I'm tired

I just spent the day at the hospital. No one worry, it wasn't anything life threatening.

Last Tuesday, I discovered that my darling son had inserted a small plastic coin from a Playmobil pirate set into his left ear. Mind, this isn't the first time he's done this. A year ago, it was a small piece of craft foam, and I thought he'd learned his lesson with that. The foam I was able to remove with tweezers. This coin, I couldn't. We also had no success in rinsing it out with water. It was just too big and too firmly stuck.

Thursday then was doctor day. First thing in the morning, we saw the cardiologist for our final appointment, yay! They gave him a clean bill of health and turned him loose. Then we drove straight over to the pediatrician to have them look at his ear. The doctor there was unable to remove the coin either, and she referred us to an ear, nose, and throat specialist.

So Thursday afternoon, I picked up DD from the bus and took her to Irish dance class, and DH took DS to the ENT. As it turned out, the coin was lodged quite firmly against DS's eardrum, and caused him to thrash around in pain whenever it was touched. So the ENT was unable to remove it in his office, and scheduled us for a hospital procedure, so DS could be sedated.

So today, I kept DS and DD (because I didn't expect to be back before school let out) out of school, and to the hospital we went. Our procedure was scheduled for 12:30, and we needed to be there two hours in advance. We arrived at 10:28, right on time. The quickly got the paperwork done and got us back to a room. The nurses took his vitals, a nice lady came and showed him pictures of the operating room and showed him the kind of mask they'd use for the sleepy gas. Then around noon, we learned that the partner of DS's doctor was sick, so DS's doctor had a double load of patients and was running late. Thankfully I'd brought toys and coloring books for DD, and we were able to watch videos on the tv.

I had put off getting lunch for DD for a long time, hoping to wait until DS was taken to the operating room, but with the delay, the nurse finally told me to go get food in the cafeteria and bring it back to the room. So around 1:45 we finally made our way to get food, and in the 20 or so minutes we were gone, we missed the doctor's pre op visit. Pretty much all he did was mark which ear was the problem, though.

Finally at 2:45, DS was wheeled to the OR. He was gone approximately 45 minutes. Shortly before they brought him back, the doctor stopped by and gave me a jar containing the plastic coin. He told me it was lodged in so deeply he almost couldn't get it out. I have no idea what would have been the next step if he'd been unable to shift it!

DS was returned to the room about 3:30, still pretty doped up. The nurse brought him some Sprite to drink when he woke up, and kindly brought some for DD too. We gradually got him to come around and have some Sprite. It was 5:30 though before he was fully recovered and ready to go. So we left the hospital and went right into rush hour traffic. It wasn't too terribly bad though. On the way, DS spit up all the Sprite he had drunk. That was a known side effect of anesthesia though, so we were prepared with a barf bag.

After that he was fine, and proceeded to wolf down several little packages of saltines and two bacon egg and cheese wraps and an order of hashbrowns at Waffle House, and he kept it down. I was just too tired to cook after the day at the hospital, plus I have a slight cold making me feel bad. The kids didn't mind at all, though, LOL!

I shouldn't be surprised that DS was so hungry, since he hadn't been able to eat anything since last night.

So we are finally home now, and the kids are in bed. School tomorrow for both of them, a Brownie meeting after school for DD, and then signups for the Nutcracker at her dance school. Busy, busy, busy, always!

Oh, as an afterthought, the state of the stitching. I know I mentioned possible dragon and sheep happy dances a few posts ago, but I had little time to stitch for awhile, and now they've been set aside for a bit. I've started Stargazer for the contest on the Mirabila BB. I'm trying to finish her by December 1st, and I have a pretty good start.