Third Surgery's a Charm

Friday, November 30th, I took this sweet boy... and his buddy Jake...

Into the hospital for his third surgery...

Third ear tube surgery to be exact!

My poor boy has suffered throughout the month of November. We started with one ruptured ear drum over Homecoming weekend. That ear was badly infected. He got better. The cold that would never end happened... double ear infection... another ear rupture... and then another ear rupture and we were back in the OR getting what we pray to be our final set of tubes! And these tubes are supposed to last for 2 years... what?!! Amazing! Poor guy does well with tubes, but as soon as they fall out which is 6-9 months for Caden he goes right back to infections and ruptures and poor guy... those ruptures HURT! And they are GROSS! :) 

So we went in again...

He was SO BRAVE... I gambled and decided I could take him by myself and let Justin stay home with Kaki believing that he would do great and he did! Praise God he was so brave!

Each time we've had surgery they give us an upgrade... this time it was the balloon! :)

After a quick procedure and a bit longer in recovery than I was planning on :) he was back to me and doing great... eating a grape popsicle!

He even wanted the popsicle to have its time in the limelight and insisted I snap a pic!

The nurses and doctors were all fabulous and they took great care of my boy... he was all smiles and told me he only cried when he went into the operating room because there were "too many doctors in there." Oh did I mention that he walked back to the OR... so brave!! 

So we thought all was well... he rebounded beautifully... full of energy he didn't go home and rest or want to sleep or anything. And we didn't make him. 

BUT... duh-duh-duhhhhhhhh

Note to self: when you have a child who had pretty much been sick for an entire month, and he has had no rest, no naps (because we didn't enforce them) and continued to go, go, go and then you throw him into surgery he needs to rest!! If you don't make him because after all YOU are the parent and YOU make the rules it might get ugly... like real ugly!

Caden was exhausted and literally loafed for the next three days... did nothing, didn't want to eat much, just sat. Never once did he ask to go in the back yard... he was tired! He slept for 4 hours each afternoon and 12 hours each night. He took lots of deep breaths every time he got up off of the couch because he was so fatigued. It was so sad to watch him be so tired and was a much needed wake up call for me. While kids may be resilient they are still kids with little bodies who need nurture, care and rest and it is my job to make sure he gets that.

Lesson learned! Must rest when sick...

We are so thankful to have our old Caden back... it was a scary few days for Mommy and my anxiety level was challenged but it was clearly an important lesson to be learned! 

And now...

Here's to two years of GREAT ears!! :-)