Ear Surgery

On April 30th, Hudson had surgery to put tubes in his ears. When we got back from Australia, we had an allergy doctor appointment. The doctor was checking all the normal things such as ears, throat, etc. and noticed that Hudson had fluid in his ears. She told us to see our pediatrician about it so we did. Dr. Sethi put Hud on antibiotics and asked for us to come back in a few weeks. Once we finished the antibiotics, we went back, but the fluid hadn't improved at all. She put Hud on stronger antibiotics and referred us to an ENT (we had already been to him back when Hudson was little). The ENT doctor said since Hudson hadn't had any improvement while being on either antibiotic it wasn't worth continuing with them. He said he had quite a bit of fluid on his ears, but that it was clear, so it wasn't infected. They also did a few hearing tests that Hudson didn't do very well on, but he said since Hudson was doing so well with talking (i.e. the ear problem didn't seem to be delaying his development) we could wait a month to see if the ear problem improved on its own. Otherwise he recommended surgery to put tubes in. We waited the month and just before we had to go back we had another allergy appointment. She thought they looked a bit better. I was so hopeful that we wouldn't have to have the surgery. The ENT doctor said he couldn't see the fluid this time, but his tests revealed that there was still fluid behind the ear drum and he still recommended surgery. He said if he went in to place the tubes and didn't find fluid, he would abort the surgery. Nic and I discussed it and we both were a bit uneasy. Hudson had never complained or tugged on his ears and we hadn't seen any delays as a result of the fluid. We knew that getting tubes put in is ears was considered a minor surgery, but it was still a surgery and we wanted to make sure it was necessary before we put him through it so we got a second opinion. The second doctor saw fluid on his ears and also recommended the surgery. He said we could continue to wait, but eventually the fluid could cause permanent damage. So we went ahead and scheduled the surgery. I was so nervous the day before, but the morning of I went into mom mode. We did everything we could to make Hudson feel comfortable. We talked with him, played with him and cuddled him. The first medicine they give made him a little loopy, but they said it would make him less stressed when they took him away from us. They kind of just swooped in and scooped him out of my arms. I didn't even get to say goodbye, which upset me, but I understand that it was better for Hudson to not have a drawn out goodbye. Thankfully, we were only sitting in the waiting room for about 10-15 minutes before a nurse came out and said both tubes were successfully put in and they did the blood draw for his allergy testing while he was under (the allergy doctor asked if we could do the blood draw during the surgery to save him from additional torture). When we went back to see him, he was really upset and crying. The nurses warned us that would be the case and said it was a good sign. It wasn't from pain, but dis-orientation from the meds. We stayed for a while so they could monitor him. He didn't cry for too long and once they gave us the ok to give him his bottle, he was a happy camper. We took him home and spoiled him for the rest of the day. He got to watch his favorite movie Finding Nemo and dada got him Jamba Juice before heading off to work. By that afternoon, he was back to his old self. Thank goodness!!