Another crazy, unforgettable week in the life of Raising Pumpkin. As Pumpkin's fans, you are all well aware of the ear trouble my little angel has suffered from. Well, we finally met with the ENT surgeon to (hopefully) put an end to her pain.
I was excited and anxious to hear what the ENT had to say. I wavered between relief that Pumpkin would soon be healed and fear that I was rushing into a surgical procedure that didn't need to be done. It was time to call in the experts and we did.
The appointment started easy enough with the nurse asking some basic questions. Age, weight, number of infections, types of medications. I was flying through this process, no problem. Then the questioning took a different turn. "How's her balance?" Well, she can't stand up without support and she falls over a lot (not to mention she is still moving mostly in reverse - see picture above). "How's her speech?" Um, she only says "da-da" and "ba-ba."
Wait, what was the nurse writing down? Were we failing this part of the exam? I mean, she's only 8 months old after all. I explain to the nurse that this is normal progress at 8 months (as if she doesn't know that). The nurse just smiles and moves on to the next question. After a hearing exam, an ear exam, and three minutes of consultation with the doctor (at a rate of approximately $100 per minute) we have a surgery set for 6-days later.
During that 6-days Pumpkin celebrated her first MLK Day and started in her new classroom. Other than Miss Brittany, I'm less than impressed with her new teachers - or just not adjusting to change well. Luckily her old teachers aren't either and every day this week I've caught one or the other of them in there holding my girl.
It's finally the night before surgery and my birthday-eve (yep, that's right, her surgery was set on my 31st birthday). Everything goes as normal, we feed her as late as possible since she can have nothing by mouth after midnight and plan for our early 5 AM wake up.
Through all of this I'm still uneasy about the surgery. Did we rush it? Did she really need it? Was this just a money making scam for the doctors who perform literally dozens of these every day? Well all of these fears were put to rest at 3 AM the morning of surgery when Pumpkin woke up screaming and unable to sleep. Yep, you guessed it - her ears.
We get to the surgery center at 6 AM, having been awake for 3 hours already, and our little doll is just a perfect angel. The nurses even commented on how good she was. They finally take her from my arms at 7:16 and at 7:30 exactly she was back in them and looking for a bottle. She was a real trooper through the whole thing, although she did throw a drunken fit as the anesthesia wore off. By 8:05 we were in the car and on the way home, where she napped and played the day away.
Unfortunately, she does have a little bit of the crud thanks to this weather changing yet again, but at least I rest (mostly) assured that it will not end up in her ears this time. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday, getting to spend the entire day with Pumpkin and having her ears in good working order...not to mention the flowers, sweets, and other treats showered on me by my family (including a spa day this weekend from Hubby)! So far, 31 is working out as well for me as it has for Baskin Robbins...let's hope mine is just as sweet :)
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