Elena's Ears

As most of you know, Elena has had terrible ear infections since she was about 6 months old.  I got looking back on her profile at the drug store and she had an ear infection every 6 weeks or less!!  Well, it finally got to the point that our family doctor referred us to the ear, nose, and throat doctor.  

On Monday, April 27 we got to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning and waited for her surgery. (Elena must take after her mom cause she WAS NOT HAPPY that I woke her up that early) While we were checking in, they needed to weigh her and she threw a fit cause she didn't want me to put her down. "Oh great," I thought, we are starting the day out great! Soon after this her nurse brought her a purple teddy-bear that she carried around and would not let out of her sight the entire day.  

Right before we went to the holding room, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me if we wanted to give her a pre-med so she wouldn't cry when they took her.  Since she had already cried when they tried to weigh her, I told them to go ahead.  Soon after, Elena's head started drooping a little and she started getting silly.  At one point she laughed out loud at nothing at all!  The rest of the time she mostly was just jabbering a lot.  All the nurses got a kick out of her making so much noise.  It was the best part of the day!!

Elena was only in surgery for about 30 minutes and in recovery for 30 minutes before they brought her to me.  When they first brought her to me, you couldn't imagine how hard she was crying.  (They told me before hand that they can get really disoriented on the anesthesia)  I finally figured out that if I stood up and rocked her she would calm down, but there was no way that I could sit down!!  Soon after she went to sleep and everything was all good.

The rest of the day went pretty well.  I had to make sure that she had Tylenol in her, but other than that she just wanted to be held a lot.  The day after the surgery Elena started throwing up.  She had a day or two where we didn't know if she was going to throw up or not, but once we got some pedialyte in her she felt 100 times better.

The other day we got Elena's new ear plugs in at the drug store.  We could have just used cotton balls and vaseline in her ears when she took a bath, but it was a pain plus we had to buy ear plugs for her to use when she went swimming anyway.  These are the ear plugs that the doctor

 recommended.  

They are called Doc's Proplugs and I really like them.  They are made to suction to the ear canals, and they are comfortable enough Elena doesn't mind them.  (Once they are in!)  They also fit into the curves of her ear enough that she can't really pull them out which is a definite plus!!!

These days Elena is back to her splashing little self.  It's a good thing she has her earplugs.  If she didn't she would have water in her ears all the time.  The other day she even climbed in the bathtub (with Ella) with ALL HER CLOTHES ON!!  (and that day she DIDN'T have ear plugs....)  

Another medical fiasco completed.  THANK GOODNESS!!