Keeping Up With The Wimberlys: Tubes and laser treatment

After a rough day leading up to her surgery, everything went very smoothly! Ashlyn woke up yesterday morning very lethargic. Chance called me and was pretty worried about her. He said she just kept falling asleep. He fed her some breakfast and put her back down in her crib. I thought maybe she was just going through a growth spurt because she has been eating quite a bit lately. She napped for almost 2 hours and then woke up barfing! Poor Chance! I called the ENT and they suggested we take her to the pediatrician just to have her checked out since she was scheduled for surgery the next day. Chance took her in and he said her ears looked terrible and were more than likely making her sick. He said when they get really bad it can make you kind of feel toxic, or just sick all over. He gave her another round of Rocephin shots but thought we should still be ok for the procedures.

So we arrived at Medical City bright and early! We filled out all of the paperwork and got her registered. They took us back around 7 to the pre-op area. We met with the Anesthesiologist, ENT and Plastic surgeon and several nurses. Ashlyn was doing pretty well until they wanted to put the pulse oximeter on her foot. She freaked out about it and was NOT having it. They decided they could wait until she was asleep to place it. We got her gowned up and they gave her a shot of "goofy juice". I think they should offer a little to the parents. Although these procedures are very routine and we knew we were in good hands...it is still a little nerve racking anytime there is anesthesia involved. She got pretty relaxed before they took her back. We said our goodbyes. Dr. Hung was right. He told us he would be out to talk to us before we could even finish our coffee. Sure enough...he popped in to let us know everything went smoothly. Her ears were definitely infected and full of thick mucus...ouch! He cleaned them out and placed the tubes. He said Dr. Burns was up next. About 15 minutes later Dr. Burns came out and said everything went very well. He told us, "I didn't kill it (talking about the tumor) but I definitely got its attention!" He said he has a lot of room to go up on the laser, but went conservatively since it was her first treatment. He wants to do another in about 6-8 weeks. Ugh...ok. We highly trust his opinion...so much so that we are currently in the process of filing an out of network appeal for his services since we found out in December he is no longer "In-Network". An insurance NIGHTMARE...but that is for another post!

Anyway, she was in recovery for about 15 minutes and then they brought her out to us. She was pretty mad...I think mostly because the pulse ox fell off her foot on the way out and they were trying to put it back on! She was pretty fussy for about 5 minutes and then calmed down and started drinking a little juice. She kind of dozed on and off for about 30 minutes while they were getting our discharge paperwork together. We got her dressed and they sent us on our way! We had to stop by the pharmacy to get her ear drops which conveniently happens to be located next to Society Bakery (I love Medical City!). So we picked out a few cupcakes for a post-surgery celebration and headed home! Ashlyn really perked up, ate a good breakfast and then took a 2 1/2 hour nap! She woke up from her nap in a great mood and has been playing ever since. We are hoping for a good nights sleep tonite! Thanks for all of the prayers!