Surgery Round 3

If we didn't have enough going on already with buying a house and Sloane's laser treatments, about a month ago Hadley woke up on a Wednesday morning crying, holding her ears and complaining about ear pain.  This was very shocking to Mason and I as she has never complained of or pulled on her ears during her several ear infections over the course of the past two years.  Later that evening Mason checked her ears and noticed a lot of redness behind her ear on her mastoid bone.  Thank heavens for a pediatric nurse because I just thought her ear was hot.  We treated her with pain meds that night and forgot about it...until it continued and kept her awake that night.  The next morning I called ENT and they quickly said "Can you be here in a hour?" Ummm sure, let me figure out what's going on and we will be there.  Insert mommy stress here!  At that doctors visit we found that both tubes were 100% blocked, her MRSA was back again and the infection in her bone was very concerning.  Meaning a third set of tubes was the best option to rid these blocked tubes and treat this MRSA again orally since ear drops no longer are effective.  

Now that she is 3 years old and more aware of what's going on and fearful of doctors since every time we go to ENT she has gotten suctioned or poked at the pediatrician, I knew going in for surgery this go round would be a different experience.  Thankfully my Child Life friends hooked me up with supplies since I am on maternity leave and had no access to preparation materials.  We played doctor that night and read "Franklin Goes to the Hospital" that night.  Well, my Child Life Specialist skills must not have been that great because she threw the anesthesia mask across the room and panicked on the morning of surgery when needing to put on her name band and change into pajamas.  My wonderful coworker Kathy or "Ms. Kappy" as Hadley called her after taking versed came in with a little doll dressed in hospital attire and of course a container full of princess toys.  Her fear (and tears) turned into smiles and playfulness and adjusted much better to the environment especially with all the various doctors, NPs, and RNs that came to visit.  She took the versed very well, as she always does with her oral medications and home and then silly Hadley came to visit us.  She got to watch Frozen on the new BERT system, which is a movie system that is attached to a projector screen at the foot of the bed.  This system helps to make the transition from the holding rooms to the OR smooth so she wasn't as aware of her surroundings during transport.  Well...that was wishful thinking because transport for her was a total stressor for her unfortunately and "Let it Go" didn't work well enough for her as she panicked.  Mason and I were able to be present for induction again singing Frozen and night night she went.  

Surgery went smooth again.  They put in Goode T-Tubes this time that will last 2-4 months and hopefully more effective.  As expected, there was LOTS of puss and MRSA (which they swabbed) again causing us to go back on oral antibiotics post-op.  Then we went to recovery...ohhhhh recovery. Sweet little, bow wearing Hadley had some SERIOUS  emergence delirium waking up totally crazy.  She was hitting, bitting, peeing on Mason and I's nurse friend (love you Maggie), arching her back, screaming.  Oh boy that was a stressful 20 minutes.  Thankfully this was something we expected as she woke up from anesthesia like this the past 2 times.  After all this passed, she was calm, resting and even asked to go to the gift shop before we left to go home. 

Fast forward to last week...Mason and I started smelling something funky coming from her left ear then noticing puss sitting in her ear canal.  What the heck she just had surgery 10 days ago?!?!?!  ENT again said "Can you be here at 3:00?" Frustrating enough one tube blocked again already because she had puss and blood drainage 2 days after surgery that I just associated with being normal post surgical drainage.  Whelp, I should have called the on call resident because that puss and blood caused everything to get backed up!  Urg.  Thankfully Dr. Truong was able to get it cleared out with total cooperation from Hadley allowing us to avoid yet.another.surgery! God Bless Dr. Truong, love her! However, this infection and continuing MRSA leads us back to the same question...How do we rid this MRSA to keep her from getting so many infections.  As of now we are taking yet another dose of oral antibiotics and now we get to go see Infectious Disease to decide about the best treatment plan at this time.  Do we admit her, do we do PICC line at home for antibiotics or just let it go again?  The continuous circle of infection, treat, infection, treat is going to eventually lead us down a road where the antibiotics no longer are effective, right? Gosh I don't even know this time.  

So for now we go back to ID on Tuesday and see what their recommendation is for treatment.  Thankfully this time she is pain free, taking her meds like a champ (actually asking for more each time) and playing like a wild one!  We'll keep everyone updated but lets home for the less invasive option that also rids this MRSA and these infections for.ev.er!!!!