Ear Tube Procedure

I don't know if ear tubes are even a surgery.  Maybe they should be called a procedure, which sounds less drastic, because they were so darn easy in comparison to Matteo's palate surgery. Yes, they got general anesthesia, but they were off to the OR and back in less than a half an hour.  They woke up a little groggy, but were reasonably chipper after some food and drink.  And then we were off for home with instructions to administer Tylenol, if needed.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. for Matteo's 7:30 a.m. surgery, which was followed by Kiera's at 8:00 a.m.  In comparison to Matteo's late afternoon surgery when he had his palate repaired, neither kid showed any sign they were thirsty or hungry. As an example of their general good nature, Matteo hugged the teddy bear the woman from Child Life Services gave to him instead of whacking it to the ground (which is so out of character for him!) when he was presented with a similar teddy bear before his palate surgery. 

At 7:30 a.m. sharp, the surgery team arrived to take us to the OR.  I got to carry Matteo while the woman from Child Life Services played with Kiera.  I laid Matteo down on the operating table and got to hold his hand while they put him to sleep.  I was surprised at how well he did.  I would imagine being back in an operating room so soon would bring flashbacks, but it was if he knew what to do instead. 

I spent a few minutes with Kiera before it was time to take her back for surgery.  She wouldn't lie down on the table, so the anesthesiologist put her mask on her sitting up, but she otherwise was so chill about the whole thing that everyone was commenting on how they have never seen such a relaxed child, much less a child so young. 

When I got back to the post-op area, Matteo was already back in his room.  No sooner had the nurse delivered some apple juice for me to help him drink when I heard that they were bringing Kiera back from surgery.  The nurses asked if it would be easier for me if they could transferred Kiera to Matteo's bed and I happily agreed. 

Before we were discharged, the ENT doctor came back to talk to me.  Matteo's surgery had gone as expected.  He had quite a bit of fluid built up in his ears and for kids with cleft lip and palate, tubes are pretty much par for the course.  As for Kiera, we assumed she'd need tubes.  She's three and didn't speak Chinese. (Although she's starting to mimic us.)  Her audiology testing indicated she has mild conductive hearing loss.  However, when the doctor cleared out all the ear wax, he said her ears looked very healthy.  While that it in itself is great news, it leaves us to wonder if there's more behind her language delay than simply mild hearing loss.  Both kids will have audiology testing again in a month so we'll learn if a lot of earwax was all that was impairing Kiera's hearing.  The only sign we've gotten so far that she can hear better is when she covered her ears while I pureed soup for Matteo's lunch.

Kiera and Matteo got lots of attention during our short stay.  Everyone was so curious about them and we got a couple questions about whether they were biological siblings or even twins (asked by people who all had access to their charts with their birthdays - six months apart, so negative on both).  Other than getting their own beds for the OR, they shared a bed in pre-op and post-op and the sight of two tiny, hospital gown-clad children playing peacefully in bed and sipping apple juice was too much for the nurses to not stop in and say hello. 

Being prepped on what to expect with surgery

The nurse who helped us out to our car said it's very rare to have two siblings in for surgery at the same time, so that's why they were attracting so much attention.  He could only think of one other instance, but said the children were a lot older, and therefore not as cute.