Like Jello?!

Arden has been fighting frequent constant ear infections for some time now.  Her pediatrician, Dr. Page said that she has not seen her without fluid in her ears since October!  Twice I have taken her in for unrelated issues and she has had an ear infection.  She was referred to an ENT doctor and we had our visit this past Thursday (3/22).  Without any hesitation, the doctor recommended PE tube surgery and we quickly got it booked for this morning - Tuesday, 3/27.

It really wasn't a hard decision because it meant relief for our baby.  The surgery was with Dr. Kevin Botts at Baptist and Arden did great!  She got really giggly and loopy when they gave her the medicine to "make her relax."  At one point, she had the whole surgery triage area laughing!  When Arden woke up from the anesthesia, she was pretty agitated and cried for almost an hour.  They told us this was typical but it was the most stressful part for us.  She is currently napping in her crib.  I sure hope she wakes up more content.

When Dr. Botts came out to talk to us after the surgery.  He said that everything went well and most of the time in the operating room was spent suctioning "goop" (his word) out of her ears.  He said it was the consistency of Jello and that the suctioning device had to be cleared out at one point!  EWWW!  Dr. Botts said that the Jello like material had been there from some time but had no actual fluid left so Arden's body had no way of getting rid of it.  That right there made us so pleased that she had the surgery.

Well, it is Sunday 3/31 and I am just now able to finish this post.  Arden is doing great with her tubes and has been eating and sleeping well and acting like herself.  She has a very runny nose though.

While we were home together after the surgery.  I tried to get some video of her walking.  She has been walking for about 2 weeks (so we will call it 12 1/2 months for the milestone.  This is about the same as it was for Loren.)  Anyway, I'm thinking the anesthesia may not have been all the way out of her system.  These videos crack me up.  I still need to video her walking.  She is making great strides (ha!) each day and I really think her balance has improved since the tubes.

On our way home from the hospital.  It took Arden a good hour and a half or so to calm down completely after waking up from the Anesthesia.  This was a brief moment of being semi-content.