Omar's Surgery

Omar waiting to be taken back

Doesn't he look comfy?

Away in the wagon he goes

At home unaware of what is going on

Showing off the "battle" wounds


We went to an ENT in Logan to look at Omar's ears to see how bad they really were. He recommended us to the specialist in SLC at U of U medical center. After meeting with him and the Audiologist, we discovered Omar wasn't able to hear a whole lot out of his ears. The right ear was much worse, so the ENT suggested that we do surgery in that ear first. He was scheduled for a Tympanoplasty, Mastoidectomy, Correction Aural Atesia surgery in the right ear June 21st in Salt Lake. Basically what they did was go in the ear and behind the ear in the bone and remove any disease, repair the bone, and fix the many holes in his ear drum to improve hearing and stop the constant pain in his ear. It was an outpatient surgery which meant he was able to go home the same day of the surgery.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:45 am Monday morning. They took us back to prep for surgery at 6:30 where he was dressed in a gown and given at calming medicine. Then at 7:15 they wheeled him back to the waiting pod to meet with the doctor and anesthesiologist. It was really cute because they asked Omar if he wanted to be brought back in the bed or in a wagon. Yes our 7 year old chose the wagon. The packed it full of pillows, blankets and him. After we met with the Anesthesiologist, they wheeled him back to surgery where we were sent to the waiting room. That was hard saying good-bye hoping he would be good for the doctors and the anesthesia would work for him.

In the waiting room, we were told the nurse would cal us when Omar was out and the first incision was made. Because we were up at 4:45am , we were hungry so we headed to the cafeteria to get something to eat. When we got back, we had hours of waiting. Finally at 11 surgery was over. They called us back to the recovery room where Omar was coming out of anesthesia. That was really hard as a parent to watch your child cry of pain, unawareness and confusion.

They wheeled Omar back in a wheelchair on my lap to a recovery room. My brother had stopped by to see how Omar was doing just as we were being wheeled to the room. Omar would wake up and ask while pointing to his ear, "Why the doctor do this? Ow, why?" Talk about breaking your heart. It took him a really long time to come out of anesthesia. He was very thirsty and would wake long enough to drink, cry, and then fall back asleep. At about 2:30, Omar was awake enough to be taken to the bathroom, but all the movement caused him to throw up, so back in bed we went. His nurse was so good with him. She keep him as pain free as possible and gave him a shot for motion sickness and drowsiness so we could travel back home in the car without problems.

We got all loaded in the car by 3:30 and headed to my mom's where Marisol spent the day. When we got there, we didn't even get out of the car because Omar was still under and miserable. Luckily Omar slept the whole way home and continued to sleep in our room while I went to the store to buy soft food for the little guy to eat. He slept until 8:30 pm that night where we woke him up to go to the bathroom and try to eat something. He was still coming out of the anesthesia and was not all there. He managed to eat some pudding, jello and a piece of pizza. He kept it all down while we watched some cartoons. He went back to bed at 10:30 that night and slept really well.

He had to wear his ear cup for a full 24 hours before we could take it off. We kept him medicated and down with minimal movement for the next couple of days. By Thursday, Omar was pretty pain free and wanting to run and play. It's amazing how fast kids heal! The packing is still in Omar's inner ear and we have been told to keep his ear water free for a month. Then we will go back to the doctors and get the packing removed and see if the surgery took. If all goes well, then we will proceed and do the left ear. We are hoping to get his second ear all done before school starts at the end of August. I just hope Omar doesn't remember the awful pain he was in coming out of surgery so he will let us do the left ear. Poor little guy! What a trooper for sure.