My Experience

My son suffered numerous ear infections in his first year. His pediatrician and ENT recommended ear tubes.

The preparation was minor — no food after midnight and no fluids after 2 am. The entire experience from arrival to departure took under two hours. We checked in and were then shown to a pre-op area where a nurse went over the procedure, did some fact checking, and provided a hospital gown and booties for my son and scrubs for one of us to accompany him into the procedure room. The anesthesiologist also came over to check over the paperwork, get our consent/signature and explain the anesthesia process. Our doctor then came by to touch base. When it was time for the procedure, a nurse showed my husband where to go and he took my son in.

Once in the operating room, my son sat on my husband’s lap and the anesthesiologist placed a mask over my son’s mouth and nose. The mask emitted a banana scented gas. At first our baby didn’t react, but then he began to cry a little and squirm away, but he was asleep in a matter of seconds.

My husband then returned to the pre-op area to change out of the scrubs. We then moved to the waiting room. An attendant there checked in with us to get our name and the name of the patient. We were only waiting for about five minutes when the doctor came in. He told us everything went fine and led us to a small private room where he explained what had occurred, answered our questions and talked with us about post-op care. He then led us to the recovery area.

My son was still asleep and a tube blowing oxygen lay beside his face. He came out of the anesthesia shortly after and began to cry very hard — nearly inconsolably. We had been told this is a normal reaction to anesthesia so we weren’t worried, but it was disconcerting. The nurses were wonderful, offering water, juice and a popsicle to try to calm our son and get some sugar in his system. While we waited for him to calm down, the nurse went over post-op care. When they agreed he was ready to lead — approximately 30 minutes after the procedure, we took him home.

The hardest part of the entire day was hearing my son cry so hard from the anesthesia — I’d never heard that from him before. But later after we returned home, while a little subdued, he was generally back to normal.

Other than some Tylenol for any pain and drops in his ears twice a day after that, there was very little post-op recovery required. He was back to himself by the next day.