Tubes and A Little Lamb

Dylan got tubes put in his ears a few weeks ago. He was getting frequent ear infections and didn’t seem to be responding well to the oral antibiotics, so we went ahead with the procedure. The nurses and doctors all told us that when the anesthesia begins to wear off, Dylan would begin crying and be very upset. They mentioned how extremely difficult it would be to console him. They advised bringing a comfort item for Dylan. That got me to thinking about what comforts Dylan. He has never gotten attached to any special blankets. Trust me, I tried offering many to him since Cody and Anna loved them so much. He never seemed to care. Finally, at Easter I had gotten him (well, all the kids) a stuffed little lamb, “Lambie” as he is called. He loves that little toy so much that Anna actually gave him hers as well. So I packed Lambie to go with us to the surgery center, but, by the way the staff talked, I thought I had better bring one more item just in case. Hmmm….Oddly, Dylan loves holes, tiny holes that he can stick his finger in. For example, he loves to stand at the kitchen drawer and poke his finger into the hole that the screw goes into. He stands there and sucks his thumb. He does this with various items throughout the house. I couldn’t bring the kitchen drawer, for obvious reasons, so I brought the next best thing…a small hot roller. Dylan loves to carry Anna’s curler around on his finger, and it took up no space in the diaper bag. We were all set. Thankfully, Dylan barely fussed at all when waking up from the anesthesia. The hot roller never made its appearance at the surgery center, and I did not have to explain to the medical staff why my child’s comfort object was a curler! But, this made me think about something that I could have easily forgotten about one day. It took surgery for me to realize just how special this little quirk is of his. Here are a couple photos of Dylan waking up from the anesthesia. His Lambie is snuggled up against his cheek.