Family Genetics in Play

Those who knew me when I was small may recall I had a horrible speech impediment.  I could not pronounce my R's, S's, L's, or Th's.  I was incoherent.  Six years of speech therapy and you would never know unless you are with me and I am under the influence.  My speech problems were due to recurrent ear infections.
I knew there was a chance that one of my children would inherit compromised Eustachian tubes.  Dave's ears were fine as a kid, but unfortunately his siblings and parents were not so lucky.  My mother-in-law made sure to inform me about what I was getting myself into by marrying Dave.  So far two cousins have gotten tubes. In perhaps a strange case of sibling rivalry and trying to prove she could handle surgery better than her brother, Eileen had surgery this morning to get ear tubes.

Eileen went to the doctor seven times for ear infections between Christmas and mid-June.  The June ear infection also turned up an allergy to amoxicillin.  Fun times.  Tell tales signs of ear infection for Eileen include waking up screaming during nap multiple times, muffled crying during nighttime sleep, and putting things in her ears.

I wasn't too worried about Eileen getting tubes.  I know they have come a long way since the early 1980s.  The kids' ENT told me that most kids only get tubes once and that my two times are a rare exception.  I feel special.  Our ENT is definitely a surgeon--not warm and fuzzy and likes to cut.  I'm pretty sure that if I told her I had a cough, she would offer to take out my lung next week.  With both Linus and Eileen, they had surgery scheduled for than less than two weeks after their initial consults.  In a way I guess it's nice we don't ever seem to do a wait and see....

Surgery was a breeze.  Eileen and I arrived at the day surgery center at 7 am.  Linus spent the night at Uncle Tim's house. 

Waiting to be taken into the operating room.

 I got to go in with Eileen.  She didn't shed a single tear or fuss when I put her on the table.  I sang her "Eileen Goodnight" (Goodnight Irene with name changed) until she fell asleep.  The anesthesiologist complimented me on my singing.  Ten minutes later she was out of surgery.  Fourteen minutes later I was being taken back to recovery to get her.

Watching Linus come out of anesthesia after tonsils and adenoids was hard.  He was so miserable and it took a long time for him to wake up completely.  The nurses told me that they turned on the tv in the recovery room and there was a McDonalds commercial. As soon as Eileen saw the coffee cup on the tv she said, "Coffee. Mama."  Again, there were no tears.  She gladly accepted apple juice and animal crackers.  There was no IV to take out and we were walking out the door in ten minutes.

Having just had her first surgery, I couldn't deny her coffee (apple juice in her cup). We celebrated at Starbucks.

It's been a simple day.  She took a 2.5 hour nap this morning and another 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.  In between we ate lunch and went for a walk to the new park by our house.  Should my children ever need surgery again, I hope they go as smoothly as this one.  I'm looking forward to fewer trips to the doctor, but I think Eileen is going to miss taking all those antibiotics.  She really loves taking them. Seriously.