Our Baby's First and Hopefully Last Surgery

Caleb's basically been a walking crawling ear infection since he started daycare the first week of November. Daycares are notably breeding grounds for germs regardless of how clean they look (and his looks super clean) because, well, they specialize in small people who generally have no sense of hygiene! The children let snot rivers flow freely down their faces, put everything in their mouths, and have no qualms about what they've touched - ever. It wasn't really surprising when Caleb caught his first cold during his first week there. We half-joked that he was building his immune system. Twelve weeks later, here we are. Several colds led to other things... congestion, ear infections, sleepless nights, a chronically medicated child. After 6 antibiotics over not quite 3 months, that became just as serious as the infections themselves. After meeting with an ear/nose/throat specialist, we decided to have tubes put in his ears. We decided this on Friday and the surgery was today.

Our little champ handled it like a pro (dare I say me, the medical pro??). We got to the surgical center at 6:30 a.m. and were home by 9 a.m. It was a 15 minute procedure (or less - he was actually only out of our arms for 15 minutes to include the trip from pre-op to the OR, then to recovery where we got to hold him again) and the only residual symptom he had was being a bit tired for a couple hours after. Hello unplanned early morning nap!

The tubes will likely fall out on their own in about a year, when hopefully his ears have developed a bit more and the fluid that was getting stuck behind his eardrum will be able to escape at the back of his sinuses/throat at that time. Until then, we have to be a little careful not to let water pour into his ears... no special treatment at bath time and if we dunk him underwater when swimming, he'll have to wear earplugs. The biggest benefits: the likelihood of future infections is really low, he won't be taking antibiotics because he won't have infections, and his hearing won't be compromised like it could have been with fluid stuck in there and/or scar tissue that results from chronic infections.

A few pics of our brave boy this morning:

Do you see how cute their pediatric gowns are? Of course, he makes everything look WAY cuter, too... ;)

The anesthesiologist gave him his mask to play with beforehand so he wouldn't fear it when he was on the table getting gassed. Caleb quite liked it. (Not sure what he'd think about it NOW, after how they used it on him to make him sleep and all!)

And this is the little champ, in recovery. Binky and his froggy blanket. Complete nirvana.