The Beginnings of Old Manhood

Micah had an ENT appointment yesterday at 2:30. We determined that he lost his right ear tube a month ago, but his ear drum was working properly for the first time in his life, so we took the wait-and-see approach while also monitoring heavily. In just a month's time, we trotted ourselves back to the ENT (yesterday) and took another reading. Sadly, his ear drum decided that working is a difficult way to make a living. It became lazy again, facilitating the need for ear tubes. The good doctor said, "I'm in surgery tomorrow. How about we do him then?" To which I replied, "Sure! Why not?" And then proceeded to make a whole lot of texts and phone calls and plans to make that happen.

I told Sam, of course. And I texted Micah's school aide to tell her that he would be taking one more day for the Thanksgiving holiday. I called the Down Syndrome Center to order annual blood work for Micah, because drawing blood while he's sedated is far, far, F A R easier than wrestling that mini-man down to draw blood while he's awake and coherent. And I tried desperately to coordinate dental work that Micah needs done with the ear tube insertion, but turns out his dentist an his ENT don't have the same surgery days at the hospital. So then we tried to get him seen by another dentist so that, perhaps, that dentist could do the extractions and fillings, but that didn't work either. So the dental work is now scheduled for February, which is a real frustration all around that docs have "surgery days" and can't overlap on rare occasions for such things.

So this morning, Micah endured his 13th set of ear tubes being installed. Things went swimmingly because we're all pros at this by now, and the nursing staff at the local hospital are some of the most amazing people ever. We were in and out of the hospital in just under 3 hours, which is a record for us. His next set can probably be done in the morning and he'll be in school in the afternoon. Although we're hoping there won't be a next set, because we always hope that. The left ear's tube was still pretty well seated exactly where it belonged, but because none of us wanted to be right back in the OR in 2 months time, she pulled it out and re-inserted a new one. For the first time ever, she put 2 different kinds in, because each ear has different quirks that make different style tubes seem like a good idea, I guess. And how sad is it that we all know his ears that well? Sheesh. Poor kid. But he can hear well again, and that's always a good thing.

So after Micah got his new ears, we went to lunch, because he was deprived of breakfast and quite disgruntled about that. Post-op BRAT diets are for lesser experienced kids. Micah ate the onions off his sub first, then proceeded to eat a 6" ham and turkey with sour cream and onion chips on the side. We stopped on the way home for a hot dog with bacon, onion and coleslaw at Sheetz because that was the promise for being good at the hospital. The boy eats like a boss, and we've learned that if he's asking for it post-op, he's going to keep it down.

After lunch we headed to the eye doctor. Not only did Micah get new ears today, but he got new eyes as well. He had an eye exam the other week and it was determined, finally, that he has trouble reading close up. I'm none too happy about this, because we'd suspected this for over a year and nobody would give him glasses. We tried 2 different eye docs, both highly recommended for kids with disabilities, and both of them get F's in the "listening to the mom because the kid is nonverbal" department. For that reason, they argued with me when I said, "he didn't read that right" and he got an all-clear. These are things that have made me who I am today. I am now the lady that you don't mess with when it comes to my kid, because if he can't talk for himself I've got to advocate for him. I do want to give a huge shout-out to a local eye doc who has little to no experience with kids like Micah, and yet did a thorough exam and found that he needs glasses.

You guys, the boy is so proud of those glasses that it makes us smile watching him. This in itself is a minor miracle, because the day we were trying to choose a pair for him was not a good day at all. He was so adamantly opposed to even trying some on that we had to bribe him with fun things just to see what fit him. Today, however, he stared at himself in the mirror forever, and made me take a picture and send to Becky, who sent a picture back showing that she was wearing her glasses, too, and they matched. He wore them all over town, even telling the cashier at Sheetz that he had new glasses.

We'll see how long that lasts, because I envision a royal battle when he has to wear them at school. But today, he counted down the minutes until Luke came home so that he could show off his new red frames to yet another person who cares. And guys, that is the cutest little boy ever, with or without glasses. But I fear "little boy" may not be as accurate as "wee old man," what with getting new ears and new eyes today.