Surgery 3 - 25 "The Works"

Pre surgery...early and tired, but always happy!!! 

Everett had tubes put in. I'm not really sure if fluid is the problem with his hearing loss. Something tells me it's not, I don't know what, but just one of those mommy feelings, that I hope is wrong. I think you either have general hearing loss where you may need an aid, or maybe a processing delay. I know you hear and I know you hear well because you respond to very soft sounds. I think if you're occupied with anything else, it could be eating, playing, looking at something, or just tired, you don't respond. I think some of it is interest and development. You're a boy who doesn't care for multi-tasking and I like that about you. You have GREAT focus but you only focus on one thing at a time. Needless to say, tubes are our first option and if you still don't respond well during our next hearing test in a month, then we'll have to do a different study where you're sedated. :( Again. :( Let's hope for the best!

Anyway, surgery went well. There's nothing like having to hand over your baby for surgery though, I don't care if it's small or big, it's never easy. There's always that worry that something will go wrong. The things I envision are pretty bad, thankfully none came true. The eye doctor probed your eyes first. I'm sure you can see in his pictures, they're often watery and goopy since they don't drain well. It was supposed to clear up on its own by now and if not, they put a probe (tube) down his canal to open it up. She said it hurts and they usually do it in office with a bit of numbing agent. I didn't like the sounds of that so I begged her to come do it since he was getting tubes, thankfully she did! Next tubes, simple procedure with no rules in the bath or pool. She said she's good to let him go and do and if he ends up having reoccurring problems, then we'll discuss ear plugs. I don't see me allowing dada to dunk you in the pool as it is, I'll be so worried about your lungs and aspirating, I don't think I could handle the dunk anyway. The ENT removed your cyst so you have stitches on your neck. They also drew blood for your Leukemia check which needs to be done yearly since people with DS are at high risk. I've read and seen horror stories on facebook about drawing blood for that and it pooling in babies feet. So, since you were being poked and prodded I thought we'd do "the works!" We got in first since you're the youngest of the day. We were on our way by 5:45 am with surgery at 7:30, we had to go to Tampa so we didn't have to wait another month to do it. You were and always are a champ. Everyone who sets eyes on you falls in love with you. You're such a gentle soul I know when they take you away they want to snuggle you since you're so lovable which does calm me a bit, a slight bit. Post op you're fabulous. They had to intubate you...I hate that thought. I can't stand thinking about a tube down your throat, it just brings back such horrible memories. So, your voice was scratchy after but the nurse said you were an angel, normally babies are sad after and you were your silly self. Your eyes were bloody, mama didn't like that one bit. They bled a bit after and the nurse said you might cry blood. I told her you don't cry, so I don't have anything to worry about. That's how good you are all the time! I have to put drops in your ears and eyes, that you don't like. I can tell the drops sting your eyes and who likes liquid in their ears, not me! So, that's the "hard part" now. The eye dr said that you might be a candidate for a surgery down the road if this doesn't do the trick for good. They'd put a balloon in both eye canals to expand them so your eyes can drain better. I think we'll deal with gunk and wet eyes for a while and give your body a time to expand before we go jumping the gun on that one. You're not bothered by the goopy wetness of your eyes and it doens't impact your vision, so...we're good. We were home by 9:30 am! Crazy how fast it went.

You are such a champ Everett. You're so strong. You keep me strong with your strength. Thank you. I love you. I'm so very proud of you!