In January Emmie MAJORLY failed a hearing screen at school. She couldn't hear any frequencies in one of her ears and could only hear a few of them in her right ear. Everyone (except Paul) thought I was crazy for having her tested...her speech is good, she does well in school, etc but I KNEW she couldn't hear me. She's always had very good selective hearing but this was different. I was at the screening with Ellie so I was able to talk to the audiologist about Emmie's results right after she was screened. That afternoon we went to the pediatrician as Emmie has a history of having lots of wax in her ears...a possible explanation for her hearing problems. The pediatrician got a little bit of wax out but said there was no way that amount of wax caused the results we got on the hearing screen and she didn't see any fluid or infection (she's only had a few ear infections in her life) so she referred us to an ENT. Cue the Mommy panic and stress because if there's no fluid and no wax then WHY can't she hear? After A LOT of frustration with the referral process we finally got an appointment for FOUR weeks later with the ENT that I wanted to see. It was a LONG four weeks of worried Mommy.
When we got to the ENT he first looked in Emmie's ears and there wasn't any wax but he did see fluid in both of them. He then had the audiologist do another hearing test. This time she could hear better but there was a lot of negative pressure in her ears. From what I understand the negative pressure is caused by enlarged adenoids and causes fluid to be pulled into the ears. I've always known that Emmie had enlarged adenoids...she's a mouth breather and at night she breathes REALLY loud. The ENT said that when we were at the pediatrician Emmie probably had so MUCH fluid that there wasn't a fluid/air line and since there wasn't infection either the fluid couldn't be seen. That made me feel MUCH better, to know that there was a relatively common reason she failed the hearing screen. We decided to try nasal steroids for 6 weeks to see if they would shrink her adenoids. Emmie didn't like the spray at first but quickly adjusted to having that as part of her routine.
After 6 weeks we returned to the ENT. She saw the audiologist first and did well on the hearing screen but still had negative pressure. After discussing symptoms (I had been able to tell that her hearing was improved and she wasn't breathing as loud at night) the ENT was on the fence about whether to do surgery or not. He then pulled up our hearing screen from the first appointment and realized that her negative pressure was a little worse now then at that appointment. He took a peek at her adenoids with a little light that went in her nose (which she did great with by the way!) and said her adenoids were causing 90% blockage so they definitely needed to come out! We scheduled surgery for June 1st and were on our way.
I didn't tell Emmie about the surgery until the night before (she's a worrier and the longer she has to dwell on things the more worried she gets). I explained that she needed some tubes in her ears but that she wouldn't be able to see them. We had actually had a playdate earlier that week with a little boy who has tubes and I told her that Adam had them so that helped her understand that nobody could see the tubes. I also told her that they had to take out her adenoids (when your mom is a nurse you learn terms like adenoids) which were kind of behind her nose but that it wouldn't hurt because they were going to give her some medicine that would help her take a nap and that when she woke up it would be all done. (Child Life rule #1 - never, ever tell a child that they're being "put to sleep" for a procedure...that's what you do to animals...thank you Sally!) Emmie seemed just fine with the surgery. Then I told her that she couldn't eat or drink when she woke up in the morning and you would think the world was ending. Oh.My.Goodness. She kept insisting that she was going to wake up starving. I explained that it would all be really early in the morning...nope she was going to starve...she was positive. I finally got her to calm down by telling her she could have a popsicle as soon as she woke up. (Then Ellie told her that SHE could eat and drink and that set Emmie off once more...sisterly love at its finest.)
We had to be at the surgery center at 730 in the morning. I woke Emmie up right before we left and the first thing out of her mouth was "I woke up last night and was so thirsty" as she glared at me. I had put out pajamas for her to wear but she insisted on wearing real clothes. Then I offered to put her hair in pigtails but nope, she wanted a bow.
We got to the surgery center (and every kid there had pjs on except for funny Emmie who was dressed with a bow lol) and after a short wait we were called back to preop. (Funny story...the nurse who took her back for preop worked in the PICU as a tech years ago...it was nice to see a familiar face!) Emmie had to put on her gown and take out her bow...I was a little worried that she would give me grief about the bow since she had been so insistent on wearing it. She was pretty pouty at first and very nervous but once she warmed up to her environment she was all smiles.
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| Still a little nervous...so glad she had her buddy Mousie! |
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| Right before she went to the back...much happier! |
The surgery was super fast. They rolled her back at 8:15 and the doctor was out to talk to us at 8:40. Emmie did great during the surgery and he did say that her adenoids were infected so they were going to start her on antibiotics.
After about a 15 minute wait we got to go back to see her in recovery. She looked so little when we got to where she was. She was sitting in one of the adult recliners and eating her popsicle all by herself. She was soooo brave.
She was pretty happy to talk to me but once we went to put her clothes back on her she broke down and wanted to cuddle and said she wanted to go home.
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| Sweet little cuddle bug...still has Mousie tucked under her arm. |
When we got home she was really cuddly and sleepy for the first hour or so and after some motrin, water, and rest she perked up a lot and was ready to play. She went strong all morning and then I asked her if she wanted to snuggle with me at quiet time. I was surprised when she said she did and even more surprised when she was asleep within 2 minutes of her head hitting the pillow. She slept for about 2 hours and was raring to go when she woke up. She ate a few more popsicles and all of her dinner and I thought for sure she'd fall asleep as soon as she got back in bed. She was really funny because about 9 she got up and came out to the den and was clearly delirious. She was saying crazy things that made no sense and then would just kind of stop and get this glazed look in her eyes. She couldn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing! It was even funnier because her voice was super nasally from the swelling in her nasal passages so she sounds a bit like she's been sucking on helium.
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| Ruthie got her first popsicle! The first attempt she got major brain freeze but the second time around she ate it slower and was much happier! |
Today she was up bright and early and only complained of soreness this morning. I gave her a dose of motrin and she was fine the rest of the day. I was sure she would want to take a nap because we took Franklin for a walk this morning and went to Target but she went strong all the way until bedtime (she was asleep in about 5 minutes). The only real complaint she's had is the ear drops. She says they hurt. This morning I had to drag her to the couch and lay her down in order to do them but tonight she was much more cooperative and while she still winced when I did them it definitely didn't seem as painful as this morning. Hopefully within another day or two she won't have any pain at all. One thing about Emmie is that no matter how much she doesn't want to do something she'll hold still and cooperate as long as you explain things to her. Even when her infected ear had to be flushed out last year which was horribly painful for her she cried and cried but she let the doctor do what needed to be done. She's such a brave little toaster!
We go back to the ENT at the beginning of July to have her hearing rechecked and hopefully she'll get two thumbs up!
On a side note: While we were with Emmie at the surgery center Ellie and Ruthie were at home with my mom. I was texting pictures and apparently Ellie was VERY interested in everything and she has asked Emmie tons of questions about it. She also wants to watch me put in Emmie's drops and she and Emmie are very concerned about the fact that Emmie is taking amoxicillin even though Ellie is allergic to it. I've had to explain to them about 2,343,298 times that Ellie is fine as long as she doesn't drink it. These girls are so used to living in peanut allergy world where you can't have peanuts anywhere near Ruthie! Every time Emmie takes her medicine she tells Ellie not to come too close...it's really kind of cute how concerned they are about it!
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| Living right...your sister has surgery and you get to gorge on popsicles! |
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