Eloise's Tubes

March 28, 2011

Eloise's Tubes

Our morning started early today. We had to be at the Children's Hospital at 6:20a. Right before we headed out the door we got Eloise out of bed, left her in pajamas and head to the hospital. Checked in waited for a few minutes in the family waiting room and was then escorted to a preop room for vitals and information. After all the information was received Dr. Hart came in just talked about the procedure and answered any questions. We were then left to wait for her time for surgery. Around 8ish the anesthesiologist assistant came in followed by the anesthesiologist and a nurse. They reviewed all of Eloise's information with us and then off they went taking Eloise with them. She did very well. She was carried away down the hallway and never made a peep. We were then escorted back to the family waiting room for about 5 minutes and then shown a consultation room. Dr. Hart came in a told us the surgery went well. He drained a lot of thick mucus like fluid from both ears and then put the tubes in. She was given some antibiotic drops during surgery and gave us the rest of the drops to give her for the next three days. After he left we waited about another 10 minutes and were then escorted to Eloise. When we saw her in recovery a nurse was holding her and you could tell she wasn't sure what was going on but she was not crying. We stayed in recovery for another 15 minutes and she had some apple juice, we were given discharge papers and sent on our way. We have a follow up appointment in a couple of weeks with Dr. Hart. In the car she downed her milk since she had not had anything to eat or drink since the night before. This did not sit well with her tummy as she did get sick once we got into the house. Since then though she has been playing in the living room and acting like her old self, chatting up a storm. The staff was great and the new hospital is beautiful.

In case you were wondering, Eloise has never had an ear infection. In October of last year her hearing was checking at Early On and her left ear came back as refer. We continued to monitor her ears with Early On with no change in her left. At her 1 year check up I mentioned the testing to her pediatrician and he sent us to the hearing center. The testing at the hearing center came back the same with fluid present behind the left ear drum and a slight hearing loss on both sides. She was then put on amoxicilllin to see if we could clear it up with the thought their might be an infection. This is when we found out she was allergic to amoxicillin. Her ears were checked with no sign of infection. Once again at Early On we checked her ears and both ears this time came back refer. After a few weeks of this reading I made an appointment with Dr. Hart ENT. Eloise and I met with him and he did see fluid behind both ears. He recommended tubes in both the ears due to the presence of fluid for an extended period of time, the slight hearing loss and some delayed skills (motor, speech, eating). The appointment was scheduled and that is where we are today. We are very anxious to see if the tubes and fluid-free ears change anything with Eloise. Eating is a very difficult area for her. She is not a big eater and weighing less than 17 pound at 15 months old makes eating very important to her health. We will also be watching her motor skills to see if her balance is improved at all. Time will tell.