Kyrie's Surgery

Last Thursday (11/17), we woke up at 5:30 to make our 6:30 appointment at the Ohio Surgery Center. After months of recurring ear infections, Kyrie would be getting tubes placed in her ears. I was grateful that Darren could take a half day off from work to be there with us.

We arrived when it was still dark and had a short wait before Kyrie & I went back to pre-op. Her nurse was wonderful and had a great way of explaining everything so that it seemed fun and even a little silly. Kyrie changed into a hospital gown top and was given a dose of pain medication and Versed (a drug that causes drowsiness, relieves anxiety and prevents memory). I held her on my lap and sang to her while we waited for the medication to take effect. Her body soon grew heavy in my arms and she started to giggle. I moved her to the bed where she drooped & flopped like a ragdoll. She tried to sit up and get off the bed, she saw bugs on the floor and then they were glitter and she wanted to touch it. I held her in my lap again until she insisted she wanted to walk, which resulted in me placing her in a huddled pile on the floor where she became fascinated with the underside of the bed. She saw a deer and a playground and reached for the sun while I talked to her doctor and the anesthesiologist. It was hard not to giggle at her, and I wished that I had had a camera to document her goofiness. And then the nurses were wheeling her away for the quick procedure.

I was grateful that this was a short, simple surgery. No sooner had I hugged Degen, updated Darren and gotten a cup of cocoa then we were being called back to speak with the doctor. All had gone well, and I would soon be taken back to see her in post-op. For all the giggly fun that pre-op was, post-op was a sad and frightening place. The nurses had warned me what to expect, but as much as you steel your heart to see your child crying and in pain it is a heartbreaking experience. Still groggy, she cried and moaned and sobbed that her ears hurt. Helplessness is a mother at the side of her child's hospital bed. She said she couldn't stand the pain and begged for her heating pad (when she has ear infections, one of her biggest comforts is to lay her head on a hot, "rice bag"). I asked the nurses if they had anything to help, but there were no 'rice socks' and she had already received pain medication pre- and post-op. One nurse brought her the warmest blanket she could find, and that seemed to help but a little. We were moved to a quiet, private room in hopes that the calm would soothe her (the surgery center was busy with at least a half dozen children in pre- and post-op) and in another 10 or 15 minutes the pain seemed to be more tolerable. I was given care instructions and we were sent home.

At home, we put her in our bed with her hot pad and she was asleep in minutes.

When she woke up, she was in good spirits and by that afternoon you would not have known that only hours before she had been in surgery. She said that her ears felt funny and that her voice sounded different, but there was no more pain- what a relief. As a side-note, that same morning, I would take Degen into the pediatricians' office where he would be diagnosed with an ear infection.