The left ear and birthday party pics

I am late in getting these party pics posted. Elijah had a great time at his birthday party last weekend. Our wonderful family made it a very special and memorable day for him.

Since Elijah's birthday, Sammy has been saying a lot: "My birthday is coming up! I will be three soon!" I think he is looking forward to receiving special treatment like his bro has in the past week. :)

In between these party pics I will fill you in on our EAR issues. Back in August of 2012, six or so months ago, Elijah got a nasty ear infection. A month or two after that, we noticed that his hearing was diminished. Then, he failed his school hearing screening. We brought him into the doctor and he failed another hearing test. We brought him to his ENT and he failed another hearing test. It was then determined that he had a build-up of fluid which was causing hearing loss and he needed tubes placed in his ears.

In early December Elijah had ear tube surgery. It was a piece of cake, aside from the 24 hours of vomiting that followed. During his follow-up visit, the ENT saw a blockage in his left ear tube and had us put drops in his left ear three times a day for ten days. His words: "70% of the time this takes care of the problem."

Ten days later, we brought him back to ENT and this time the doctor said, "Hmm, I have never in ten years seen anything like this!" Of course. Apparently the drops were able to clear up the blockage, but the back side of the tube has become lodged up against the back side of the ear drum causing hearing loss. 

We have to head back to the hospital for another little procedure. :( Dan and I are bummed. Heading to the hospital is never fun or easy, even for the small stuff.

We haven't scheduled the surgery yet, but will hopefully do that on Monday. We are just looking forward to Elijah being able to hear again! That is the main concern.

And I think I must be having sympathy pains because since my respiratory junk/flu/ear infection in mid-February, I have completely lost the ability to hear out of my left ear (the same ear as Elijah, strangely). It has been AWFUL. It affects my mood, balance, alertness and frustration. If there is ANY sort of background noise (faucet, tv, car, heater, fan), I literally cannot hear a single other thing. Now I have a glimpse into what Elijah has been dealing with for so many months, and I can understand why he occasionally breaks down at school and at home. Please excuse my language, but being hearing-impaired SUCKS.

(look at this happy face)

The doctor I saw last week said to me, "I have never in ten years seen an adult need to have surgery for an ear infection." Is it a coincidence that both my and E's doctors started off with, "I have never in ten years..."

We are hoping both of our ears will feel much better very soon! I feel your pain, Elijah!

A few Sammy tidbits from recently:

Whenever one of us seems amiss, Sammy will say, "Mommy (or whoever), you're not feeling so much??" Translation: "Are you not feeling so good?"

Dan and I have been VERY fortunate to spend tons of time at home with Sammy recently. We feel very blessed about this. As we try to work and clean and cook, etc, Sammy says constantly to us, "MOMMY (or Daddy!), COME SUUUUUGGGLE WIF ME!" This boy could literally sit on the couch with either one of us for hours on end. Just "sugglin'. He loves physical closeness more than anything else in the world.

That's all we have for now! Thanks for checking in and we would greatly appreciate Porta Ear Prayers! :)

Ear tubes are in

Elijah had his surgery yesterday to place tubes in both ears. He has had multiple ear infections in the past nine months or so, causing fluid build-up and hearing loss.

Dan and I were almost giddy yesterday when we saw that we had our favorite anesthesiologist, Dr A! We have never had an anesthesiologist that was anything but excellent at Children's, but Dr. A is on a different level. He has cared for Elijah during some of the "big" stuff, and he has always gone above and beyond. So we were very happy to see him walk in our room! Typically they would place an IV for a heart kid, even for a surgery as simple as this one, but Dr. A didn't think that was necessary considering how well E is doing. Thank God. One less thing to cause trauma/anxiety.

Surgery was a piece of cake. He was in and out in ten minutes. He woke out of anesthesia just fine, and ate two popsicles and drank a box of juice. The nurse gave us a little vomit bag for our ride home, just in case. It was a good thing she did because Elijah used it twice. I think I will invent a vomit bag that perhaps one cannot see through. Icky! Anyway, once we got home he threw up again, and again, and again. We were able to get some Tylenol in his belly at 8:00, thankfully, because he had a bit of a fever from surgery.

Starting at 3:00 this morning, he was throwing up at least every 30 minutes. He was so thirsty by 7:00 this morning that he was begging for water and milk (and waffles) constantly. It was a bit heartbreaking having to tell him no. After his 8:00 vomit session, Dan and I both were concerned. He was obviously dehydrated. He was pale and wasn't moving off the couch, which is unusual. We agreed that if he threw up one more time I was going to bring him back to Children's. I took a quick shower and prepared myself mentally for it, while praying that we wouldn't need to go.

God heard our prayers because he has not thrown up since! He has had water, toast, crackers and milk and he has kept it all down. He is doing much better! He is taking a nap right now, and we are hoping he feels much more rested and normal when he wakes up! Sammy was up a lot, too, during the night with all of the commotion, so we are hoping for a giant nap for him, as well.

Elijah's reaction to anesthesia has gradually gotten worse over time. He never used to have issues with it, but after the last few procedures he has vomited a handful of times. We have never seen anything like this, though! It is so strange because he was only under sedation for literally 10 minutes!

His hearing does not seem to be greatly improved, which is lingering in the back of my mind. The doctor told us we would see a drastic difference immediately. I'll worry about that later. For now, I have work to do while the little ones snooze!

Ear tubes and boy funnies

Elijah will get tubes placed in his ear (ears??) on December 7th. It literally was the only 15 minutes open in the ENT's schedule for the entire month of December. We are very thankful the time was available!

Dan and I took the boys to see Santa at the mall today. We have never talked much about Santa, as we have liked to keep the "reason for the season" as true as possible. Elijah was barely impressed by Santa today (which I secretly loved) and Sammy wanted nothing to do with him. He did allow Santa to give him a high-five. :) Santa kept asking E, "Well, what do you want me to bring you for Christmas?!" and E kept saying, "I don't know! Toys!" "Well, what kinds of toys." "I don't know!"

A couple E funnies from today:
"Mom, you are the sprinkles on my cupcake!"

"Mom, you are the fresh gingerbread man in my Candyland gingerbread house!"

"You are the sleeping beauty in my sleeping bed!"

Some Sammy funnies/goodies:
He has wanted to wear band-aids on his fingers all day. Or "bam-daids," as he calls them. When they would fall off, he would freak out just a bit. "BAM-DAIDS! BAM-DAIDS!"

After every nap, Sammy snuggles with either Dan or me for at least 20 minutes. It is the BEST. I love that sweet, snuggly, independent (oh my goodness, is he independent!) boy to pieces.