Grammy to the Rescue!

Sunday afternoon Carter took a 3 hour nap which made me nervous he was getting sick because he never sleeps that long.  Then Sunday night he struggled all night waking up at 11, 11:45, 12, 3:30, and then eventually for the day at 6:15.  As I pulled my tired hiney out of bed Monday morning I debated whether I should keep him home or not.  I took his temperature 5 times with each reading right around 98.5 degrees.  So off we went, me half wishing he'd had a temp so I could have stayed home from work.  Let's be honest, I was full on wishing that! 

Almost half-way through my day, at 11:00, I got the dreaded call from daycare.  It was Carter's teacher informing me he had a temperature of 102.9 degrees.  I tried not to panic, but he'd never had a temperature of 101 or above, so I was worried.  I was also concerned his temperature had spiked that much in just a few short hours.  I rushed around creating sub plans and setting out materials and texted Ty to call for an appointment.  When I arrived to pick Carter up he was still wearing his socks and shoes which I thought was ridiculous and immediately pulled them off.  By the time we got home the highest reading I got using our temporal thermometer was 100.3.  I felt much better knowing his temperature wasn't as high as they reported but I was also frustrated.  We've had so many times where I've gotten a phone call that Carter's temperature was above 100.4 and I had to pick him up only to find he didn't have a temperature at all or it was a low-grade 99 degree temperature when we got home.  I'm about at the height of frustration on this issue, but that's a whole post all on it's own.

Carter and I arrived for our appointment at the doctor's office.  He was very obviously not feeling well and spent our entire wait with his head rested on my chest barely moving his eyes.  They took us back and the nurse took his temperature, looked at the thermometer, and quizzically asked me what I had gotten as his temperature.  She took his temperature multiple times, each time with a reading of high-99's to low-100's.  The doctor came in, spent a very long time listening to Carter's chest, checked his ears, checked his throat, and diagnosed him with a bad cold or upper respiratory infection.  He suggested giving Carter Ibuprofen for the temperature and we were on our way.

Daycare policy states children must remain fever free for 24 hours before returning to daycare so I knew Carter would need to stay home the following day.  My sick days are quickly dwindling and Ty may have a few hours at most.  My mom very graciously offered to come watch Carter for us and after my overly emotional and utterly exhausted self burst into tears at the thought of not being home with Carter when he was sick and the frustration that I had to work, I accepted.  She headed down last night and was here all day with him.

I had already arranged for coverage for the start of the school day so I could take Carter to his follow-up appointment with the ENT to check on his ear tubes.  Mom went with me so I could leave straight from the appointment to go to work and save some time.  Lately when we are ready to leave in the morning, I've been telling Carter it's time to go bye bye.  He'll head over to the front door and reach for the doorknob, trying to turn it.  I figured I'd show mom what he does so before we left I told Carter it was time to go bye bye.  He was sitting in a chair, looked at me, then looked over at his grammy, and just sat there.  I guess he figured since grammy was here, he was just gonna hang out at home.  Such a cutie!  What Carter normally does:

When we did talk him into leaving we headed to the ENT.  They again started with the hearing test which my mom found as comical as I did.  She may need to have her own hearing tested.  She said she thought Carter was turning his head in anticipation of the toy moving and then realized he heard a sound that she was unable to hear.  He did wonderfully on his hearing test and he now had mobility of his ear drum.  The doctor checked out his ears and said everything looks great.  I double-checked to make sure we didn't need to protect his ears any more than we already would have.  He verified that was correct and told us Carter would have to be in 5-6 feet of water for the pressure to disturb the tubes.  He joked you can tell the age of an ENT by whether they recommend using ear plugs.  I thought that was funny.

From there I headed to work and mom headed home with Carter.  Fortunately he was feeling almost back to normal today and had a blast with his grammy.  One of the major perks of Carter being home with his grammy is that she sends me pictures and updates throughout the day.  I love knowing what he's up to and seeing his handsome face!  I have his daycare schedule, but that's just not the same as knowing exactly what he's doing at an exact moment in time.  I sure am thankful for such an amazing mom and I know Carter is also thankful for his amazing grammy! 

All the pictures from grammy:

Carter's Recovery

Yesterday Carter woke up from his afternoon nap back to normal.  I'd actually say he woke up guns blazing.  At one point I went to the bathroom and came back in to find this:

I was at the far end of the hallway by our bedroom and Carter was walking into the kitchen.  I said, "Carter, where are you goin?"  Just like I normally would.  He jumped in surprise and whipped around to look at me.  Normally he just continues walking and pays no attention to me.  I always thought he was just ignoring me because he had important places to go.  Now I'm wondering if he couldn't hear me before.  I was also impressed with his balance.  He seemed much steadier walking, fell a lot less, and didn't put his hand out for help when walking up inclines or steps.  I thought it was possibly the placebo effect.  Carter gets ear tubes and suddenly I think his walking is better, but it was the first thing his teacher mentioned when I picked him up from daycare today.  She was very impressed with how much steadier he was!  He did great at daycare today, but I forgot how tired and needy he is when he comes home from daycare.  He wanted me to hold him all night and followed me around pulling on my legs and reaching desperately for me!  I was trying to eat my dinner and Ty was finished so he picked Carter up and had to walk into the other room so he couldn't see me.  I overheard Ty say, "Daddy or nobody, those are your options."  It was so sweet and I was so proud of him!  We are excited to see how the tubes effect his speech as well!

Excited to play on the toys at daycare!

So glad you're here, mommy!

Carter's Ear Tube Procedure

This morning when our alarms went off at 5:00 am Ty was so eager to turn them off, he tried to roll over me to get to mine!  I hit snooze and slowly rolled out of bed assuming Ty was not going to get up with the first alarm.  I was pleased I had been able to sleep.  I was worried nerves would keep me from catching any rest, but I slept soundly until about 4:30 am when I awoke and struggled to fall back to sleep.  Fortunately the more information I read about the procedure Carter was to undergo, the better I felt.  I knew he would only be in surgery for about 10-15 minutes and the procedure is the most common childhood surgery.  We needed to leave at 5:30 so I waited until the last minute to wake Carter.  He's had a few mornings this past week where he woke up at 5 or 5:30, but of course today was not one of them!  I went in a little after 5:20, rubbed his back, carefully pulled him out of bed, changed his diaper, and off we went.

A little tired, but ready to go!

We arrived at the hospital a little before 5:45 and got checked in quickly.  Carter was a little bit tired, but fairly alert during our wait.  There were multiple other children in the waiting room most likely undergoing the same procedure.  One little boy was definitely a morning person and was running all over the room, talking, and keeping his parents on their toes.  Carter sat in my lap for quite a while and then wanted to walk around.  Then he read a book with daddy and not long after we were taken back to a room.  

Watching the other little boy run around the room.

Just chilling in the waiting room.  You can see the busy boy in the background.

 

Reading with daddy.

The first thing I noticed walking into the room was a little teddy bear sitting on the miniature bed.  The nurse told us the teddy bear was for Carter and we even had to sign a release saying we got to take the bear, but understood the button eyes could be a choking hazard!  Ty signed paperwork while I held Carter.  The nurse had us change Carter into a gown with tigers on it which we all enjoyed.  She put a monitor around his toe and then we placed booties on his feet.  They gave him some medicine our doctor had described to me during our appointment that was supposed to make him feel calm.  The nurse described it as goofy medicine and said he may act goofy and he would look like a drunk toddler if he attempted to walk.  I held him and we rocked in a rocking chair in the room.  He got sleepy initially and then got a bit goofy smiling and then leaning in really close to my face and biting my nose.  After biting my nose a few times and grinning ear to ear about it, he leaned in and chewed on my shirt.

Changed into his tiger gown.

He was not pleased that I set him down, he wanted to be held!

So I obliged of course!

When we first entered the back area they had me set Carter on a scale to get his weight.  He screamed and cried, reaching for me the whole time.  I was thankful they gave him the medicine to calm him because when the nurse came to get him and wheeled him out of the room, he just sadly looked at me and reached his arms up to be picked up.  There was no crying, screaming, or breaking of my heart as he was wheeled away.  Ty and I were sent back to the waiting room after being told the procedure would last 5-10 minutes and the doctor would come out to talk with us after anywhere from 15-30 minutes.  After speaking to the doctor a nurse would come to take us back to a recovery room once Carter opened his eyes.  We sat down in the waiting room to eat the snacks we had been given and then I headed to the bathroom.  When I came out I was shocked when Ty said I had missed the doctor.  A few minutes later the nurse came out to get us and take us back to Carter's recovery room.

Starting to get sleepy.

 

Before Carter was taken away the anesthesiologist described to us what would happen before, during, and after the procedure.  He told us the recovery area would be a sad place with lots of crying, not because the children are in pain, but because they don't like the way they feel from the anesthesia.  He said even when you try to soothe them they will typically still cry.  I was so glad he prepared us for that because as we were walking down the halls, before we even got to the recovery area, I could hear Carter crying.  A momma knows her baby's cry and it sure was hard to walk the nurse's pace and not run ahead to find my baby.  When we got to little man he was laying in the bed.  I scooped him up and held him as he screamed.  I had a bit of a flashback to the newborn days as I realized I needed to support his neck because his head was flopping around.  When I first picked him up, he continued to cry, but I could see him start to come to a little bit more because he looked up at me and stopped crying as I rocked him back and forth.  They got Pedialyte for him to drink and he drank so violently he soaked the front of my shirt.  We packed bananas for him, but didn't even attempt to feed him.  He was struggling just to drink.  

Poor guy was so upset in the recovery room!

After just a few minutes in the recovery area, monitoring his breathing, we were released to go home.  He was still crying a little bit off and on, but would look up at me and stop occasionally.  We pulled out of the parking lot at 7:45, just 45 minutes after he was wheeled into the surgery area and 2 hours after arriving.  I was so thankful everything had gone so smoothly and our sweet boy was on his way home.  We fed him a banana and some more Pedialyte before changing his diaper and then all 3 of us crashed in our bed for family naptime.

Chugging Pedialyte on the way home.

Carter woke up from the nap really fussy, but he was just super hungry.  After feeding him and sharing some cuddles he was ready to get up and play.  He played for about 3 hours and was ready to take another nap.  I am amazed at how quick the recovery has been!  He is doing really well and other than being a little bit fussier than normal, is acting his typical self.  We have to make sure no water gets in his ears for 3 days and will give him drops in his ears for the same amount of time.  Then it's business as usual.  We don't have to worry about keeping water out of his ears or protecting them any more than we already would after the tubes have time to settle in!   

Eating some dark cherries after his nap.

Down for nap #2.

Our Trip to the ENT

This morning we had our appointment with the ENT.  I was extremely nervous about the visit although hopeful for good news.  With the numerous ear infections (5 to be exact, read about them here, here, here, here) I figured I wasn't going to get the news I wanted.  My hope was that Carter wouldn't need ear tubes and therefore surgery.  Our appointment started with a quick hearing test.  They inserted a soft plug in his ears to check the mobility of his ear drum.  Then we sat in a chair in a special room.  They used a computer in the room looking into ours to make noises in different areas of our room.  Once Carter looked that direction there was a toy that would light up to keep his attention.  One toy was a teddy bear playing the drums, one was a cat that would walk, and I don't remember what the last one was.  For some reason I couldn't stop laughing.  Seeing his head pop around to see what all the noise was about totally cracked me up.  I think a little bit of it had to do with my nerves as well.  Darn that nervous laughter I get when I'm worried about Carter!

After the hearing test we were taken back to a room to wait for the doctor.  We had to wait for a while and Carter was very good.  At first he just sat quietly playing in his chair looking like such a big boy.  Then he tried to climb on the table, so I got him down and we walked around the room.  He wanted to continuously walk circles and I started getting dizzy so I was very thankful when he noticed the silver foot rest of the chair in the middle of the room.  The game then became climbing up onto the platform and then back down to the floor over and over.  He was so adorable and would laugh as he stood on top.  Eventually he lost interest in that and we looked through magazines and I pointed out pictures.  We found a picture of a dog which he repeatedly pointed at and said "dody" over and over.  He loves dogs!  I pointed out a picture of a baby and said baby over and over.  He repeated baby after me.

King of the foot rest!

When the doctor came in we must have looked strange sitting there on the floor.  He was extremely nice and very sweet about looking in Carter's ears.  I was quick to let him know Carter won't be in daycare come June in hopes that would sway the decision on whether he needed tubes or not.  Unfortunately after a quick look in Carter's ears he explained that Carter has fluid in his middle ear which is causing him some hearing difficulty.  He was quite impressed with how Carter did on his hearing test and was surprised he could hear as well as he can.  He then showed me the results on how his ear drum is functioning.  A normal ear drum results in a peaked pattern.  Carter's results showed a "flat line" which means his ear drum did not vibrate normally.  The doctor described what things sound like to Carter as when you or I push down on our ears (like when you are a kid bugging a sibling and "plug" your ears so as not to hear them).  Everything is muffled to him and the noises and sounds he's making are much louder in his head.  Why he enjoys screaming and screeching so much when it's louder in his head is beyond me.  Due to Carter's hearing difficulties his speech is a bit delayed.  He's still saying 6 words with frequency and accuracy (mommy, daddy, kitty cat, doggy, and ball) but that's about it.  Everything else he copy cats after we say it or just isn't proficient.  He's working on Harper and it typically sounds like pa-par, which is adorable.  When they put the tubes in they will suck the fluid out.  Removing the fluid should improve Carter's balance (which could be part of his "confidence" issue when it came to walking) and his speech.

The picture on the left shows a normal middle ear.  The picture on the right shows one with fluid like Carter's.

I left the office completely scared, but knowing the procedure is the best thing for Carter.  I can be a bit dramatic at times and of course my head goes to the place, would it be better for him to have some hearing, speech, and balance issues or to not wake up from anesthesia?  Of course I'd rather him have the hearing, speech, and balance issues.  But then I would never give him any medication, allow him to have any surgery, or even go on car rides if I thought like that.  I have to believe in the doctors and especially the anesthesiologist who do this every day.  Carter is a healthy boy and should have no complications.  His surgery is set for Monday, March 24th.  Please keep us in your thoughts as I'm sure to be a nervous wreck for those 10-15 minutes he is under anesthesia.  If only they'd let me stand right beside him the whole time to make sure he is breathing!