Maria's middle ear surgery

July 7th--Maria's middle ear surgery

We had to be at the hospital at 7:30am. Marsha was so disappointed to have forgotten the camera. Maria looked so cute in her hospital gown. We had to wait approximately
1 1/2 hours for them to take Maria to the "holding" area. She was supposed to ride on a bed, but that did not happen. She was so interested in standing on the bed and playing with the metal posts. It was as if she was "high on energy." When the anesthesiologist asked if Maria had allergies and we told him that we had no idea, he asked where she was from. When we said she was from China he said, "sorry I'm no help, I'm from Korea." The nurses enjoyed Maria and said they would carry her to the operating room.

The surgery was not supposed to last that long, so we hurried to the gift shop to get a healthy breakfast of candy bars, chips, and soda. We went back to the hospital room to wait and eat. Marsha got the call when Maria was waking up and we were told that she was very good. The doctor cleaned a little ear wax out of each ear, but behind the ear drums he saw discoloration different that he normally sees. He pricked a hole to see if it was fluid. He finally had to make the hole a little bigger because instead of being the normal fluid consistency, the "stuff" was more like a glue consistency. While he was in there he put tubes in her ear just in case. He didn't see any infection, but figured why bring her back at a different time if she needs them when he was already there.

Maria was happy to see us, but very groggy. She had to eat and drink a little before we were allowed to leave. She whined some and then fell asleep. We waited and the nurse wanted us to give her a drink which Maria proceeded to shove back at us. I told the nurse that she would probably eat before she would drink, so she brought back a graham cracker. That lifted Maria's spirits!

Now that the middle ear is taken care of, we know that Maria's problem must be with her inner ear. The ABR test at the next audiologist appointment should give us an indication of the amount of her hearing loss.