Not What I Was Planning

Today I was going to show you some pictures of a happy boy frolicking in a pile of leaves.  Or, maybe today was the day I was going to talk about my weekly ritual of baking bread for my family.  Instead, you get a different story.

It all started earlier this week when Matthew complained that his ear hurt.  I could see nothing wrong with it and he had no other signs of infection so I chalked it up to him getting whacked on the side of his head by a sibling and went on with life. A day passed and his ear was still tender but I could see nothing wrong with it.

Yesterday his ear was so tender we couldn't touch it so I decided to pin my boy down and take a good look.  Lo and behold, I saw a stone lodged in there.  We headed off to the walk-in clinic where as luck would have it, our own GP was working a shift.  He and his nurse tried to get the stone out but it was stuck fast.  Matthew was sent home and I was told to wait by the phone while my doctor consulted with a general surgeon at the hospital.

The surgeon here was not comfortable with taking the stone out, so very early this morning my dear friend Mindy and I took Matthew to a hospital an hour away that has an ENT doctor. We were told Matthew would be seen in between the ENT's regular cases.  I resigned myself to the possibility of a  long day.  I was pleasantly surprised by only a one-hour wait in the triage area.

 It was determined that the stone was indeed stuck very tightly and that the best way to remove it would be under anesthetic in the OR.  We were shuffled off to the day-surgery ward where Matthew was prepped for his little procedure.   This took about another hour.  The anesthetist knocked him out with a little gas, the ENT got out his spelunking tools and the rock was removed.  The whole procedure took four minutes.  He woke up very quickly and in good spirits.  After inhaling a popsicle in post-op and spending a little time monitoring vital signs we were on our way home shortly after lunchtime.  With a pit-stop at McDonald's.  Matthew needed a cheeseburger very badly after fasting all night and half the day.

I couldn't get over how nice everyone was to us and how kind and patient they were with Matthew.  They all got a good chuckle out of him and his little stone.  He charmed everyone he talked to.

Mindy is a superhero friend.

Waiting for the doctor.

The doctor left his cool toy behind!

Waiting some more

Waiting is easier when you can play with Mindy's phone.

Boo Bankie helps a boy be brave.

What all the fuss was about.

Why did he put the rock in his ear??  We asked him many times and he always told us that he "fell on it."  I asked him again right after his operation and maybe it was because there was a little sedative left in his system, but it was then that the truth came out.  He told me his teacher was talking very loudly and he was tired of it so he stuck the stone in his ear so he wouldn't be able to hear her anymore.

I told him next time he wanted to do that he should use his elbow instead.