Got Tubes?

At 6am we (Graham and I) headed to the surgery center to have tubes placed in Graham's ears. Mom met us there and Graham was rather confused to see her! We filled out paper work and then they took us back to the pre-op area. Mimi stayed in the lobby while I went back with Graham to get him ready for his little procedure. It really hit me while we were in pre-op that he's becoming a little boy -- I mean, they had him stand up next to the door to see how tall he was.....this was a first!! At the peds they lay him down and measure him! He's only 28" tall (and 23 lbs!)!
After we found out his height, I sat in a rocking chair and changed him into his hospital gown. Dr. S was the anesthesiologist - he immediately fell in love with Graham's big blue eyes! 15 minutes before they were to take Graham back, they gave him a little "loopey juice" or Versed. I was amazed that it kicked in so quickly! Instead of climbing my shoulder and wanting to explore all of the machines, he settled down and was cuddling me in my lap...oh how I miss those days! Poor baby, his eyebrows were raised so high as he was trying to keep his eyes open. Dr. C came in and talked about the procedure again, and then his "surgical 'team'" came and took him away. I admit I was a little misty eyed watching them carry my limp baby back to the OR. I so badly wanted to go back with him, but wasn't allowed because of another family being there. They took him back around 7:08; at 7:20, Dr. C was out in the lobby telling Mom and I how well he did. Apparently he had a lot of thick puss filled (sorry I know it's gross) fluid behind his eardrum that Dr. C evacuated before putting the tubes in. Just as she walked away and told me that they would call me to go back to recovery in 10 minutes, the phone rang asking me to go to recovery. I was prepared for a scared, crying baby. But NOTHING could have prepared me for the next hour. Graham was Screaming; I mean thrashing about; he would suck two or three sucks on the nunu and then hit his ear and scream! I felt so helpless. I am his mom; I am supposed to be able to comfort him, but there was NOTHING that I could do to calm him down. Mom and I passed him to each other. The nurse kept reassuring me (well - she tried) that this was normal. Normal? For him to scream like this? For him to pull at his ear? To not go to sleep after screaming for an hour? I finally was so fed up and was hurting FOR him. I decided that maybe he would do better in his own environment. So we packed up getting HORRIBLE discharge instructions. I got Graham in his car seat and he was still crying pretty badly. We headed home and he finally fell asleep about 10 minutes into the ride -- of course that means that he slept all of 7 minutes max. We got home, Mom came and helped get us settled and Graham was starting to bounce back. He sat on the floor and played with Mom for a few minutes and every few minutes his tummy would get hard and he would cry out. I tried Mylicon (had to dust off the package and refamiliarize myself with the dosing!! It's been so long since we've used it!) and I'm not sure if he got relief or not. At 9:30 Dr. C called and asked if he was asleep, to which I answered NO. She said that it would take 4 hours of sleep to get the anesthesia out of his system so she called in a Tylenol with Codeine to help him sleep. Once that was in him, he slept for 2 1/2 hours. After that nap he was a new baby!!!!! Thank God!
He was pretty low key as far as playing today. He didn't have much energy. He went to bed around 8:20 and is sawing zzzz's right now! I pray that he has a restful night tonight! I want him to be free of pain/pressure. I want him to start hearing words and sounds like they are supposed to be heard!!! I know this is selfish - but I hope that I am able to sleep tonight -- I'm worried that something would happen to him and I wouldn't know....so please pray for peace tonight! I have a picture of Graham with Nurse Angelle (she was WONDERFUL!) before his medicine. I will upload it tomorrow!
For now -
May we all Sleep in Heavenly Peace...
Love,
Jeff, Lauren & Graham