Baby Surgery

This morning granddaughter Ellie had her surgery to implant drainage tubes in both of her ears.  Previously, the doctor had given instructions that Ellie should not eat or drink anything after midnight last night, so that anesthesia could be given without any problems.  Because she is only 21 months old and still loves her morning bottle, we wondered what the morning before the procedure would be like with her.  Her surgery was scheduled for 8:30 AM, but required arrival at the hospital by 7:00 AM.

Therefore we somewhat expected a cranky, whiny little girl.  What were we thinking?  She was a doll. Of course.

There was no crying, no fussing, and she totally cooperated about putting on her little scrub suit and lab coat.  Her daddy carried her out the door with her tiny medical kit in her hand.  (She did NOT want to wear the surgical cap today.)

Upon arrival at the hospital, Ellie made herself at home in the lobby reading children's books while Lindsay checked her in.

After a brief wait, the nurse took us back to Ellie's pre-op room, squirted a bit of sedation medicine down her throat, and then she was changed into a tiny hospital gown and funny hospital socks that were essentially thigh-highs.

Before too long we could tell the sedation medicine was calming her, because her cheeks got all flushed, and she got real loopy.  A loopy Ellie is just the cutest thing to see, and comical too.

As her balance became a bit impaired, she easily snuggled against mom Lindsay.

Of course she had already easily won over the hearts of the nursing staff.  They had really enjoyed seeing this tiny patient of theirs coming into their ward dressed in mini-scrubs.

Because Ellie was now appearing more and more sleepy, daddy Todd put her up onto the baby crib bed.  She valiently tried to stay upright and explore the bed, but her limbs were just heavy weights by this time.

Finally she laid down and almost closed her eyes. She stayed calm, though, and mildly amused as she played with her mini blood pressure cuff.

Soon, the surgical team came and wheeled her away to the operating room.  As she rolled down the hall she looked back toward us, but there were no tears.  I looked at my watch and it said 8:05 AM.

At 8:25 the surgeon came back to us and told us all had gone well.  He also reported that he discovered during the surgery that Ellie had another ear infection going on in her right ear.  We all looked at that piece of news as confirmation that this procedure really needed to be done.

About 8:45 a nurse arrived carrying Ellie, and placed her into Todd's arms.  Ellie was still quite sleepy, but the nurse told us again that the procedure had gone smoothly, and went over a list of post-op directions.

They prescribed some ear drops to be used 5 drops at a time, twice a day in both ears for 7 days.

After a bit Ellie experienced the best part of her morning:  an orange popsicle.  The nurse advised us not to feed Ellie milk or fatty foods until several hours had gone by.

After signing the discharge papers, a quick stop at Sheetz on the way provided a slushy for this little patient, which she happily sipped.

I've heard of so many children having tubes implanted in an attempt to solve the issue of repeated ear infections, and I've written this post for two reasons.  First, I wanted to let the family and friends of Ellie know that her minor surgery today went well.  Secondly, I wanted to let my readers know what is involved with this type of procedure, and what could be expected at the hospital should a relative of yours need this procedure.

Of course,  Ellie was a model patient.  As we carried her out past the nurses' station, we heard them talking among themselves about that little cutie wearing the scrub suit and having her own little stethoscope.

Yup, that's our Ellie.