Baby's got a new set of tubes...

Austin finally did it - he got his new set of tubes!

He surgery WAS originally supposed to happen on February 20 (as noted in one of my previous posts), but Austin conveniently came down with a case of RSV around the 17th. This meant anesthesia would be risky, which in turn meant surgery (even one as quick as getting tubes) would have to wait.

Side-note: just in case Jeff confused you by telling you that RSV is "Baby SARS". It's not.

"Respiratory syncytial virus is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages ... infection can be severe in some people, such as certain infants, young children, and older adults ... RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age in the United States."

And now back to today's update.

The pediatric surgery center schedules their surgeries based on age - youngest first. So, thanks to Austin's young age, we were blessed with an especially early arrival time of 6:15 am. (I'd like to note here that on a regular work day, I'm barely even awake by this time, let alone out of the house with or without a baby!)

After Austin and I got to the center, I filled out the paperwork, handed over my credit card to pay more than you'd ever expect to pay for what essentially amounts to two tiny rubber bands, waited for a brief period of time, then moved on with Austin to our designated waiting "cubby".

This is where they check Austin's vitals, ask some additional questions about him, and then leave you to wait for the actual physician to arrive before they take the baby away for surgery.

Austin was quite the little charmer! And he passed all his tests. Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Apparently, our ear doctor (a really nice guy, by the way - he did Tyler's tubes too!) had accidentally overslept and arrived about an hour late. I guess doctors are human too.

Now, just to give you some reference though.... I was doing all this waiting with a baby who not only had to also wake up super early, but also had his last meal and drink at about 8pm the night before. (He couldn't eat/drink anything after midnight due to today's surgery)

Typically, this would be the makings of a full-blown nightmare. But, with Austin, well, he just took it as an opportunity to catch some more z's, much to everyone's amusement that passed by. This wasn't really an area conducive to sleep, but I certainly wasn't complaining!



After the doctor arrived, performed the surgery (which takes all of about 5 minutes) and briefed me on the event (remarking on just how small Austin's ear canals were), I was led in to the recovery area to stay with Austin, who was just waking up from his anesthesia - content with the little burst of narcotics they had also given him to help ease his transition to the wake

He was even still pretty content after spewing his freshly finished bottle of milk all over both of us. Yuck.

Looking at him now, you'd never know he even had surgery today! Now, we just get to wait and hope this ends our merry-go-round with ear infections.

Here are some additional pics from our wait period, compliments of my Blackberry...