Soeur-gery

We had a major event last week that needs to be documented.  I channeled my high school newspaper editor self, who always had to make sure the who, what, when, where, why, how,  and WOW! was covered in every lead.  So here is the update, Chatfield Charter* style!

Who: Sadie and Tessa are the soeurs in question.

 Patient No. 1

Patient No. 2

What: SURGERY!  Both girls had their tonsils and adenoids removed.  Sadie got her second round of PE tubes while she was out. Tessa had perforations on her ear drums repaired.  Three procedures each.

When: One week ago today.  One very long and painful week ago.

Where: The outpatient surgery of our local hospital.

Why: After spending three months dealing with constant ear infections (and upon the recommendation of our pediatrician), I knew it was time to "fix" the two little ones.  We visited our ENT, who then referred us to an excellent new surgeon as he had retired from that end of things (Thanks to us?!? You may recall that Chloe and Piper** had this done back in 2010).

Above is a diagram of a normal ear.  Notice how the Eustachean tube slants down at the bottom there.  This important little guy, who starts in the ear and ends in the back of the mouth, allows air to flow up into the middle ear, which in turns allows for equal pressure in that middle ear as compared with the outer ear.  In my children, that Eustachean tube is basically horizontal.  Additionally, they have a huge adenoid blocking that little tube (and a gigantic tonsil right beneath that adenoid isn't helping things either).  When they yawn or chew or talk or whatever, no air can get into the Eustachean tube like it does in a normal situation.  Because no air can get into the middle ear, there is negative pressure there as compared to the outer ear.  This negative pressure causes a secretion of fluid behind the ear drum in the middle ear, which proves to be the perfect host for loads and loads of bacteria.  Thus we have ear infection after ear infection.  Removing the adenoids and tonsils (which also seem to be causing some sleep apnea in both girls as well as repeated infections in the throat) will allow air into the Eustachean tube.  Pressure Equalization tubes inserted into the ear drum will help as well because air can flow from the outer ear into the middle ear.

It is bad luck that all four of my children have this particular anatomical disadvantage.  It does run in families and my girls get it from both sides.  Carter and I each have siblings who have had to have the PE tubes.  My dad had his tonsils removed as a child.  We also each have a sister who has been told she needs to have her tonsils out now that she is an adult!  Many of Carter's cousins' children have had issues with this as well.  In fact, I was just reading the journal of Carter's great grandmother on that side and she in fact lost a child to complications from a nasty ear infection in the early 1900s.  I'm thankful for antibiotics and modern medicine.  What I have had to deal with has been a minor headache compared to what dear, sweet Grandma Nellie did.

How: I'm not sure how we survived two girls going under the knife on the same day.  We have done it before.  I hope we never do it again.  They badly needed to get this issue resolved (my pediatrician has been urging me to get their tonsils out for over a year) and the fact that my little incident back in February helped us meet our family insurance deductible as well as nearly all our out of pocket expenses meant there was no time like the present.  Carter was able to get two days off of work to help me at the hospital (while a dear friend watched the older, spring breaking girls).   Why not kill two birds with one stone?  It was a crazy day of rotating little patients through all the steps of surgery (check-in, prep, doctor consults, anesthesia, the actual surgery, and, finally, recovery).  It was stressful and upsetting.  There were lots of tears and root beer slushies.  We survived.  We have also survived the week of two grumpy, hurting little girls.  Administering popsicles and pain medication have been my main activities (all through the day and night, mind you).  We even managed to get out of the house a couple of times and have a little fun.  Their ten day recovery is nearly at its end.  And I'm completely worn out.

Patient No. 1 right out of surgery

Patient No. 2 right out of surgery, complete with ice pack and IV.  Breaks my heart.

Popsicle time!

Recovering . . .

Wow: I read an article in a magazine recently about being kind to your future self.  It emphasized making decisions in the present that will make life easier for the you in the future.  Since it was in a women's magazine, it gave examples like if the you of the present eats several cupcakes today, it means the you of tomorrow has to just eat salad and hit the gym extra hard.  That's not very nice for the you of the future.  If the you of today goes nuts at a sale, the you of tomorrow has to be on a strict budget/deal with the credit card statement.  Also not so fun for the future you.  I think by taking care of these medical procedures this month, I've saved my future self another winter of illness.  The girls suffered a lot this year.  I got so run down nursing them, I ended up suffering a lot as well.  I'm hoping and praying that this bit of unpleasantness will mean a happier, healthier winter next year.  If Tessa and Sadie do as well as their older sisters have since having their tonsils removed, we will!

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*That's the name of my school newspaper.  I was the section editor of the front page/news portion of the paper.  I hated it.  Bad.   And thus my teenage dreams of becoming a world famous (and award winning!) journalist were killed forever.

**If you read that back-link, you can see my sense of humor about this issue is completely gone.