Ear Tubes - Round 2

I do not know anyone who is a big fan of surgery.  I definitely am not a big fan of surgery.  I am even less of a fan when that surgery involves someone I love.  Even less less of a fan of surgery when it involves my son. 

My son, in his short four years of life, has already had four surgeries or surgical procedures.  That is more than I have had my entire life!  Thankfully all of his procedures have been of the out-patient nature.  Perhaps, I should not complain because I am sure many parents of children with down syndrome have had to endure waiting through many more surgeries with their kids that are more complicated and indeed even life threatening. 

But, I am a mom and I HATE HATE HATE it when my son has to go through this process.  He just had to endure it again this past week when he had his current ear tubes removed and replaced with new ones.  In the scheme of things, this is a very routine quick surgery.  Many kids without my son's same diagnosis have gone through this, but I have to say, having experienced the process once does not make it any easier the second time. 

We were lucky, we had gone to see the doctor, the week before and he was able to squeeze us in his schedule so we only had a weekend before my son got new ear tubes.  Of course, a weekend was enough for me to have all the "worse case scenario" thoughts go through my head as a I was trying to fall asleep.  This time around the anticipation was much worse for me because I remembered our first time.  The worse part was recalling the look on my son's face and his howling cries as the nurse took him away from me when they headed to the operating room.  It broke my heart a year ago and I did not want to repeat that again.  Also more difficult this time around was the fact that my son had a better understanding that something was going to be done to him.  I told my husband that I would probably break down crying if my son yelled out "Help me, Mommy!" like he does sometimes when my husband is putting him to bed.  

In the end, we were fortunate, the anticipation was worse than the reality.  Even though we were the last surgery of the morning, my son was not fussy or complaining about the fact that he could not drink or eat anything.  It was also a tremendous blessing that the entire family went to the surgery center this time instead of just me and him.  I had the support of my husband, who is very calming and my son was distracted by his sister.  In fact, his sister helped him forget that he was wearing the medical identification bracelet by playing with him and when we went into the pre-op area, she entertained him by pushing him back and forth in a little car they had there for the kids.  My son was laughing and smiling as he headed off to the operating room with the nurse (the nurse pushed him in the car) and thanks to my daughter and husband the moment was not as stressful as I expected.

I still don't like surgery or the idea that my son has to have surgery again.  I could not get the doctor to tell me that this would be my son's last time.  The doctor took a "wait and see" attitude, but at least the process went a lot more smoothly and my son was not in apparent distress over it.