As some of you are aware, Cate has been having problems with recurrent ear infections since early December. After numerous rounds of antibiotics failed to remedy the situation, our pediatrician referred Cate to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) who advised us that Cate would most likely need tubes put in her ears. Basically, Cate has all of the risk factors for chronic ear infections: prematurity, small size, reflux, and a parent (Allison) with an extensive history of ear problems. The purpose of the tubes would be to help the fluid trapped behind her eardrums drain and hopefully prevent future ear infections. By mid-February, Cate's ears had gotten so bad that the fluid in her ears was seriously compromising her ability to hear (remember how she sleep through a Mardi Gras parade?), so we scheduled her to have tubes put in on March 11. John and I were both confident that this was the right thing to do, but it is still scary when your not-quite-ten-month-old baby has to have surgery.
On the morning of March 11, John, Cate, and I arrived at Children's Hospital at 6 a.m. Cate was pretty confused as to why we were up and out of the house so early, but she was surprisingly well behaved considering that we couldn't feed her anything. Since Cate was the ENT's youngest patient that day, she got to go first. The nurses gave her a sedative (which they called goofy juice). At first, Cate got fussy and seemed to dislike the way she feeling, but after a few minutes, the sedative REALLY kicked in and Cate got very relaxed. She basically let us cuddle her while she lazily blew bubbles.
After a few minutes, the nurse came to take Cate back to surgery. As the nurse wheeled Cate away, Cate showed us that (despite the sedative) she was still her busy self as she stuck one leg up in the air and waved her foot around.
John and I were only in the waiting room for about twenty minutes before the ENT came out to let us know that the surgery went well. Shortly after that, the nurses took us to the recovery area where Cate was in the process of waking up. She was pretty annoyed about how the anesthesia made her feel and about having an IV in her foot, but after about 15 minutes she started settling back down to her normal self (although she still looked a little dopey).
We were out of the hospital by 9:30 am and spent the rest of the day at home playing.
