Say What?

After our 5 year check up in October 2012 Audrey got some sinus infections which led to an ear infection.  She has always been stuffy since as long as I could remember, but never anything that caused for major concern.

At first they thought her constant sinus issues were the result of allergies and recommended allergy medicine.  We later found out from the ENT specialist that this was a misdiagnosis and counter productive.  Lesson learned.

Audrey enjoying the ear test booth

 In November her teacher started complaining that she was zoning out and Audrey began to miss words on her spelling test.  She started pronouncing the word November with a W instead of a V.  We thought it was cute at the start, but after a while and in combination with poor class results, we headed back to the doctor for further evaluation.  Our pediatrician recommended going to a ENT specialist after a generic ear test came back with some minor hearing loss.

We ended up going to the ENT a couple times to get a baseline hearing test and follow up for what damage there was and what could be done to help clear it up.

She ended up having quite a bit of hearing loss in her left ear and some minor loss in her right due to fluid backing up in her ears.  The doctor presumed this was due to enlarged adenoids.

After our final follow up it was recommended that she have an adenoidectomy and tubes put in her ears.  Major surgery.  Ug.  They scheduled it for Valentines Day, Feb 14th 2013.  Double Ug.

Needless to say we were stressed and concerned.  But Audrey did her pre-blood test with no problems.  She actually thought it was cool to watch them take blood out of her arm and the next day wanted to do it again.  How did we luck out?!  This at least gave me some relief that she might make it through the surgery with out too much resistance and tears.

6 a.m. Preparing for surgery

Audrey was a trooper - had them IV her while awake!

recovery room - all went well.

When the time grew closer, we used all the parenting techniques we've learned to "prepare for success" to ensure as smooth a day of surgery as possible.  Audrey was quiet and calm the whole morning - listening to the nurses and being the greatest of patients.

The nurses and doctors were amazed when she agreed to not only have them put the IV in while she was awake, but not shedding a tear to boot - a first for a 5 year old in their book.    She made it through surgery fine and the recovery ended up being quite painless and quick.   After a long nap she was up and ready to play by dinner time.  So proud of her!