Getting out of that closed room that seemed like the walls were closing was all I could think about when I fell fast asleep. I awoke with a start, screaming and kicking.

Sitting in the backseat of my mom's Jeep, I looked out the window and dreaded what was to come. We were on our way to the hospital for some reason that I had no idea what was. When we got to the hospital my dad dropped me and my mom off at the front doors and went to find a parking spot. When we walked in a doctor walked up to us and told us that we needed to go into this room to talk to the doctors. After a few minutes, my dad meets us inside and we all sat down in this room. The room was relatively small and had fish on the walls. It seemed way too babyish for an eight-year-old but I wasn’t complaining. The doctors that came in were really nice but they talked to me like I was a scared baby. That’s when I realized we were here for me. The doctors talked to my parents about some ear surgery that they were doing on me. It took one word, “surgery” to confuse me. I think to know what they meant and maybe it had something to do with my left ear. My left ear had been hurting ever since they put these weird tube things in my ears. After the doctors talked to my parents they left and left my mom, my dad, and I in the room. Then my mom turned to me and said “I bet you're wondering why we’re here” I nodded my head and replied, “Yup but I think it has something to do with my ear.” After we talked she told me that they have to do surgery on my ear and I have to be put to sleep. After that, I didn’t want to be at the hospital and really didn’t want the surgery but it wasn’t up to me. My mom and dad signed a paper and then they made me change into a gown. Then they had me lay on the bed and they rolled me into the operating room. When I got in there they said that I could have my parents in there if I wanted and I said yes. My mom and dad had to change into scrubs. My mom’s where yellow and my dad and I called it the banana suit. Once we were all in the operating room they asked me if I liked Laffy Taffy. Then they put this mask on my face and told me to count back from 5. I counted to 3 and then I was out cold. When I woke up I was in a bed and had this weird cup thingy that was strapped to my ear. My mom and dad came in to get me and I was screaming bloody murder. My mom and dad could hear me from the other end of the hallway. Before we could leave I needed to eat and drink something but I was screaming so much that they couldn’t get me to eat something so we ended up being there for way longer than was expected but eventually they just let me go home because I wasn’t eating. When we left the hospital I got a teddy bear with a little shirt on it that I still have to this day. When we were leaving the hospital I was put in a wheelchair and was wheeled to the car. When I was in the car I laid down and fell asleep because I was tired from the anesthesia. When I got home I had to change the padding in the cup that covered my ear and when I did I looked at the stitches in the back of my ear and I counted them. There was eight.
Flash forward to now. I remember every little detail of that day because it was a big part of my childhood and now a big part of me. I have a scar on the back of my left ear where they stitched it up. I’m here to tell you the backstory on my ear and why I needed the surgery in the first place. When I was little I had ear infections all time and we found out that my ears weren’t draining properly so I had tubes put in my ears. After the tubes were in my ears my right ear healed but my left ear never healed right and caused a hole to open in my eardrum. So the surgery was to close the hole in my eardrum. They took a skin graft of the skin from the back of my ear and used that to close the hole. I got eight stitches in total. After the surgery, we had to go back a number of times to check on it and to get the stitches removed. I’m happy now that it’s over but it has left me partly def in my left ear.