A final (?) ear update

Here's hoping that this will be the last post about Luke's ears.

Today's surgery went really well. We were in by 7:30, out by 10:15! Luke did so well. He was a bit upset initially when we went back to the area where they weighed him and put on his arm (uh, well, LEG band - since he REFUSED to have it put around his wrist). They gave him some medicine to relax him, and then he happily hung out and watched Elmo while we waited.


By the time that they were ready for him, Luke was so relaxed that he (sort of) let the nurse carry him back to the OR, and only cried a little bit. The procedure itself was only about 20 minutes, and the Dr. came out to let us know that all went well. He removed the fluid from behind Luke's eardrums, and put the tubes in. His hearing should immediately improve!

Luke woke up from the anesthesia after another 25 minutes, or so. He was cranky at first, but settled right down after he had some apple juice and graham crackers (not eating right away in the morning may have been the hardest part for him!). He was discharged about 45 minutes after waking up.

As much as Mommy is happy to have her little boy healthy and well, she is a little disappointed that we are not having a chill out day filled with naps and cuddling. Nope, Luke is just about back to normal. He ate 2 meals since we got home, ran around, climbed, and squealed for a while, and is now napping.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes!

Ear update

We had Luke's first appointment with the ENT specialist yesterday. I was glad to finally get him in and have someone look more carefully at his ears and his hearing.

The hearing test was probably the most important part of the appointment. They did two different testing procedure on Luke. The first was to put him in a soundproof booth. The audiologist had speakers on either side of the room as well as little lights and characters for Luke to look at. He responded pretty well to her speaking to him through a microphone, but there was an obvious favoring of his left ear (not a big surprise since his pediatrician had noted more fluid in the right ear). When tones were played, however, Luke did not appear to notice them until she made them quite a lot louder. Overall, he scored just below average.

The second test was one where the vibrations of his ear drums were measured. When the sound waves were sent into his ear, neither ear drum vibrated AT ALL. This means that there is so much fluid behind those ear drums that they are not able to correctly respond to sounds. Luke's hearing is impacted by the fluid, and most of what he hears must sound muffled.

With this information, the ENT quickly suggested that Luke have tubes put in to drain that fluid from his ears and to, hopefully, help prevent future infections. During this time, when his hearing so drastically impacts his language development, this is really the only option.

The good news is that it is a relatively simple procedure, which takes only about 20 minutes total (unfortunately, he does have to go under general anesthesia) ... and we were able to take a spot in the schedule that was open due to a cancellation for tomorrow morning. So, Luke is having his ear tubes put in tomorrow morning. I'll post an update once he is home and recovering.