Tubes Again

On Tuesday, Liliana went back to the hospital to have tubes put in again. It was almost a year since she had her last set put in.

About a month ago Liliana went in to have a check-up with her ear doctor. I was glad for the check-up because she had been telling me for a couples weeks that she couldn't hear me. I wasn't sure if she was just saying that or if she really couldn't hear. Well, as it turned out, she really couldn't hear. Her first set of tubes had fallen out and she had fluid in her ears again. So we scheduled another surgery.

Liliana and I showed up bright and early at the hospital. All the pre-op stuff went really well. Liliana did great and didn't appear to be nervous at all. Here she is in her "hospital jammies" looking at some books on her "special hospital bed."
The worst part of the surgery for me is when they gave her the gas to put her to sleep. She looks so helpless and sad. But, she was a trooper and did great. The doctor was blowing up a rubber glove for her while she was breathing the gas and I could see that she was smiling -- so she fell asleep smiling which made me feel a lot better.

During the surgery, the doctor was also checking on her adenoids -- apparently they can grow back. The doctor said they only grew back a little bit and that there was not as much fluid in her ears as they originally thought. He was very optimistic that this will be Liliana's last set of tubes.

Liliana was only under for about 3o minutes (the surgery itself took about 10 minutes). This was a really quick wake up. Apparently they usually have kids stay in the recovery room until they are fully awake, but Liliana was very sad and wanted her Mommy right away. So, they wheeled her back to me right away. I thought the worst part was over (her going to sleep), but I was wrong. This was the hardest part. She was so sad, so tired, so uncomfortable. All she could do was cry.
Nothing would make her feel better. After about 20 minutes she finally fell back asleep in my arms. When she woke up about 10 minutes later she was totally refreshed and back to normal. She drank a juice box and ate a Popsicle and then we left. It ended up being a pretty short trip.

I am so proud of how great Liliana did and am glad to know that we *hopefully* won't be going in for more surgery anytime soon!