The surgery was a success! We arrived at Minneapolis Children's Hospital at 6:15am and got checked into our room on the day surgery floor. Ari got to wear koala pj's with rocket ships on them! She wasn't too sure about the nurse at first, but she warmed up pretty quick. We read a few books to keep Ari busy, but eventually it was all just too boring so she decided to fall asleep.
The anesthesiologists and her ENT, Dr. Brown, stopped by around 7:15 to go over the basics of the surgery. It was nice that Ari was sleeping so we could talk through everything with them. They said one of us could be in the room with her while they put her under which I appreciated. I don't think I could have handled passing her off and listing to her cry all the way to the operating room! Fortunately Ari stayed asleep until we got into the OR and I laid her on the table. That made it a lot easier for me because had she been awake I'm sure she would have been very clingy and I would have had a harder time leaving her behind.
The surgery was very quick! We saw one of the anesthesiologists in the hallway not even 10 minutes later and he poked his head in to tell us the surgery went well and that Ariana would be in recovery for about 10 minutes. The Dr. Brown came in a few minutes later to reiterate that the surgery went well as expected. They had suctioned some of the fluid out of her ear(s) and sent it to the lab to be analyzed just to make sure there wasn't any underlying infection. We were a little concerned, but he said it was typical practice to do so.
The recovery nurses brought Ari back to the room around 8:15; it was funny because she was still a bit loopy and was a little wobbly when sitting up! They had us stay for about 30 minutes to make sure she was able to keep water and juice down (which she did without any issues), and then we were free to head home.
As soon as we got home Ari was down playing with her toys as if nothing had happen. She had some milk and then took almost a 4 hour nap! We gave her tylenol through out the day yesterday just to keep her comfortable, but so far so good! We have a follow up appointment with him April 4th to make sure the ear tubes are staying in place and to make sure no scar tissue is forming around the tube(s). We'll have to go back every for months until they fall out (they usually take 9 months to fall out). Dr. Brown even called last night to check up on Ariana and make sure she was doing okay! He's such a nice doctor - we highly recommend him if anyone needs an ENT!!
Thanks to everyone who prayed for our Ari girl (and us) yesterday!
