.5 hours they recommend.

7:20 a.m. - Check in and go upstairs to another waiting room.

7:25 a.m. - Consult with the anesthesiologist who explains that it will be a general anesthesia and it shouldn't be a big deal. BUT he warns that about one in a thousand do have a reaction so they have breathing tubes and other gear on hand just in case.

7:30 a.m. - We go back into an area like an emergency room with curtained rooms to sign papers and change Andy into a gown while they check his temperature and blood pressure. Then they give him a little Tylenol in advance of the surgery to take any edge off. The procedure is technical painless, but apparently all the ear popping afterwards can be uncomfortable. Bjorn is also given a gown to wear over his clothes since he will be the one holding Andy while they give him the anesthesia.

7:45 a.m. - I'm sent to the waiting room, Bjorn and Andy head for semi-sterile toy room while they wait for anesthesia and talk to Dr. McBride about the surgery.

8:00 a.m. - Andy is given the anesthesia mask. After three deep breaths, he passes out. Bjorn is sent to Consultant Room 2 in the waiting room where we wait together.

8:15 a.m. - Dr. McBride comes to talk to us. Andy did great. The tubes are in place and the fluid that was in his ears have been drained. He's free to take baths and swim in the pool, but he needs to keep his ears plugged if he swims in less sterile water, like in a creek, lake or ocean. After this, he should hear much better. Bjorn and I look at each other wondering how much smarter he'll be now that he can hear. We are due to see the doctor again on December 26 to see how everything is going. In the meantime, he is to finish his Suprex antibiotics and also get prescription ear drops to use for the next couple of weeks to make sure the tubes stay open.

8:25 a.m. - We're taken to the recovery room where Andy is just starting to sit up. He's transferred to my lap in a lazy chair where he groggily cries for his dog and his binky. The nurse gives him a little apple juice and he and I cuddle while watching Clifford the Big Red Dog (a terrible show that Andy doesn't mind today.) The nurse explains again that he might be groggy for a bit, but that by the afternoon he should be himself again.

8:45 a.m. - Get him dressed again.

8:50 a.m. - We're given the all clear and walked to the elevator, which takes us to a door to the parking lot that is different than the one we came in. Andy is still groggy and a little whiny.

9:00 a.m. - Swing through the Dunkin' Donuts drive through to get Andy a chocolate donut with sprinkles and much needed coffee for the grown ups. As Andy eats his donut, he starts to perk up like his old self. Whenever he burps though (and apparently that is several times this morning), he complains that his ears hurt. This must be the popping they were talking about.

9:15 a.m. - Arrive back at home. We put Andy in our bed to cuddle up with his dogs and watch some Little Einsteins (or "Lil Eintines" as his calls them). He refuses to take his hat off, as you can see. I give him the antibiotics and some more apple juice.

10:30 a.m. - He's now wide awake and hyper although he alternates between hyper and saying he's not a little tired, but "big tired." Bjorn administers the ear drops, which Andy says tickle and are cold.

11:30 a.m. - We try to put him down for a nap and count our blessings that this all went so smoothly. Now if only I can arrange for labor and delivery to be this quick and mostly pain free.

'Tis the Season

Andy is old enough now to understand the advent calendar. Well, sort of. He's old enough to understand counting numbers and the idea of opening the little windows every day (and eat the chocolate). He's not quite old enough to get the concept of what he's counting down toward per se, but it's still fun each day to see him open his window. It's pretty darn cute.

Saturday we had Andy's sibling class at Virginia Hospital Center. It would have been better had we arrived on time and/or not spent 10 minutes trying to locate the room for the class considering it only lasted about an hour. But Andy did instructions on how to gently hold a new baby (using a doll) and sing it a lullaby. We also took him on a tour of the labor and delivery and post-partum floor. We'll need to know where that is soon enough.

We also saw the nursery. The lovely nurse teaching the class warned that we might not see any babies in the nursery since they "really encourage rooming in," but there must have been at least 10 tiny babies in there. Intellectually, I know how small they start out, but it was a good (and scary) reminder to actually see hours old babies. I think it's finally hitting me that we're going to have a tiny baby sometime next month. Wow.

Andy has been a darling most of the weekend, including getting his hair cut (quite short) this morning. In all this cuteness though, I know his ear surgery is tomorrow. I'm trying not to worry about it, but it sort of lingers in the back of my mind. We had the pre-op appointment on Friday with his pediatrician who is always exceptionally nice. She gave me some basic advice, like how it's hard for mothers to watch the anesthesia take effect since the kids often look like they're dying even though they're not (funny, the surgical nurse who called to give me last minute instructions said the same thing). The surgery is tomorrow morning. I'll post something when I get a chance letting everyone know how he's doing.