Tubes - Not the wheel kind

Today my daughter had to have her ear tubes put in. We had to be at the hospital at 6:45 AM for the surgery that they put her to sleep to install. Goes without saying that we were a nervous reck this morning, just the thought of having to operate on a little baby (15 months old) let alone your own is quite upsetting. We were having last minute second thoughts on the ordeal as for once she wasnt even sick now so it was like we are going to let them put her to sleep and go thru with this and she feels fine. But on the other hand she literaly gets an ear infection every 3 weeks on average ever since last October so we knew we better just go on and get this over with. Well, the doctors at Providence Northeast were great and did everything well to make the most of the experience. Cant believe how quick the whole thing took and we were in and out by 9:00 AM. For the babies, they dont use any IV or anything and they knock them out with gas, so atleast she wasnt poked and proded while she was awake any and that was nice. The doctor also made us feel good about the choice when he said she had gobs of jelly like substance behind her eardrums instead of just fluid and he had to use a special instrument to remove. I know this is Nasty, but he said that stuff had to have been built up back there for a long time and she definately is much better off and should also show a night and day difference in her hearing. Its amazing how quick after the whole thing she is back to normal, the doctor said it would be about an hour for the antethisia to wear off but she should be fine after 10. Darn if he wasnt spot on, now she was extremely upset and crying the entire time after she came too up until the ride home when she fell back asleep, but boy it was like a light switch and she was fine and back to herself after getting some brunch. The rest of the day she was playful as ever, glad that is over.

Since the baby was doing great I ended up taking a late afternoon ride to clear the mind and glad I did. Ended up being a good ride and mixing it up to hit all the trails including inner loop. Ran out of water and had to hit the filling station for a refill but was feeling ok and planned on pushing on to make it a 30 mile ride. Late in my ride I ran into Tom, Dennis and Eric who were just finishing up with Lost Creek and gave me an invite to ride with them. Didnt know how long I was going to be able to keep going but was good to talk with Tom who I hadnt seen all summer. Followed along with them for just a short way down Stewardship to the long fireroad climb but by then the legs were pushing their limits and told them I better brake off and start heading back. Gonna have to try and make another ride with them on a fresh start when I can hang and not have to ditch out but did enjoy the short bout anyway. Ended up taking the longer way back over the gazeebo area back across firebreak and crooked pine to finish at 30.91 miles.

Dont think I'll be making a group ride for a week, were going on vacation this weekend and since I rode tonight were gonna be trying to get some things done the remainder of this week, you guys tear it up and hopefully nobody feels the need to bushwack or crash once for me :)

Stats:
Distance 30.91
Time: 2:52
Avg Speed: 10.7
Top Speed: 25.7
Avg HR: 151