Relief for Skylar

Our precious 18 month old little Skylar finally got her ear tubes yesterday!
This is what Skylar’s hair looked like at the end of October…

A few weeks later she started to pull out her hair….

You can see in the above picture she started on her right side. It was determined she was pulling her hair due to pain from ear infections. She had 12 ear infections last year. She had none in the summer, so as you can imagine she had a rough time. In November we noticed she was in even more pain. She had pulled all of her hair out by this time. She went from saying about 18 words to only 3 or 4. She was laying around ALL the time, and banging her head against us.

Poor baby…just little peach fuzz left…

The pediatrician and I had discussed the possibility of seeing an ENT for tubes in late Spring. I didn’t want to put her through surgery if it wasn’t necessary. As I previously mentioned all summer she was infection free, but once fall hit it was all down hill.
I had been doing research on my own, and asking friends whose children had tubes on who the best ENT would be for us. When the pediatrician recommended the same physician I had been looking into I knew he was who we wanted. The week before Christmas we met Skylar’s miracle. Dr.Baroody who practices at Comer Children’s Hospital at The University of Chicago. We are lucky he has an office about 30 minutes from our house. He agreed that she has been on too many antibiotics in her short little life, and we scheduled her surgery that day. He was so sweet and kind with her. When I told him about her hair he held her little hand…looked in her eyes and said… “You poor sweet baby. We will fix you right up!” I think he may be the kindest doctor I’ve ever met! Then he gave her a Tigger sticker…and Skylar decided she liked him too!
Surgery Day…
Thankfully he schedules surgery from youngest to oldest, so she didn’t have to go a long time without eating or drinking anything. The only down side…we had to be at Comer (in Chicago) EARLY! We were supposed to be there at 6:30 am!!! YIKES! We left our house a little after 4:00 am. We knew this was way too early, but we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. We stopped for some caffeine and still got there around 5:45. For those who know me I would much rather be 45 minutes early than 45 seconds late to anything so this was fine with me!
We filled out paperwork at 6:30 a.m. while Skylar flirted with another little boy who was there to get tubes. A little after 7:00 a.m. we went back and changed her into her little gown.

They took all of her vitals and put on her little id bracelets. We chit chatted with the nurse a bit. She went on to tell me that Dr. Baroody is the best at what he does…. I said oh yes that’s what I’ve heard!!! Then she said “Kids come from other countries to have him perform their surgeries!” I’m pretty sure my mouth dropped to the floor. I KNEW she was in good hands now.
Skylar checks out the guys parking cars down below…

By 7:15 A.M. Dr. Baroody came in and went over everything with us one more time…asking if we had any questions. Next we saw the anesthesiologist. I could not believe how kind he was! He wasn’t only great with Skylar, but he was good with me. You know…the bundle of nerves mom who was about to hand her child over to him to put her to sleep! YIKES! 
Just after 7:30 A.M. we walked her to “the big red line” and then handed her over. She of course cried. I knew there was nothing I could do…so I turned around and booked it for the waiting room. I texted with my friend Michelle almost the whole time we waited…sadly her children are at Comer all too often for surgery so she knows the ropes. I was so relieved when she said Skylar’s anesthesiologist was one of her daughter’s favorites (so sad that they know them THAT well…) so I knew God had a hand in that. It brought me a lot of comfort. Michelle was great at distracting me…and before I knew it they were calling us back to her bedside.
As I was walking down the hall I could hear her crying…so I did the only thing I could think to do. I RAN to her side. I’m pretty sure the nurse thought I was a crazy woman! “It’s ok Mom…she isn’t actually awake!” Matt and I took turns holding her as she fought off the anesthesia…and boy did she fight! Once she started to wake up she let the nurse know she didn’t want her anywhere near her by shooting her some majorly evil looks! They were actually pretty funny!
It took about 45 minutes of her fighting to fully wake up enough to take a drink, and change her clothes. Her nurse went over all of our at home instructions, and Dr. Baroody came over to check on her one more time before releasing her. He said “alright…you little cutie…go home and feel better now!” We were in the car by 9:00 A.M. It was a whirlwind of a morning!
Here is a picture of her sleeping on the way home…
She slept it off yesterday, and today when she woke up it was as if nothing ever happened.
She learned a new word today… “down” which we have been trying to teach her for weeks! A sign to me that she really needed this…and finally has some relief.
If you ask her what the doctor fixed she will smile and say…”eeees!” =) Too cute!