Monday, July 6, 2009

Emergency Surgery!!!!

So I have learned that anytime I complain about being busy God lets me know what my priorities are. My sweet little two year old was complaining about ear pain so of course I just thought he had an ear infection. Since we just moved and switched jobs our insurance didn't kick in until the first of July so I decided to just wait it out and see if his ear would get better on it's own. A week later he developed a large bump on the back of his neck which scared me to death. We looked it up on the internet and it looked like swollen lymph nodes which are common with infection although I have five children and have never seen it happen with any of them. So a couple of days later His ear started to stick out like Will Smith but just on one side. Luckily that was the day our insurance kicked in. I waited until my hubby got home and took him to the urgent care center nearby fully expecting them to write us a prescription for antibiotics and send us on our way. When we got to see the doctor he looked at his ear and paused for awhile. Any time that happens that is a bad thing. He went Hmmm... Well.... and then I knew something was wrong. He said, "This is not an ear infection. I'm sending you to the hospital emergency room." I said, "Right now?" He said, "Yes right now I will call them and let them know you're coming." So we drove home and picked up the baby because I'm still nursing, told #1man to put the kids to bed and try to get some sleep, because he had to work the next day, and we headed off for the E.R. We got there around 8:00pm. When we finally got in they did a c.t. scan (cat scan) and gave him I.V. antibiotics. Once they got the surgeon to review the scan he came in and said, "Your son has an abscess behind his ear and pus in his mastoid bone. We need to drain them both. I don't feel comfortable doing it here so I am sending you to Primary Children's medical center." This was midnight. I was in Ogden. Primary is in Salt Lake so we started driving. I was so tired that it took me 20 minutes to find my way back to the freeway and then another 40 to get to Primary. We arrived safely at 1 am. When we were finally showed to a room it was 2 am. When the doctors finally were able to talk to each other from both hospitals and send the scan images it was 5 am. It still hadn't dawned on me what they meant by draining the abscess until one of the doctors came in and said I'm the resident ENT and we are scheduling his surgery for this afternoon. We were finally admitted at 6 am. After more antibiotics and morphine little man finally slept peacefully. I however did not. I have never had surgery and none of my kids have ever had surgery so I was petrified. Needless to say #1 man did not go to work that day. He got to the hospital that afternoon around 2 pm. His mom and step dad were coming to visit for the fourth so they decided to come early to help watch kids and anything else we needed. I'm so grateful they were here. #1 man and I just sat and worried for a couple hours until they told us we would be going to the OR and starting the surgery at around 5 pm. We walked him down and waited with him in the OR unit until the surgeon and anesthesiologist met with us. We kissed him goodbye with a few tears and went into the waiting room. I couldn't sit for long so we went down to the cafeteria to get some dinner. We went back to the waiting room and waited. He was supposed to be done around 6 so when we didn't hear anything we had the nurse call to get some news. He was fine. They finished around 7 pm and the surgeon came in to tell us everything went great. They put two tubes in his ear. One behind his ear to keep draining it and one in his eardrum for the same reason. We went back to his room at 7:30 pm and I had #1 man take the baby home for the night while I stayed with boy #5. I finally slept for real at about 10 pm. We had a few moments in the night when Little man was in some serious pain but by morning he was doing great. All his blood tests came back with great numbers and they told us he might be able to come home that day. By 10 am the resident came in and took the tube out from behind his ear and the nurse had finally taken out his two IVs. He was cleared to leave by noon and we got to leave for home at 2 pm. I was so glad to get home. Since then he has made an almost full recovery except for the lovely railroad tracks on the back of his ear but he is happy and playing so I think he is doing fine. He'll have to follow up with a couple different doctors in the next few months but I'm so happy we went in when we did. Hopefully my next blog will be able to show you the new house and funner things like that. Until them keep your kids close and take them to the doctor if they need it.

4 comments:

Simplymom said...

So Scary!!!! My little girl ruptured her appendix about a month before she turned 2. We were in the hospital 10 days. That feeling of watching them get wheeled off into the unknown is the worst! Hope he gets feeling lots better.

PS My bro-in-law teaches school in Brigham City, I think 4th grade. His name is Tom Little.

Brooke said...

I was actually reading your blog yesterday, and was wondering if I should leave a comment or not. I'm so glad you left one on my page. I'm so sorry to hear about your little man. I'm glad he is doing better though. I can't imagine the worry you must have felt. It looks like you are doing well. You have five adorable little boys. I have the one boy, and he keeps me on my toes. You must be super woman! I hope life is well for you. Are you going to the reunion? It would be great to see you.

We Makes 3 said...

WOW LADY! You are just completely amazing! Seriously, I think I would have lost my head. So glad it turned out ok. Let me know next time you are down, we can PLAY!!

Just Only Me said...

Oh my goodness, what a scary thing! I'm hoping that he's recovering from all the adventures!!