Tubes in the ears

[blondeviolin]

My son saw the ENT last week for his recurrent ear infections and will have tubes places this Thursday. The doc said he'd only be gone from me for 20 minutes or so. He's nearly 17 months. What will recovery look like?

 

To be honest, I'm most concerned about the no food or drinks from midnight to 7am as this kid likes his drinks!

[happyhomemaker]

When dd had her tubes put in, it shocked me how fast it was. 20 minutes is not an exaggeration. It might have been a little shorter even for us. The worst part is the first 30 min or so when the child is waking up from anesthesia. Dd was very disoriented and thrashed about a good bit and cried as she was coming out of it. After we took her home, she acted a bit more lethargic than usual. She would be fine for a bit, and then she would just want to stay in my lap for a long time- kind of like a kid with a mild fever. She slept all night, and the next day was her chipper, perky self. You would never have known that she had had surgery the day before.

 

Hope everything goes well with your son's procedure!

[KrissiK]

My son was about that age when he got tubes. That was 7 years ago, so it's hard to remember, but other than sleeping most the the day after the surgery, he seemed fine after that. No problems. It was just hard to remember to put the ear plugs in and all that for swimming. My daughter had ear tubes, too, last year and I don't seem to remember any sort of stressful recovery.

[kfeusse]

honestly, the worse part is the no eating or drinking from midnight on. We have gone through this twice...when our little guy woke, we wisked him away as soon as we could and got to the hospital. It was easier to keep his mind off food and drink in a new place than a familiar place. He will be gone from you for no more than 20 minutes...when they first wake, they are scared and might scream...but it's not because they are in pain, it's a combo of being scared and feeling funny from the anesteic. He be back to to his old self very soon...and we were told to just keep them quiet for the rest of the day...but really, it was not a big deal at all. The best part...NO MORE EAR INFECTIONS!! It is so worth it!!!!!

[Pamela H in Texas]

My son had it done last month. Seriously, it was super fast and he woke up in a good mood, playing with the nurses when I got back to him. He did throw up once we got home which we were warned about (a lot of kids get sick in the car or when they get home).

 

We had great ideas of what the tubes would do for Tony.

Sadly, it hasn't helped anything as far as we can tell so far <sigh>

[catz]

My daughter got tubes at 14 months and she was back to being crazy girl the same afternoon. It was not a big deal at all! The worst part was definitely the fast and then the hand off. It totally worked for my child too. She's had exactly one ear infection since that and she's 8 now.

[blondeviolin]

I'm so looking forward to no more infections!

 

Thanks for the stories! I imagine he'll be fine after the anesthetic wears off. Nervous, but excited!

[jennynd]

My son saw the ENT last week for his recurrent ear infections and will have tubes places this Thursday. The doc said he'd only be gone from me for 20 minutes or so. He's nearly 17 months. What will recovery look like?

 

To be honest, I'm most concerned about the no food or drinks from midnight to 7am as this kid likes his drinks!

 

20 mins sound right. DD had her ear tube when she was about 9 months. After the procedure, we stay there for about 1 hr for her to wake up, did the feeding and a check from the doc .

[Ottakee]

I have done at least 12 sets of ear tubes (between my kids and foster kids) and honestly it is a QUICK surgery. They take them back and by the time I get to the waiting room and go to the bathroom they are calling for me to come back to talk with the doctor. Often I never even got to sit down in the waiting room and eat a cookie :-)

 

They try to schedule the little ones early in the day so you could keep him up a bit later at night and give him a snack/drink as close to midnight as you want him up. Then if you are lucky you can just pick him up out of bed and take him right to the car in the morning.

 

Recovery might mean a bit longer nap in the afternoon if you are lucky but honestly but afternoon my kids were BETTER than they were before surgery as they were free from the fluid/infections, etc.

 

They can be a bit out of sorts when they first awake from the surgery but it doesn't last long.

 

The results were SOOOO worth it that I don't regret any of those surgeries.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I did not see this posted, so i thought i'd add it;

 

Between my kids and i, we have been under more than 10 times. Every single one of them, we woke up upset. For dd and ds, they wake terribly in recovery, immediately go back to sleep for 30 min or so, and wake much better. This is close to the same with me.

 

There is not much to recover from the tubes. A day of 2 later there is some discomfort, but nothing compared to an ear infection.

[blondeviolin]

I have done at least 12 sets of ear tubes (between my kids and foster kids) and honestly it is a QUICK surgery. They take them back and by the time I get to the waiting room and go to the bathroom they are calling for me to come back to talk with the doctor. Often I never even got to sit down in the waiting room and eat a cookie :-)

 

They try to schedule the little ones early in the day so you could keep him up a bit later at night and give him a snack/drink as close to midnight as you want him up. Then if you are lucky you can just pick him up out of bed and take him right to the car in the morning.

 

Recovery might mean a bit longer nap in the afternoon if you are lucky but honestly but afternoon my kids were BETTER than they were before surgery as they were free from the fluid/infections, etc.

 

They can be a bit out of sorts when they first awake from the surgery but it doesn't last long.

 

The results were SOOOO worth it that I don't regret any of those surgeries.

 

Oh, see I would have NEVER thought to keep him up, but that makes a lot of sense! Maybe then he'll sleep straight through without asking for milk!

 

I did not see this posted, so i thought i'd add it;

 

Between my kids and i, we have been under more than 10 times. Every single one of them, we woke up upset. For dd and ds, they wake terribly in recovery, immediately go back to sleep for 30 min or so, and wake much better. This is close to the same with me.

 

There is not much to recover from the tubes. A day of 2 later there is some discomfort, but nothing compared to an ear infection.

 

This is my secondary concern. When my husband was little, he had tubes and woke screaming and angry with his mom. He wouldn't even let her in the room without being angry. Since I'm the only one that's going with him, I hope my son doesn't do that! :001_huh:

[Nart]

My son has had three sets of ear tubes. His ENT does surgery in order of age, so the youngest one has the first time slot in the morning. It is a quick surgery with a light anesthetic. They didn't put in IV line in, just a gas mask. When he woke up he was agitated but it quickly wore off and he was fine by noon.. We brought his stuffed frog for him to cuddle. I would recommend cutting his nails the night before. The first surgery my son thrashed about while waking up and scratched his face.

 

The only other thing is that he was much more sensitive to noise right after the surgery because they removed all the fluid. A week before the surgery he had his hearing tested. He had a mild to moderate conductive hearing loss ( hearing at 30 to 40 decibels when normal is below 20). So he wasn't hearing whispers and the sound was muffled. For a couple of weeks after surgery he covered his ears when his baby brother cried or a toy made a loud noise. It made a huge difference in his speech. He had just turned three when he had his first set of tubes put in and his language was delayed. After the tubes his language exploded so it was really worth it for him. Good luck!

[nertsmommy]

DD had her tubes put in at 2 yrs. It was really quick. We weren't in the waiting room more than 20 mins. before the doctor came out to tell us how she did. We weren't there when she was waking up. Her ENT doesn't bring them back to their room until they have woken up. That actually didn't take long at all. I do have to add that the nurses said they never saw a child wake up from anesthesia like DD did. They said she opened her eyes and just started talking away to them like she had never stopped.

 

She did complain for about two weeks after that everything was too loud. She would cover her ears a lot. We couldn't run the bath water until her ear plugs were in because she would complain about the noise from the running water. The first day she kept looking around because she was hearing so much more. She'd ask, "What was that noise?" And we couldn't answer because we didn't hear it.