The Ear Tube Saga Continues
A few months ago I wrote about my son’s ear tubes and how they really were great for him because he went from recurring ear infections to no infections like magic. I still endorse ear tubes, but now I have a warning for parents who are considering letting their babies get tubes like my son did.
At my son’s last annual follow-up with his Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist the doctor told me that even though the tubes appeared as though they had fallen out, one was still in there and was causing problems. She urged me to schedule surgery so she could go in there are remove the tube and put a little healing patch on the spot that wasn’t healing as planned.
Wait a minute…I thought we were done with surgeries?
Apparently not all tubes fall out on their own. Even more maddening was the fact that after my son was wheeled away into surgery to have the tube removed – and I was sitting in the room freaked out like any parent would be – the doctor walked in and told me there was more damage than she initially thought and she wanted to graft some skin from the back of my son’s ear to implant onto the damaged area.
So just to be clear, my son is already knocked out on anesthesia, I’m already freaked out, and this lady is telling me she wants to slice up the skin behind my son’s ear.
I told her to go ahead and do it, but I probably would have agreed to just about anything at that point because I didn’t want to debate with her while he was sprawled out on an operating table.
That was almost a week ago and he seems to be recovering quite nicely. He doesn’t complain of any pain and the stitches appear to be healing. I was just taken by surprise that all this came about after the doctor had originally assured us that tubes are no big deal and all that jazz. I still endorse tubes wholeheartedly, but just be sure that you know what you might be getting your baby into with these things.
