Back at Rylie’s 4-year-old check-up, she failed her hearing test in one ear. They sent us to Children’s hospital to have it checked out and they told us she had fluid trapped behind her eardrum which is why she failed. They said it could naturally drain, so they sent us home and asked us to come back in a few weeks to check again.
Life got busy – we moved, Spencer came, and I honestly didn’t think it was a big deal. Rylie never had an ear infection, her speech was beyond her age level and she had no problem hearing (aside from the usual toddler “huh?” and “what did you say?”)
Then we went to her 5-year-old check-up and she failed her hearing test again… our doctor sent us again to Children’s and this time, they told us she had fluid trapped in both ears. After some tests, they told us she couldn’t hear low frequencies. Her ears her full of fluid and because this had been a problem for over a year, we were past natural remedies. She needed tubes. Without them, there was a very high probability she would loose her hearing completely.
I was really uncomfortable with putting tubes in her ears, but once I was educated on the process of getting them in, the follow up and that they are not in her ears for life – I was reassured and left feeling at complete peace that this was the best next step for our girl.
Her surgery was scheduled for January 18th. We woke up at 5am and got ready to go.
Once we arrived, I had to sign some paperwork and they did some final checks before putting us in our little room.
We had a lot of ladies come into our room for the next 45 minutes. Nurses, anesthesiologist, and OR nurses.
Aside from being extra snuggly, Rylie was pretty normal and answered all the nurses questions (like what her favorite princess was, which she quickly responded, “SPIDERMAN!” the nurses laughed at this unexpected answer but loved it). She did, however, cry when she put on her hospital gown.
One last nurse came in and saw she had been crying and asked what was wrong. I told her she didn’t want to wear the gown and she quickly told us to get changed back into her normal clothes. She said they offer us the gown because sometimes the anesthesia can relax them so much they have a potty accident but she was confident Rylie would be fine and wanted her to be comfortable. So we got changed back into our clothes and felt much better.
The time came for her to jump into the hospital bed and roll off into the OR. About 10 minutes later the doctor came in and told me it went great and she was in recovery. He gave me some instructions and was off to the next kiddo. She came in with a cup of gatorade.
The nurse also came in with popsicles for her and I to share, which was extra thoughtful.
Rylie told me she was in a lot of pain, which I brought to the nurses attention and she said, “that’s odd… they usually don’t feel anything.” she concluded that Rylie probably had so much fluid in her ear that they had to scrape some out which would have irritated the ear, causing her some immediate pain. They gave her some pain meds and after we had finished our popsicles, Rylie said it felt better.
We were on our way and Aaron took us out to breakfast. Rylie, who wasn’t acting her normal self in the car, perked up when we got to our table and ate a good breakfast.
I’m so thankful for the amazing team at Children’s Hospital who cared for our daughter so well! They genuinely cared for her and me. I’m so glad we were able to get Rylie’s ears tended to and are praying for no further ear problems.