Mason's Post-Op update

Mason had ear tube surgery on Monday. He did awesome. Well the surgery went awesome.... Mason behaved exactly how a 2 year old should behave given the situation!

We had to check into the ENT office by 7am. So that means leaving our home by 6:20am to make the drive there and arrive on time. Getting up before 6am is about 2 hours earlier than our regular wake time. Mason was unimpressed! He was even more unimpressed that he could not eat or drink anything when he woke up. Kaleb the night before was very worried about Mason. He had a hard time at bedtime wondering if Mason would be "brave enough". It was very sweet. When I got Mason dressed Kaleb hear us moving around. Mason was sitting on the couch and Kaleb brought him his stuffed puppy to take with him. In a sleepy haze he staggered over to give him a kiss and tell him to be brave. Then Mason wanted his Baby Jaguar as well. So Kaleb went and got that stuffed animal as well. I sent Kaleb back to bed after assuring him Mason was "brave enough".

On the drive there Mason fell back asleep. He was way grumpy when I woke him up, pulled him out of the Van into the cold frosty morning air and took him inside a strange building with strange people looking at him. He responded by pulling the hood of his jacket up and over his eyes. Then he buried what was left showing of his face directly into my breasts. He tucked his hands around his stuffed animals and under himself and would not move. We sat in the waiting room like that for about 5 minutes.

When they called us back he started to fuss. He knew something was up. They put us in a curtained off area to "prep" us. Basically to get him into a gown, take him weight, and allow the nurses and Drs to ask us a bunch of the same questions over and over again. Nurse gave us a gown and asked me to leave his socks and diaper on and tie the gown in back. She then briskly yanked the curtain closed around us. Well the curtain makes that loud metal ring on metal rail noise and completely freaked Mason out. He does NOT want the curtain closed. He does NOT want to take off his clothes. So I open the curtain back up. He settles down a bit, that is until I start taking off his clothes. He is screaming and kicking and throwing a bona-fided tantrum. I wrestle him out of his clothes while 3 nurses stand at the desk 6 feet away and watch. Right as I am pulling his pants off the brisk curtain pulling nurse says, "Oh if he is THAT upset, you can just leave his clothes on". Well it is too late now. He is naked. He doesn't want his clothes back on and he is having NOTHING to do with the cute tiger gown they have given us.

Nurse Brisk wants to weigh him. She walks us back to a counter with a baby scale on it. I try to put him on the scale. His butt doesn't even hit the cold metal before he is crawling back into my arms. Then Nurse Brisk gets the bright idea to try to hold him down. Yeah that doesn't work either. Hard to get a scale to balance with a wiggling 2 year old screaming and clawing at you. So Nurse Brisk picks him up and walks out of the room to the adult scale down the hall. she holds him while he is screaming and kicking and weighs herself and him. She gets off the scale, hands Mason back to me, he is basically puddle of wet tears and relief to be back in my arms. She gets back on the scale and re weighs just herself. Then she uses a calculator to figure out the difference. Mason weighs 30 pounds. Which by the way is what I told her he weighed at his appointment in HER office just 5 days earlier. But whatever. She got her "accurate" weight on him.

We go back to our curtain area to wait some more. Another nurse comes over to listen to his lungs and ask the same questions again. She also puts an ID bracelet on his ankle. He is NOT amused at all by that event. She tells me that Mason doesn't have to wear the gown. Good thing cause he wasn't having it anyway! Then the anesthesiologist comes in to listen to his lungs again and ask the same questions AGAIN. Satisfied that Mason's lungs are clear due to all the screaming he leaves, probably to go stop the bleeding in his own ear drums from Mason's screams bursting them! LOL!

We wait and then we wait some more for Dr. B to show up. He is about 30 minutes late. Mind you Mason is just in his diaper and socks at this point. He is getting cold. Nurse offers us a warm blanket. Nope Mason throws it on the floor. I wrap him up in his coat. I put my jacket around his legs and hold him close. His face is still buried in my breasts. Dr B. FINALLY arrives. He says Hi, I sign the consent form and he leaves. The nice nurse comes back and says "it is time". Mason understands what that means. But contrary to his antics thus far he remains calm. I give him a big hug and a kiss. I tell him to be brave. Nice Nurse picks him up and Mason hugs his stuffed animals and her neck. She walks away and he is looking at me over her shoulder. I wave bye bye and blow him a kiss. He fusses a bit, shoots me a dirty -I-Can't-believe-you-let-this-woman-take-me-to-certain-death-look and they round the corner out of sight.

I take this opportunity to burst into tears myself. I sob quietly into my sleeve for a few moments. I gather our belongings and Nurse Brisk shows me to the waiting room. Tim & I exchange a few texts while I wait. Tim was at home with Jasmyn & Mason, but his heart was with me and Mason, holding both our hands. I swear not even 10minutes went by and Dr. B was calling me over for a post-op update. Mason still had fluid behind both ear drums. They removed the fluid, put the tube in and all was well. Mason was in the recovery room and as soon as he started to wake they would come and get me.

I go back to my waiting room chair. I wait another 5 minutes, while exchanging texts with Tim. They finally call me back. Mason is cuddled up in a warm blanket with a nurse I have not seen before. He holds his arms out to me as soon as he sees me from across the room. I scoop him up. He is groggy and cranky. They offer him some juice which he refuses. I ask him if he wants his clothes. He says "YES!" I get him dressed, the nurse goes over some discharge instructions and then we leave.

Mason fell asleep again in the van on the drive home. I let Tim Jasmyn and Kaleb know that we are on our way home. Kaleb is very happy that Mason was "brave enough". We arrive home to hugs and kisses and everyone is so proud of Mason. Mason is just plain tuckered out. The meds are still making him sleepy. He asks to go lay in my bed. So we do. We both end up sleeping in until about 12:30. It was an awesome nap! First time ever that Mason willingly laid down to nap with me. No crying no fussing, out like a light in 5 minutes. Sweet!

When we woke up it was like the mornings events never happened. He was happy, played normally and ate well. Things have been normal ever since. We have a follow-up and a hearing test the 2nd week in April. I will keep everyone posted on how he is doing!

Thanks for reading this story. I wrote out the long versions so that *I* won't forget and for his baby book! I hope you enjoyed it!