Busy Days: Ear Tubes and Vandals

Yesterday was a busy, busy day.  And it definitely had its ups and downs.  Overall, I rate it as a smashing success, but...well...I wasn't sure that was going to be the outcome when we woke up.

Yesterday began at 4 am when I woke up Robby so that he could nurse for the last time before his surgery.  He groggily complied, and promptly fell back asleep.  I did not.  At that point, I started to get nervous and run all the horrific scenarios that could occur.  At 5 am, Chris and I admitted to being awake and got rolling.

As we scurried around preparing to leave, I made a horrific realization.  "Chris, is that spray paint on our front door?"  "Oh, crap."  Sure enough, our front door had a lovely naked stick woman with giant boobs painted in black spray paint.  And even worse?  Our siding was sporting an arrow and the words "Go hard" on approximately a 5'x5' section on the front of our house.  We noticed 2 other houses with spray paint at that point, but decided to cope with it once we returned home.

At 6 we made it out the door, and made the 45 minute drive to the surgical center.  Robby did surprisingly well driving, for once, and really didn't fuss too badly about not having eaten.  Another rare occurrence!  Thank goodness!  We arrived a couple minutes after our 6:50 check-in, but no sweat, they got our name and hustled us back to the prep area.

Robby immediately set out to make friends with all the nurses and other families.  He got along particularly well with a 13-month-old named Violet, who also kept coming over to visit him, and give hugs.  They were very cute together.  I think we're going to have to worry about this one being a ladies man.  He stood on his own on the scale, walked over to the height chart on his own, stood there, and was agreeable for all the tests they had to run pre-op (blood pressure, heart rate, etc...).  The nurses were even all volunteering to babysit for him.  What a charmer!

At this point, they gave him his "giggle juice" and he got pretty loopy.  It made him relaxed, but also, unfortunately, made him even more of a biter.  My shoulders are very bruised today.  He would not listen at all, and kept clenching down.  At least he didn't start screaming, like some of the other children, at this point. Apparently, they didn't take to the disorientation well.

Then, another family arrived, and low and behold...they were friends of ours!  They hadn't seen Robby since he was a tiny baby, so it was great to catch up.  We need to make a point of meeting up more than yearly, especially since we really do live close to each other.

The surgery was over in all of about 15 minutes, and Robby was awake before we ever made it back to recovery.  So, obviously, my fears about anesthesia were unfounded.  He did great.  They said his left ear had been fairly clear, but his right was so full that the ear drum was distended, and the liquid had solidified to a rubber-cement consistency.  No wonder he had such trouble!  After nursing for a bit, he seemed to be doing well, so we headed home.

On the car ride home, Robby wasn't having any more of this "fasting" thing, and insisted on eating.  We were a little concerned about this, since they had told us that the anesthesia could make him nauseous and, particularly in the car, he might get sick.  But, I gave in and handed him his bag of animal crackers.  That he promptly demolished.  And, surprisingly, kept down.  He did NOT inherit his mom's weak stomach.

Upon arriving home, Robby was acting fairly normal.  I worked at home for a couple hours, but then headed in, and left Chris in charge.  They had a great day cruising around Home Depot, Lowe's, and Sherwin Williams, getting supplies for the kitchen and downstairs bath renovations that we've finally settled on.  I'm sure you'll hear more about that later.

Throughout the course of the day, our house was visited by what seemed like the entire neighborhood.  We were the hardest hit, but ultimately it turned out 7 families had been affected.  5 houses and 2 cars.  It seemed to be the work of bored teenagers, as the graffiti was random and varied.  It was everything from a heart to a racial slur.  One house even had their outside light bulbs painted black, which, at least I'll give them points for creativity.

Eventually, we were able to get everything off with sweat and paint thinner.  The cops have been out, and they took pictures of all the damage, but they don't have much hope of catching anyone.  We did talk to insurance, but obviously are not filing a claim.  Our neighbors with the damaged cars are the only ones who can't clean up the damage, and will face hefty bills.  There is discussion about starting a neighborhood watch, but really, everyone's just startled because, really, nothing has ever happened before.  Well...some cars were keyed last year, but that's it.  It's really a great neighborhood, most of the time.  Most of us are blaming the high school boys that do whippets behind the grocery store, but that may be unfair.  We don't KNOW anything.

So, everything settled down, and Robby has done FABULOUSLY with his new ears.  His walking immediately went from Frankenstein-esque to almost a jog.  Obviously, he had been having balance issues!  Also, his speech started to change.  He was trying more words, and some of the ones he had said previously were clearer.  Overall, we are very pleased so far.  Hopefully his health improves as much.