Rinse and Repeat

 It's been a while since my last post!

In March of this year, C had to have another revision surgery, so that makes 3 surgeries around his ENT issues in total. The first surgery was for grommets, adenoids and tonsils. The second surgery was for tonsils, but while one grommet had fallen out, they pushed the other one back in, which had come loose. The third surgery was to put the grommets back in and remove his adenoids again.

The surgery they do is burning the tissues rather than cutting, which has a much easier recovery time, but also has higher risk of regrowth. This obviously happened with C. I hadn't expected the grommets to need reinserting again but a number of things started happening last year.

The grommet the surgery had pushed back in, became loose and moved into C's ear canal. He complained he could feel something in his ear and it was making him uncomfortable and very ratty. I took him to our GP, and they used tweezers to remove it.

But then back came the glue ear. C's hearing became terrible. I'd be talking to him and he would look up and say 'Mummy, I can't hear you'. I took him for a hearing test and it confirmed his glue ear was back and it was back bad.

I was devastated. How much longer would this journey go on for? I contacted Dr Tweedy who was initially in disbelief but and was able to schedule us an appointment before Christmas. The glue ear was confirmed and we were put on a waiting list for the grommet surgery again.

In the meantime, C was very uncomfortable. We had to make changes to his school setting (he had to sit up close to the front in class, for example). He was constantly asking me to take 'it' out of his ears, as he could feel the fluid. Sometimes he'd cry with how it made him feel and it was so hard for me to watch him suffer. 

We got our surgery date for February 2023, but then the strikes happened, so that was cancelled. The next date was in March. This time, I could explain to C what was going to happen and he knew the surgery would fix how his ears felt, so we didn't have any tears before the surgery and he was so brave. He woke from the anaesthetic much happier too - just groggy and tired. Lots of cuddles from mama. Dr Tweedy informed us that he'd had some adenoid tissue regrowth too so they removed that (I'd suspected as much because he'd started snoring again).

Fingers crossed this is our last surgery because my goodness. It really puts you through the ringer!

Anyone else had multiple surgeries for their little ones on this?