At the end of our summer vacation in Hawaii, Jer's ear kept giving him problems. He got slapped upside the head by more waves than he's used to and our zip-line adventure that ended with us dropping in the fresh water pool caused enough pain that he had to visit an ENT specialist once we got home. It seems like he ended up going in a good handful of times and after seeing a few different doctors, they discovered that he had a detached eardrum and suspect that it's been that way his whole life. They were surprised that it didn't affect his hearing (though I could tell them that his hearing isn't always the best!) The water that he got in his ear from vacationing caused a hole in his eardrum which is why he was having ear pain. So, they threw his name on the surgery list.
He got a call mid December because of an opening on the surgery schedule and since he has to have this surgery taken care of before his deployment (cough cough, this in now the fourth time he's been on the deployment list so we'll see what comes of it) they bumped him to the top of the surgery list. The timing for his surgery worked out quit well; we got the boys to school and headed in. I left Jer before they took him back for surgery so I could pick up Brock from school. We quickly ate lunch then headed back to the hospital. I'm a bit of an optimist and thought we'd be on our way home, with Jer, before Troy got home from school. The boys and I had to leave the hospital again to meet Troy at the bus stop. We were getting ready to head back in when I got a call from the recovery nurse, and of course I missed the call. I called right back and was having a hard time hearing her because someone in the background was laughing VERY loudly. I was thinking that it was pretty unprofessional that these nurses were being so loud while someone was on the phone, come to find out it was Jer! He was laughing SO hard! While the nurse was trying to talk to me she couldn't stop laughing and had to tell Jer to calm down or he was going to hurt himself. He didn't calm down during the entire phone call. I wish I could have been there! We hustled back to the hospital and as soon as we walked in Jer started laughing at us, though he had calmed down a lot. He was the recovery room's highlight of the day and had everyone laughing with him. He fell asleep for surgery laughing and woke up laughing.
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| See the happy face sticker on his forehead?! I think someone "stamped" him with it to let everyone know his drugs were working very well and he was the one laughing like a mad man. |
His surgery went as expected and his ear was successfully reattached to his head. phew. They made the incision along the entire backside of his ear and flopped in forward for the surgery. ouch. I thought I was going to pass out when the nurse was going over his discharge papers. My forehead started to tingle, my lips went ice cold, things started to spin and I had to sit on the floor. When the nurse asked me what was wrong I told her the smell in there was making me light headed and I needed to leave, she asked, "what smell?" Don't tell me I'm crazy and there isn't a smell in hospitals?!? I was assisted out of the recovery room with kids in tow and within a few minutes felt much better. We finally got home just before seven that night; long day.
The timing for the surgery has made for a nice and relaxing Christmas break for all of us. Jer has been on convalescent leave just before the kids' last day of school and he won't go back to work until the boys' first day of school. His ear is hopefully healing like it should but he's currently hard of hearing because of the inner-ear packing. Thank you, military, for yet another surgery for the Johnson family.
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