{it’s a bird, it’s a plane}

Actually, it’s a BEAD! And it was stuck in Ayden’s ear and because the ENT doctor was unable to extrude it during an office visit, Ayden needed to be put to sleep to get it out. The doctor attempted to get it out in office and was able to make some head way; however, it was painful for Ayden and after the first attempt, he would not let the doctor anywhere near his ear despite my best attempts at trying to calm him down. The next best option was to schedule an appointment where Ayden would be put to sleep and the bead would be extracted the rest of the way. Said appointment was scheduled for this morning, bright and early. We had to be at the hospital by 6:45am. UGH! SO early! But it was kind of nice because Ayden was not allowed to eat or drink anything from midnight beforehand and it meant he wouldn’t have to be hungry for very long.

I let Ayden sleep in until about 10-15 minutes before we had to leave. He complained about not feeling very good before we left, but I knew it was because he was hungry and that he was nervous.We had gone to Walmart the night before and I let Ayden pick out a prize for after the procedure. He picked out a lego sticker book and was told that he could have it after we got home from the hospital if he did a good job. My main concern was him whining and being a typical seven year old and not wanting it done because we had some angst about it earlier in the week. Yes, I bribed my child… and it worked.The hospital and the staff was super nice. They let Ayden bring in his favorite blanket and/or stuffed animal as a comfort item and he even got to take it to the procedure room with him (although his procedure was pretty uninvolved). I do have to say though that this isn’t his favorite blanket… he didn’t want to bring ‘bibi’ because he didn’t want it to get dirty. He was such a brave boy. He answered all of the nurses questions. We did a lot of sitting around and waiting. And lots of angry birds playing as well. I think having my tablet to play was kind of a lifesaver because it helped keep Ayden’s mind off of what was coming.The type of anesthesia that he was under was considered general, but he didn’t need to get poked with any needles or anything. They simply put a mask over his nose and mouth and he got to breathe in some strawberry smelling gas and slowly drifted off to sleep. Or so he says because I didn’t actually get to watch. I got to walk with him down to the hallway of all of the surgery rooms and then we had to part, but like I said before, he did SO good. I think he was a little bit afraid, but he didn’t shed any tears and the nurses said that he told them all about his legos and home.Afterwards… which was really only maybe 15 minutes after they took him, most of those minutes taking him to fall asleep and wake up, we had more waiting around to do just to make sure that his vitals were stable and everything was good after the anesthesia. No medications, no restrictions, just a simple extraction procedure and because of all that, a full day home from school!Here is a similar picture of what the bead looked like that was in his ear. I did end up keeping the bead… I mean totally! I am a future audiologist, this was super cool for me! However, I didn’t take a picture of it yet, not that you want to see the actual one that was in his ear because there is some ear wax on it yet and I know that anyone who is not an audiologist probably thinks ear wax is pretty gross.I have no idea how long the bead was in his ear or how it even ended up in his ear, but I am glad that it is now out. Oh the joys of having children and the things they do, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!