Surgery Update and Pictures

I'm going back to the previous post tomorrow and am captioning those pictures.


Alex's surgery was today and he did great! His right ear drum was crusted over with blood and mucous, and his left ear with just mucous. The doctor got all of it off, and said that that should clear up his hearing! YAY!

He did fairly well with the entire procceedure. He was grumpy and clingy today as he was recovering from the anesthsia, but by the time he went to bed he was in a good mood. :D







Come on, Mommy. Let's go. I wanna get out of this place. NOW.



Ooo...This floor is slick. I can do the splits. See?!? (He went much farther than I could imagine being comfortable before he stopped and ran off giggling.)



Too many nurses keep running by my room. I'd rather stay close to blankie and Daddy.





Dr. Wohl scared me by trying to make me laugh before surgery. Daddy tried to calm me down, but just barely succeeded.



Coloring always takes my mind off doctors' offices!





The nurse carried me back to the OR.



When he's feeling better tomorrow, I'll snap some smiling pictures!

I'll be around again, eventually...

The next two weeks are going to fly by. This week is going to be spent preparing for next week. Before the 8th, my house needs to be spotless, all the meals for the next week need to be planned out and prepared for as much as possible, I have to buy the kids' their Christmas outfits, and I need a dress for 3 parties/events. I also have to finish lining up babysitters for the next week.

And then, the madness begins.

8th: Alex's pre-surgery physical, ear recheck, and flu shot.

9th: Between 3 and 4 we'll be told what time Alex's surgery the next day is going to be held at. Then we have the Life Group's Christmas party. It's being held at Kate's house. We'll put Princess to bed there and leave her there that night.

10th: Kate will take Kairi to whomever's house she will be spending the day with. We're close to knowing who that will be, but nothing definite yet. Alex will have surgery. That night is church, but we'll decide how the family's doing that afternoon before we all head out there.

11th: Ship's Christmas party. Looks like Kate to the rescue again, because she just volunteered to keep them as late as we need her to that night. Semi-formal event held in a ballroom. I need a nice dress.

12th: Church's Christmas party. Formal event. Wearing the same dress as I did at the ship's party. Chris is singing in a quartet. Kate and I are discussing a possible skit.... We'll see. It's a child-free event, so we're trying to arrange childcare to be held at the church so that we can all go. Otherwise, they'll find that most of the young adults can't attend -- we all have kids!

13th: Chris is taking me to dinner and then to a musical. We still need childcare for this night as well.

14th: Chris has duty.



So as you can tell, unless we have things perfectly prepared for that week, life's going to fall apart! Wish us luck in getting ready for the holiday whirlwind!


ETA: As of this morning (the 1st), Chris will be out of town until Friday. Leaves again the following Monday, and comes back that Tuesday. Any one else want to throw some more into this week?

Alex saw the ENT

Alex has temporary mild to moderate hearing loss caused by the multiple ear infections. There's quite a bit of fluid on his ears. We will have tubes put in his ears on the 10th. After that, he should regain his hearing and make a full recovery! We suspected that he had muffled hearing. He barely responds and just is not speaking. The only time he babbles is when he doesn't have a cold (which is near never). I was shocked to hear the words "hearing loss" but not about what caused it. And I'm thankful that it's not permanent.



He also has moderate reflux. We're treating it w/ prevacid solutabs.

Alex Update

I had Alex checked out again today because he just wasn't acting much better.

He has a double ei. The worst yet. He received 2 shots today and was prescribed a medicine that's so new on the market that TriCare won't pay for it. Luckily, he had samples for us. He's meeting us at the office tomorrow morning to check him out again.

And we have to see an ENT because Alex needs tubes.

Thankfully, Chris made it home just in time for the appt. And I will spare you the details of most of it, b/c it involved a lot of crying from a baby and Mommy near tears because of Alex's discomfort. Dr. Weiss does his best, but it still hurts and that makes Mommy want to cry.

I'm happy that we're on the road to get him better. But I want to cry at the thought of tubes.

:(




EDIT: Saturday, November 22
Alex's left ear is clear! His right ear is still yucky, but thank God for progress!