Another Round of Ear Tubes

I took L.J. for his semi-annual ear tube checkup in mid-August. This involves rearranging daily schedules and paying $50 for the doctor to spend 90 seconds looking into his ear with a special flashlight. Given L.J.’s history with ear infections, it’s a necessary undertaking. I was quite happy to find out they had satellite locations so I didn’t have to drive all the way to CHOA. L.J. was quite happy when we drove past a different hospital to get there. He excitedly proclaimed “A castle, Mommy! We go to the castle??” He was a little disappointed that our destination was the less-enchanting medical building next door.

During this visit, the doctor said that one ear tube was in place and the other was in his ear canal and should work its way out on its own. He said to keep a close eye on his ears to make sure he wasn’t getting an ear infection, and to come back in three months for a recheck. Our goal was to get through the start of cold season without an ear infection.

Two days later L.J. came home from school with an ear tube clearly visible to the naked eye. It was a Friday evening, naturally. We made a sick visit with his pediatrician on Saturday morning, and it was a quick and painless process to remove the teensy-tiny ear tube. Calling it a tube is somewhat generous.

We kept a very close eye on things, and later that week we noticed he was frequently fiddling with his ear – tugging at it, picking at it, rubbing behind it. He kept saying “No” when we asked if it hurt or if something was bothering him.

Monday morning it was clear that something wasn’t right. We asked him again if something was wrong and he said, “Yes. Go to castle doctor. Doctor fix my ear.” Sweet boy. And so grown up to be able to tell us that something was wrong!

I took him to the pediatrician and he was diagnosed with a severe ear infection. His ear was red as red gets. The doctor said it wasn’t good at all that he had developed such a bad infection and within a week after the tube came out. She recommended that we contact the ENT for next steps.

We spent a week on Augmentin while we waited for the ENT appointment. If you ever desire to have a wrestling match with a bucking bronco, try to give your child this medication. L.J. hates it. We sampled it, and it is indeed nasty stuff. And despite several creative efforts, there was no masking the flavor. He caught on to that tactic real quick.

The day of his appointment, he spent all day telling his teachers that he was going to the doctor because his ear was “broken” – lol. He was pretty excited about going back to the castle doctor until we actually got there, where he earned a symbolic gold star for “worst doctor’s office behavior ever."

The ENT appointment resulted in scheduled surgery for ear tube replacement and adenoid removal at the end of September. We’re bummed he has to have another procedure, but are thankful we have the opportunity to have it done since it helps him so much.