My baby needs what?!?!

This morning, my friend Jess' daughter had tubes put in her ears. Lily will be 9 months old tomorrow. After 8 ear infections in 6 months and a resistance to antibiotics, it was the best thing and really the only thing that could give little Lily some relief.

The same thing does not apply to the parents when the ENT says, "Well, it looks like tubes are the best option. It is a simply surgery and takes about 15 minutes from start to finish. How does 2 days from now sound?" And as a parent, your heart starts to beat really fast and your stomach starts to come into your throat and you feel the dreaded panic coming on.

The following questions come into a parent's mind when they realize their child is having surgery: You are going to put my baby under with general anesthesia? Is this really going to help? Are you sure it only takes 15 minutes? What if my baby reacts badly? Is this worth it? Am I an awful parent? Did I do something wrong?

But mostly, this is what is being said loudly in your head over every question you could ever think of:

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then they tell you it is affecting their hearing. Now you REALLY feel like a jerk. All this time you thought your dear little one was being a little toot and not listening to you and in all reality, they could not hear you.

**Insert Mommy Guilt Here**

I remember it all like it was yesterday. Emmalynn had 6 ear infections in 8 months and I knew it was time to do something about it. At her one year well check, we got a referral from our pediatrician to go to the ENT. So, we went down to Dr. Zlab's office where he looked at her ears and did an auditory exam. He looked at her ears, said he saw that there was quite a bit of fluid and that we could either take Emmalynn to the doctor every two weeks this winter OR he could do tubes. But let's do an auditory exam first. So we do the exam. She failed. Apparently, the fluid in her ears is effecting her hearing. Fantastic. Who is a jerk? This Mom. So, I say, "Okay. Tubes. When?" He scheduled us for the 10th of November.

A couple of days before, a nurse from the surgery center called to ask me a ton of questions about my daughter. Honestly, I never knew I had to answer SOOOO many questions. So, I answer the questions and they schedule Emma's surgery for 7AM.

On that day, we got to the surgery center around 6 AM as they prepped her, weight and height, pulse, bp...all that good stuff. Then we waited in the small little room for the doctor to come in and then for the nurse to come and take her away to her first surgery. I would just think about it and cry. I remember the nurse telling me, "Now when she gets out of the surgery and comes out of the anesthesia, she is going to be your baby's evil twin. But she will sleep for 4 or 5 hours and be a normal baby again." I remember thinking that my baby would be special...she will just want to snuggle with me and have Mommy make it all better. So, the doctor comes in and then the nurse comes in and says, "Okay Mom, let's do this quick before she realizes that she is leaving you." Within 5 seconds of that, she was whisked out of my arms after a quick kiss and she was gone. 11 minutes in the waiting room and the nurse came and got me. They were done and she did wonderfully. I talked to the doctor and I could see her soon. I walked into the room and saw my sweet baby with the nurse.

She was my baby's evil twin. I really had wondered where my sweet girl had gone. It was what they had told me it would be like, but I was COMPLETELY unprepared. COMPLETELY. After her thrashing around for 20 minutes, I was able to take her home. She fell asleep on the way home and then slept for 4 hours (as did I) when she got home.

And you know what? They were right again -- she was a happy, playful, sweet baby again. And guess what? She has had ONE ear infection since she got tubes. ONE. No visits to the doctor, no worries for this or that concerning her ears. We have drops for it and will never have to go to the doctor for an ear infection again.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. Was it harder on me than it was on her? Without a doubt. Am I glad we did it for her? Of course.

Moral of the story -- it is going to be okay if your baby needs to get tubes. Looking back it was not HALF as bad as I thought it would be (except for the evil twin baby part...that was bad). Do not be afraid if your child has to have this done. And if anything, ask me questions about it. I am no expert, but I can help you understand it all from a parent's perspective. Something I wish I had had!! :)