Henry VanDyke

[Show as slideshow]

One of Henry’s ear tubes fell out shortly before Christmas and since then he’s had four ear infections in less than six weeks. These infections never seemed to start during normal office hours either so we made one late night run to the emergency room and another trip to an urgent care clinic on a Saturday afternoon.

All this meant, as we were expecting, a second set of tubes. The doctor said he’s only had one or two other kids who have had their tubes fall out in less than five months. Now that Henry is bigger, they can also use a different type of tube so we’re hoping for a year’s worth of ear infection freedom.

We braved the icy Dallas roads at 5:30 in the morning to make it to the surgery center. Our 7am surgery slot was slightly delayed because the anesthesiologist got in an accident on the way to the center. Just like last time, Henry was only away from us for about 10 minutes, though it felt longer. This time they gave him a small dose of sedative before the anestesia so he wouldn’t put up a fuss being taken away. It worked and  left him pretty groggy afterwards so he barely cried at all. Once he was home and got a much delayed breakfast he was back playing like nothing happened.

We’re very thankful that he stayed well enough to get the tubes. It’s been a tough week for Henry with an ear infection, wheezing, a snotty nose, fever and stomach problems from a month straight on antibiotics. We think the tubes will give him the fighting chance he needs to get back to normal.

Lastly, Erin and I decided that any time Henry has surgery he gets a new toy, so a trip to Target later in the day yielded a police truck that has lights and makes noises. He loves it.

Henry’s ear tube surgery went well. We arrived at the surgery center at 5:30 a.m., filled out some paper work and then were called back.

From when they took Henry back until we saw him was close to 10 minutes. So, it really is a quick procedure.

Henry cried while he was in the recovery room but once he got a bottle and we took him to our car he calmed down. When we got back home he was a little fussier than normal but not much. By noon he was mostly back to normal, playing and crawling around.

So far the biggest difference that we can tell is when we lay him down to change his diaper. He doesn’t seem to fuss as much as normal.

In summary, it was a quick procedure and we’re glad to have it over with. Hopefully we’ll get to avoid ear infections for a while now.

Henry has endured several ear infections over his first few months of life so tomorrow morning he is headed to get ear tubes. The tubes will let the fluid behind his ear drum drain. This should help him feel better and prevent him from getting as many ear infections.

The doctor, Paul Bauer, said the actual surgery will last about five minutes. He said Henry may be fussy while the anesthesia wears of but he should be back to normal by the end of the day. The worst part for Henry will be that he can’t eat until after the surgery.

We’re still waiting to hear about the exact time, but we expect it to be between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.  Several other parents have told us that getting tubes for their kid made a night and day difference in how their kid feels.

I’ll post an update tomorrow after the surgery.

Update: Henry’s surgery is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. which means we have to leave the house at 5 a.m.