Caleb Had Surgery

Yesterday Caleb had surgery.

On what, you ask?

He had a polyp removed from his vocal chord. Kind of important, when your occupation is teaching singing.

At the end of this past school year, he noticed that his range had declined. He wasn't sure how or precisely when. But he knew there was a problem. So he went to his doctor, who sent him to an ENT. The ENT told him to try a few things on his own for a month (sleep on an incline, dietary changes, limited talking, no singing, etc.). After a month, Caleb went back in to see if the situation had improved. It had not. So, he had to have surgery.

So yesterday the kids went to the sitter's house and Caleb went to St. Luke's. It was a brief procedure. The surgery only took about an hour, but we were there for about 4 hours.

Now is the difficult part--Caleb isn't allowed to talk, hum, whistle or make any noise at all for 7 whole days. So far, we're doing okay. He's been writing things. We play lots of charades. He has a whistle to get our attention. He claps sometimes, too. I keep forgetting that he can't answer the phone, though. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

My favorite part was this morning when I was in the shower and the phone rang. Connor got to answer the phone for the first time ever. Then, a few minutes later as I was finishing up drying my hair, some Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door. I'm not sure why he felt compelled to answer, but he opened the door to them, mute as he was. When I emerged from our bedroom and realized what was happening, I explained to them that he had just had surgery and wasn't allowed to speak (if they had a dollar for every time they hear that one...). They told me that he had "explained" that to them. I would have loved to have seen that charades turn.

Wish us luck as we plow through Caleb's week of silence. And keep your fingers crossed that we don't get any more visitors while I'm in the shower!