Tubes for Ruthie

In the waiting room with Daddy.

Ruthie got tubes in her ears on January 5th and we are so happy! She had never had an ear infection, that we know of, until last January (I suspect that she had them all along she just never complained or ran a fever.). Last January she had walking pneumonia and an ear infection. She lost 4lb (20% of her body weight) with that illness. It was awful. She had ear infections until July. Her ear infections were mostly clearing up we think. With the one in May we went back for a recheck to make sure the infection was gone and it was. We were back the next week with a new ear infection. We went to the ENT in early July and he didn't want to put in tubes then and have them come out during the winter, when she needed them the most. He said to call and set up surgery if she had two ear infections before Halloween. The cool weather started in October and she immediately got an ear infection. It cleared up. Then in November we had the horribleness. She got a blister on her eardrum. Apparently this is excruciatingly painful. I knew something was wrong when Ruthie was super grouchy (a sure sign of an ear infection) and she wouldn't let me look in her ears (normally she tells me her ear hurts but this time she didn't). This little girl is tiny but she is TOUGH. It made me so sad that she just suffered in silence. It makes me wonder how much she must hurt/ be uncomfortable between her eczema and these ear infections. I saw the ENT at work and told him about it and he said we definitely needed tubes.

Pillowblanket (its all one word now in our house) got to go back to the OR with her. Hopefully nobody looked too closely at her NASTY pillowcase. I made her a new one for Christmas but she still prefers the old, gross one.

We waited until January to do the tubes so we could hit our deductible at the beginning of the year. Especially important since we know she has to have her peanut labs redrawn this year. In between the blister and the tubes we had 2-3 more ear infections. The last was the WEEK BEFORE tubes. Ugh! I was so sure we would make it to our tubes without a last one. I was glad that I took her in for her ears because it turned out that she had strep too!

Ready to go!

So the day of tubes finally arrived. My mom came and got everyone else off to school so that Paul and I could go with Ruthie. She had her tubes put in at the surgery center and they were great with Emmie a few years ago and once again we had a great experience with Ruthie's tubes. Emmie had walked Ruthie through every step of the surgery so she was well prepared.

She was a little nervous before surgery.

I was worried about how she would do when they took her from us and she looked a little unsure but she did great! Everyone told us how she entertained them in the back. Then she pretty much stole everyone's hearts in recovery with her cuteness. She's a mess our little Ruthie!

She kept showing everyone in recovery her red tongue.

She has been telling everyone that she got tubes so NO MORE HURTING EARS!  We are SO, SO excited about this! We saw the pediatrician in late December for Emmie and JP's well visits and I told the doctor we were getting tubes in January and we wouldn't be seeing her till March for Ruthie's well visit. I sure hope this is true! (On a side note, 2 days later was when Ruthie had the double ear infection and strep...but we went to after hours. This Mama was NOT sitting in the doctor's office for an hour with 4 kids in tow for a second day that week!) Ruthie did pretty well after surgery. She went though a few hours where she would randomly scream and cry like she was really mad but once she ate a HUGE lunch she was fine!

Being silly before surgery.

I'm hoping that now that we have tubes and her eczema is VERY well controlled (thanks to some wet wraps and Aveeno Baby Nighttime Balm) we can start putting some meat on her bones. It took us a few months to gain back the four pounds she lost last January and then we just got stuck at 24lb. In the last few months she's managed to put on 2 more pounds bringing my tiny little 3 year old to a whopping 26lb but boy am I excited about those 26lb...we worked hard for them and her face has finally filled out some and she doesn't have the dark circles she had for awhile! So here's to a healthy 2017 for Ruthie! (And feel free to go ahead and pray about her peanut labs in March. We're hoping for a downward trend with her numbers!)