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December 31, 2003
December 31st 2003
I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. Elise’s surgery was thankfully uneventful. Like everyone said it would be, it was much harder on mom and dad than it was on her.
She went into surgery at 8:45am this morning and we were in our car going home by 9:10am.
When I was looking for information about the procedure, I found tons of information and even video of the procedure online. However, I did not find any details from the parents’ prospective. Therefore, I am going detail our experience. Feel free to skip over this, I am sure it will bore 99.9% of the population.
Elise had tubes put in. The procedure is actually: Bilateral myringotomy and tube insertion under general anesthesia.
We had the procedure at a surgicenter on the campus of a major hospital. We were told to report to the center between 7:30 and 8:00am for a 9:00am surgery. Elise was not allowed to have any food or fluids after Midnight. I thought she was going to be a bear in the morning. She normally nurses then eats between 6 and 8oz of jar food before 8am. But I think because she was kept moving, first in the car, she was distracted from her hunger.
We got to the center around 7:40am. We barely had time to sit down before they called us back go over the admission paperwork. After that we went into a much nicer, roomier patient waiting area. I did ask how much the procedure costs. With our insurance, since it was a surgical center outpatient thing, the out of pocket cost to us is nothing. But apparently it cost about $2000 for the surgical center. That does not include the anesthesiologist or the surgeon. I do not know how people afford kids without medical insurance.
After spending about 10 minutes in the waiting area, we were called to the pre-op area. They accidentally called us out of order so they called another family in to the area while we waited in the corner. Our surgeon only likes to have one patient in pre-op at a time, so we joked around with the nurse and the doctor about hiding. The family that was scheduled before us only spent about 3 minutes in the pre-op area. Our time in pre-op was about 15 minutes because we had to wait for that surgery to be completed.
A nurse of PA weighed Elise and took her heart rate and temperature. Everything was fine. A nurse did asked if she eats a lot of carrots because her skin is slightly yellowish. She has been eating carrots at least once a day. I asked her if she seem abnormally yellow and she said not at all. I am going to keep her from eating carrots for a couple of days just to make sure her color is fine (I am sure it is).
The doctor came in and reviewed the procedure. He let us know that the anesthesiologist and nurse would soon be in to see us. Almost on cue, the nurse came in. She went over everything, letting us know what we could expect following the surgery. She asked us several times if we had any questions. Everyone we came in contact with kept asking us if we had any questions. Even though things went so quickly, I never felt rushed or pushed.
The anesthesiologist came in and told us what he was going to do. He also double-checked the weight and age. Apparently the anesthesia smells like bubble gum. I know for toddlers they sing them to sleep. He and the nurse joked around that they were doing very good this morning, that none of the kids had been crying when they put them under.
All of the medical staff kept saying very nice things about Elise. “My what beautiful, big blue eyes.” “What a cute bald head.” “Pink sure is her color.” “She sure is happy today.” They always called her by name. Now I am more of an analytical type person than a touchy-feely person when it comes to something like this (I want to see the video of the procedure, see what the actual tube is, know every possible complication) however, I really respect the effort they made to make us feel like our daughter was important to them, and not just patient undergoing a procedure.
The nurse took Elise in her arms and walked away with the anesthesiologist. We had been told to go back to the patient’s waiting room. We got food out of the machine. I was too nervous to eat. My husband went to the restroom and then I went. It had been just over 10 minutes. When I returned, the doctor was already talking with my husband. He said everything went well. Elise did not have an infection and had very little if any fluid. That surprised me because Elise has been off her antibiotic since Sunday and was beginning to tug at her ears. The doctor said that could be caused by the pressure in her ears.
Almost as soon as the doctor left the waiting room, we were told to come back to recovery. I expected a nurse to be standing over Elise in a crib. She was in a nurse’s lap. Not crying but looking unhappy. The nurse instructed me to sit in a hospital type recliner chair. She handed me Elise, then she went and got a heated blanket and put it in my lap (this nurse also asked about her liking carrots). Elise was awake, but very confused. She apparently took a couple of sips of pedialite when she was waking up (that is what they do first, try to get them to drink) and realized it was something she did not like and started crying. They had let us know prior to the surgery that crying afterward was not bad. That it helped get the drugs out of the lungs.
I tried to nurse her, but she would not latch on and got really mad. The nurse came back into our area when she heard the screaming. She asked if she was refusing to nurse. I told her she was. My husband suggested that she was impatient and that it was not coming out fast enough. We had brought a cooler with 4-ounces of formula. We gave her that and she drank 3 ½ ounces. Normally she won’t drink but about an ounce of cold formula. She was not latching on all that well. I may be reading too much into it, but it seemed like she was use to sucking feeling different. Since she took the bottle, they told us we could leave.
It was about 9:10am when I checked the clock in the car. So we were done with the surgery before the scheduled time. Not bad. We called both sets of grandparents to let them know everything turned out okay.
While I drove, my DH rode in the backseat to make sure she was okay. That was suggested on the preoperative instructions we had been mailed about a week ago. She was already smiling and seemingly back to her old self.
When we got home she at about 7-ounces of jar food and nursed. We played on the floor like normal and then she ate 6-ounces of jar food and 4-ounces of formula. She took a 3-hour nap. That is a little long for her, but not unheard of.
We have eardrops we have to put in 3-times a day for 3 days. Then we have a post-operative appointment two weeks from now.
I am so relieved that it is over. Now we have to wait and see if this helps her with the ear infections.
Thanks again for the support and for everyone that posted on my TTM board to let me know about their experiences.
Sherry
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