We arrived back in Texarkana around 10 on Sunday night only to have Hailey at the ENT doctor bright and early on Monday morning. I took her in on Tuesday before we left to find her having ANOTHER ear infection in BOTH ears so we felt it was time to see an ENT. Dr. Porter recommended the SWEETEST ENT ever, Dr. Lower, and she got us right in. I guessed it would be weeks before we could get in but we had the second appointment on Monday morning. I'm sure it doesn't help that it was # 6 since Jan and #7 all together. When we arrived and checked in, Hailey entertained the older men and women in the waiting room for just a few minutes before calling us back. When they took us back, they took what they called a picture of Hailey's ears. They stuck this thing in her ear canal (barely in and NO PAIN) and it measured the activity of the ear. Normally they like to see a high peak. The right one was trying hard and had an increase over time but the left one was no change or a flat line. That indicates there is fluid sitting behind the ear drum. The fluid is a great place for bacteria to grown and cause infections. When the babies are born, their ear canals aren't as developed as ours are. Like in adults, ours slants and allows for better drainage but in small children it is almost straight. This is hard to drain the fluid off the ears. Next, we did a hearing test. The normal range is 0-20 and they couldn't get Hailey at a 25 so she is at a 30. That is below normal but not by far and it most likely caused by the fluid in her ears. The fluid over time makes it hard to hear and can also cause deafness in some cases. Many children that have fluid in their ears score a 30-40 and once the fluid is removed, it is back within normal ranges. After all the testing, we me with Dr. Lower and discussed our options. She has three girls so it was really easy to talk to her because she truly cares and you aren't just another number. Like she never leaves her patients until they are out of the first recovery. Most doctors would just send the patients on their way with a nurse and go about their business. Once we decided that the best decision for Hailey was to go forward with the tubes, it was scheduling time. The dr was out next week and we knew that in a few days, her ear infection would be back with all that extra fluid sitting on her ear. It seems like 4-5 days off of an antibiotic, she is pulling at her ears again and I'm so sick of medicine, her not sleeping and seeing her Pedi (who we LOVE DEARLY but would rather see her outside of the office). It isn't fair for Hailey to constantly be on antibiotic, constantly having a belly ache from the medicine and us walking on ice waiting on the next infection. When Dr Lower said we could get in on Wednesday morning, we felt it was the best decision.
Our plans was to keep Hailey up until 11 last night but I think she only made it until 10:15-10:30 and that was a fight. We played outside after her 5 o'clock snack a Mias, Chris mowed, we swung, we bathed, did laundry and around 8:30 decided we would brave Carino's. They weren't too busy and we have food everywhere and Hailey was STARVING. She had almost an entire loaf of bread, her own plate of oil and garlic, some of my salad, three pieces of pizza and pasta and Alfredo sauce. This is after her entire thing of mac and cheese with vegetable and chicken. Her teacher at school said she drank 3 cups of chocolate milk during the afternoon as well. I'm thinking a growth spurt because she has hardly had anything to eat or drink today. After CArino's, I brought her home and tried for another bath but she wasn't having it.AT.ALL. We watched a littler Dora per her request, had some milk and she was out like a light. I stressed about her 6:30 am milk because she pitches a fit for it but she didn't even ask for milk and I work her at 7. Someone was watching out for us. We dressed and headed up to the surgery center. For tubes, they go bay age so our arrival time was 7:45 and we were gone by 9:15-9:20. We arrived, checked in and they called us back. Hailey did great until they took her from me and they all realized how strong she really is. My dad had surgery at the same place last week so they were all taking very good care of Hailey. Chris and I waited in the waiting room for 10 minutes and Dr. Lower came to get us. Hailey was sleeping her gas off and we spoke about any of our concerns and what we should watch for. Once Hailey woke, she met us in the secondary waiting room for 15 minutes. She was just fine until she spotted me and lost it. She was mad as a hornet. We got her dressed in her Dora pj's since they are kind of a security thing, put her shoes on and the nice nurse brought her some apple juice. She was screaming at the top of her lungs that she wanted to "go now" and "Daddy get up and go now" and "outside now" and "mean mommy-mean daddy" and "ouch ears hurt". FINALLY we got to go. The car ride wasn't much better and even at Chick Fil A she wasn't happy. Once we arrived home, she drank some milk and had a bite of chicken. This perked her up a lot but she was still hurting. They drained the fluid and put the tubes in so I'm sure it was very painful. Along with that, her last canine is trying to break through. It was a rough morning and she refused to nap. We all played in the room until noon and then headed to town for errands. Hailey napped a little, we went for pizza again per her request and she didn't eat but rather make a mess and found Chris some jeans. His new job will have him wearing jeans daily. We arrived back to the house around 4:30, spent most of the evening outside and she was out like a light by 7. I think she would have gone done by 6 but that was just too early. She seems to be doing a lot better but the drops on her right side hurt really bad tonight. We just give them for two more days to prevent infection and then we save the bottle in case we get more infections. The tubes don't prevent infections but rather allow the fluid to drain which is the cause of most ear infections.
Yes, she wore a small purple bow to match her Dora pj's and her Dora socks. They only made her take off her shirt and put on the gown. I think they saw her agression towards her Dora stuff! :)
1 comment:
I hope the tubes give you guys a lot less infections and lots more rest, etc. Poor thing. It's so traumatic for little ones, but you know in the end it's the best thing!
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