Saga

"How long has this been going on?" the nurse asked as she checked us in to see the ear, nose, and throat specialist.  I had one of those mom-of-three moments when I honestly couldn't answer her question.  Alex and Dylan have both had ear infections for so long, I couldn't have told you whose started when.  I sighed, shrugged, and answered simply, "He's been sick for the better part of 2011."

Thankfully, Dylan's ear infections cleared up after only two rounds of antibiotics.  Alex, on the other hand, turned his into a saga, still ongoing.

It started with middle-of-the-night screaming followed by being just fine the next morning.  When the screaming resumed mid-primary, Kirk took him to an instacare.  Despite Alex's history and Kirk's suggestion that they put him on something stronger, the instacare doc prescribed Amoxicillan.  We knew we'd do the 10 day course and be right back in to the docs.  We were not wrong.

By this time, Dylan had also completed his own 10 days of Amoxicillan, and when both boys were still grouchy and Alex's ears were draining a continuous stream of disgusting pus, we headed over to Dr. Miner's, our trusty family physician.  Quick peeks in the ears and he prescribed my antibiotic of choice, Omnicef.  (Tough on infections but not too bad on little bellies.)  

Seven days into the 15 day course, Alex woke up covered in rash.  A quick reminder peek at a friend's blog with pictures of her baby covered in allergic-to-amoxicillan rash confirmed my suspicions of drug allergy.  Dr. Miner squeezed us in for a quick visit, and we left with a new prescription for Zithromax and warnings that he'd probably get worse before he got better.

Thankfully, the rash barely phased him and the Zithromax was only a 3 day course.  He was done before Dylan finished the Omnicef, and all we had to do was wait to see if it had done the trick.

Then last week Alex shared a nearly sleepless night with us, frequently crying and complaining of ear pain.  Again I loaded the troupe into the car and headed back to Dr. Miner's for a quick peek.  Comments like, "Wow, those ears really are a mess," certainly supported my decision to take him in.  Dylan was given a clean bill of health, but Alex was given a script for Augmentin (my least favorite of the antibiotics) and a referral to see an ENT.

Alex at 9 months, ready for his first tubes

I called the office of the ENT who did Alex's tubes at 9 months.  He couldn't see us until the 18th, so I scheduled with a different doc who only does consultations but not surgeries.  He looked and recommended tubes and removal of the adenoids.  He also had some testing done which showed that Alex's eardrums have absolutely no motion (they are supposed to vibrate with sound), and the audiologist categorized his ears as a "medical mess."  Amazingly, he has very little hearing loss, and tested at the lower end of normal.  But since this doc doesn't do surgery, we had to schedule another appt.

The doc I'd intended to go with couldn't see us until the 20th, so we switched back to the doc who did Adam's tubes.  He saw us this morning, and I was surprised by his recommendation.  He said one of Al's old tubes had become dislodged but was still hanging out in there, causing all sorts of irritation and was quite possibly the cause of the infection.  He recommended starting with removing that tube and seeing how he recovers.  The tube is now gone, and Alex says it already feels better.  We have a follow up in 2 weeks.  So the saga continues, and I'm not sure if we're still on the road to tubes or not.

It's seems like for us, April is the month of waiting.  It just seems right to be adding another thing to the list.