Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Tale of the Tubes

I'm taking a little break from the vacation recaps today to post about Alaina's tubes that she got yesterday. I'm so thankful that the whole procedure went really well and she did great.

We had to be at the hospital at 6:30am yesterday morning. You might can imagine how thrilled I was when they told us what time we had to be there ;) My mom was sweet enough to come spend the night with us the night before (and sleep on our couch!) so that she would be here with Aubrey and Jude when David, Alaina, and I left home at 6:00. Of course we had to wake this sweet baby up. How precious is she? Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby :)
Alaina was in a GREAT mood when we first got to the hospital in spite of being up hours earlier than usual and not having anything to eat or drink. We just hung out in the waiting room for a while.
They finally called us back to a room a little after 7 and asked us a bunch of questions about Alaina's medical history.
Then they let us know that the doctor "wasn't notorious for being on time" but he should be there around 8, at which time they'd get started on Alaina. Umm, it was 7:10 at this point. So dumb. I honestly don't understand why doctors make you wait so long, but obviously that's just the way it is and we have no choice but to accept it. They gave us a few toys and some crayons to help entertain Alaina.
Apparently Alaina didn't get the no food or drink memo and she thought that crayon looked tasty :) She did pretty well in the room for a while, but then she started to get sleepy and probably extremely hungry, so she was fussy. We walked around the waiting room with her, and then it was FINALLY 8. The nurse came to take Alaina back, and this is the part I was most worried about. Alaina is super attached to me and normally freaks out when anyone tries to take her from me. She even does this with people she knows, so I figured it would be awful when a stranger took her. I was going to be so sad if they had to pry her off of me screaming. By some miracle (seriously, I know it had to be a God thing) the nurse picked Alaina up from my lap and she didn't even cry when they walked her out. I was seriously shocked but so happy and relieved.

They told us that they'd call us after they finished the first ear to let us know how it was going. They said the whole thing from start to finish would only take approximately 30 minutes. When David and I got back to the waiting room, we walked over to the cafeteria to get some coffee. We were gone over there like maybe 5 minutes. A few minutes after we got back to the waiting room, the phone rang. We figured they would be telling us they had done Alaina's first ear. Um, no. Apparently they were finished with the entire procedure and were "in recovery." They said they had tried to call a few minutes earlier and we weren't in the waiting room. Well, that made me feel like a crap mom. Haha! I thought we had 30 minutes, but the entire procedure from them taking her back and putting her to sleep to her waking up was like 15 minutes tops. Everyone says it's a quick procedure, but that kind of blew my mind. Anyway, we went right back to see Alaina, and she was sitting quietly on a nurse's lap. They said she didn't cry when she woke up, which is apparently very rare. As soon as she saw me, though, that all changed. She burst into tears and didn't stop for probably 30 minutes :(
It was so sad to see her so inconsolable. They said that was completely normal because they're very disoriented when they wake up. My poor baby. The only thing that would calm her down was for me to give her to David for a few seconds and then take her back. She'd stop crying for a little while when I would take her back. Haha!

David's presence was kind of ticking Alaina off for some reason. When he'd get within her line of sight, she'd get real agitated and start waving her hand back and forth like she didn't want him near her. It was kind of amusing.
Anyway, after we waited a while to make sure she was fine, they gave us our instructions and told us we could go. As soon as we left that room, Alaina was fine and acted normal the rest of the day (just a little more tired than usual!). It was 9:30 when we left -- 3 hours there for a 15 minute procedure. Sweet girl was OUT once she got in the car.
I'm so thankful that everything went so smoothly. I hope Alaina will be a lot more comfortable and happy without constant ear pain now. She slept through the night last night for the first time in days. If that continues, these tubes will be a success in my book! :)
 

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