Another Surgery
My son was just scheduled for a third surgery. Considering the little guy hasn’t even reached his fourth birthday yet, this seems like a lot to me. I hate, hate, hate the fact that he has to go and get another procedure done, but I know that in the long run it’s for the best.
It’s not like he’s having something very complicated done, and it isn’t like this is an emergency procedure to save his life, but it’s a surgery nonetheless and that always makes me nervous.
- His first surgery – which was before he was a year old, was to put tubes in his ears, remove his adenoids, and to do some exploratory something or other down his esophagus.
- His second surgery – which was right after his third birthday – was to remove the tubes from his ears and do a skin graft on his eardrum.
- This third surgery – which he’ll have next month – is simply to put a tube back in one ear. Apparently his right ear just isn’t doing very well without the assistance of a tube and the doctor has concerns that the resulting hearing problems will inhibit his learning capabilities once he gets into a classroom setting.
I’ve had two surgeries in my entire life, and I’m 35. This poor kid is on his third surgery, giving him a ratio of one surgery a year.
I thought about saying no to the surgery. Ultimately, the decision is mine after all, and I would love to think that maybe his ear would just suddenly get better on its own and he wouldn’t need the surgery after all. On the other hand, I want him to have all the advantages of normal hearing and would rather he didn’t have to go from one ear infection to another.
Of course, all the usual thoughts go through my head. Is he going into surgery for no reason? Does the doctor just want to make money from insurance companies by doing one procedure after another? It’s incredibly frustrating to not know all the stuff doctors learn in medical school, so we’re essentially at their mercy when it comes to getting an opinion. It all boils down to trusting someone who knows more than I do.
It still makes me nervous, though, and I hate putting my son through it. In the long run I hope it’s the right decision.
Comment on this blog...