November

November was a bit stressful for us because we had another surgery date looming before us.  This time is was for Kaya.  She developed a problem in one of her eardrums caused by the ear tube that she had put in when she was a baby.  The right one fell out and healed right up.  The left tube decided it didn't want to come out.  Ever.  So it embedded itself in her eardrum and then shifted to the side and created a large perforation in the eardrum.  That was a problem because the tube was not only preventing the hole from healing, but the hole was trying to repair itself by healing all wrong.  If left untreated it would have become an eardrum and hearing destroying tumor.  So the only way to fix the problem was for Kaya to have surgery.  And this surgery was more of a major ordeal than getting the tubes in was.  They actually had to go in behind the ear which meant basically making an incision that would allow them to fold her ear over enough for them to get a big enough work space.  The surgery involved an overnight stay in the hospital.  So we were thankful once again to have my mom here to help with the other kids so that we could both be there for Kaya.

We arrived super early to check in and Kaya was really excited about her adventure.  We were less so.  

All set up in pre-op just before they took her back.

The surgery took a couple of nerve-wracking hours in which we sat in the wating room watching a monitor that indicated where she was in the process.  The surgeon came out and told us everything had gone really well and he felt that the repair was successful.  He said the perforation in the eardrum was a lot bigger than they had initially thought and covered about 40% of the eardrum.  After another shorter wait, they let us go back to post-op to see her.  She was groggy and VERY unhappy.  She wanted her IV out and kept telling us to take her home.  Once they got her settled into her room, she calmed down and took a good nap.

Ready for a sleepover in the hospital.

Once she woke up, she was in better spirits and watched some movies while munching saltines.  They wouldn't let her have anything bigger until she could keep down fluids and crackers which took awhile for her to be able to do.  Finally that evening, she was ready and she was so excited to order from the menu.  They told her she could order anything she wanted.  And she did:  chicken noodle soup, jell-o, chocolate pudding, toast and jam, and vanilla ice cream.  It took her a good two hours to eat it, but she finished nearly everything. 

Kaya and her "giant tray of food".



She steadily improved that evening and was so funny.  When she walked to the bathroom on her own and I remarked that I thought she was getting better, she yelled: "Thanks chicken noodle soup!"  Then later when we were settling in for the night and told her it was time to go to bed, she burst into tears and said, "I just don't want to go to sleep because this was the best day ever!" 

The next morning she was doing great, so after breakfast and some time in the play room, we were all set to leave.  She has recovered really well and much faster than I think I would have.  She was pretty much her normal self right away and we had to keep reminding her that she needed to take things a bit easier.  Which was hard to do because her uncles came for Thanksgiving and how do you take it easy with all those fun rough-housers around?

We had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend with my mom, Jonathan, Timothy, and Samuel here.  The kids absolutely loved having the uncles around.

Kaya with her favorite uncle Timothy.

We also went to the local Christmas parade for the first time in a few years.  Actually this is the first time that the weather was mild enough for me to even want to go see it.  Afterward we went to the kids museum to see Santa.  Unfortunately he was unavoidably delayed and not able to get there so the staff rounded up a helper at the last minute.  Kaya was still thrilled to visit with him.