Finn Post-Op

It's been just over two weeks since Finn's surgery and as far as we can tell, it was successful.  The doctor repaired Finn's ear drum by using cartilage from behind Finn's ear, repaired the hammer bone in the ear, put in new tubes (yes, 5th set), and cleaned out his sinuses. 

All in all, the surgery went well.  It was a bit longer than anticipated and the nurse scared Dan and I half to death during Finn's operation.  Dan and I were waiting in the waiting room when the phone rain and it was for us - it was about 15 minutes after they took Finn back.  My heart jumped out of my chest as I answered and the nurse just wanted to let us know that he was asleep and everything was going fine.  Sigh!

And dear Tampa General, those cribs you make the kids under age of 5 stay in are so instutionally scary.  Can you please think of something else to make them a bit more cheerful.  At least we "turned" Finn's crib into a train.    

We went home the same day and Finn kept the large ear covering that was "glued" to his forehead and around his head on for two days.  I was amazed he didn't touch it. By the way, Finn on pain killers = funny.

Finn has a scar that runs along the outside of his ear, but frankly, you can hardly notice it.  It's quite amazing what doctors can do.



We were very grateful that my parents were able to come in from out of town and stay with us for a few days.  Camila got some great time with her grandparents while we focused on Finn. 

Since the surgery, we have really only had one bump in the road and it was completely unrelated to the surgery.  Finn had a pretty bad allergic reaction to something last week.  He woke up with two swollen eyes, two swollen ears, and hives all over his body.  His knees were so swollen from hives he could hardly walk.  So as Dan and I fed him Benadryl and discussed whether or not to take him to the emergency room since it was 5am and no other place was open (Benadryl not working at this point).  I grabbed the epi-pen and started to get dressed to take him to the hospital and then realized, our closest hospital is no longer in network.  Thank you UHC and Baycare.   So, we call the on-call nurse and decide to wait to see his pediatrician at 8 am when the doc office opened since his breathing was still normal.  Some steroids and lots of benadryl...three days later all of the hives were gone.

I know parents with children that have multiple medical needs know the feeling of always being on edge.  It is seriously hard to relax when you know at any moment you may have to rush your child to the ER.  These moments have dwindled for us, but this recent allergy scare brought back a lot of memories.

We are officially back to our normal routine as of today!  I want to thank everyone for thinking of Finn on his day of surgery and through the recovery.  It means a lot to us to have so much love.