Nicole's Ears

Back in December Nicole got her very first ear infection. In fact, she is the first of the three girls to get an ear infection. A round of antibiotics was given and we returned two weeks later for a follow-up appointment. At the follow-up appointment (Dec 24), Nicole was given a clean bill of health on her ears and we were good to go.

At the initial appointment for her ear infection, the doctor indicated that her ears were full of ear wax and that we should take her in to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor and have them cleaned. We knew exactly what he was talking about because Hannah has been taken in multiple times to have her ear wax cleaned out (lucky girls to have inherited major ear wax from their dad). So, I made an appointment with the ENT doctor to have all three girls' ears cleaned. Hannah because it had been two years since she'd been, Ashley because she'd never had hers done and I was curious as to whether or not they were full, and Nicole because we knew hers were full.

We went for the ear appointment on February 5. The girls were seen by the doctor in order. Hannah had some ear wax but it wasn't too bad. This was the least amount of wax she'd ever had. That's great news where it had been two years! Her ear drums looked great!

Ashley was next. She was a bit nervous and a little freaked out because she'd never had it done nor seen anyone else have their ears cleaned by the doctor. Ashley did end up having a bit of "sticky" ear wax to clean out. She had more than Hannah but not too bad for being 4 and never having it done. Her ear drums looked great too!

Now we have Nicole who was not thrilled in the least to be the next one up for the ear cleaning experience. Thank goodness my mom had come with me. She took Ashley and Hannah out of the room so they didn't have to witness me and two nurses holding Nicole down. Nicole ended up having the most ear wax, which wasn't surprising because we knew from the other doctor that her ears were full.

After the ear wax cleaning of the first ear, the doctor checks her ear drum and informs me that she has a bunch of fluid behind her ear drum. I'm a bit in shock at this moment because Nicole has been acting fine. She has not complained once about her ears. He moves to the other side and once again, after clearing the way, notices there's fluid behind this ear drum too. We left the appointment with an antibiotic for Nicole to take for 10 days to clear the fluid. We have to come back in two weeks for a follow up appointment. If the fluid does not clear up, I am informed that we will need to put tubes in her ears so we don't run in to hearing loss. Wow! This is totally not what I expected from this appointment. I was simply going in to have the ear wax cleaned and that was that.

Today was the follow up appointment for Nicole. The downfall to this doctor is that you have to wait SOOOOOO long to even be seen by the doctor. I was excited that her appointment was today because last night she came down with a cold. I wanted him to be able to check her over and ask questions as to what we do now to prevent this cold turning in to another ear infection.

Once we saw the doctor, Nicole quickly covered her ears. She remember from the time before! Smart little stinker! With her on my lap and me holding her arms and head, he checked the left ear. It was red but probably because she had immediately started crying when he entered the room. He could possibly see a bit of fluid. Then came the right ear. Well, this one didn't fair too well. He immediately could see that it was still full of fluid. This is after being off the antibiotic for only one day.

We're now off to another room where a technician performs a pressure test on Nicole's ears. This is to tell them exactly how much fluid is behind her ears and if the fluid is thick and won't move or if it's thinner and moving around. Once again, Nicole is not a happy camper to have someone going after her ears. Once again, I hold the arms and head while the test is performed.

The right ear is done first. This is the ear that the doctor indicated was still full of fluid. The line on the screen that we are looking at is suppose to peak as the test is performed. Well.....for the right ear the line is flat. This indicates that she has quite a bit of fluid behind the ear drum and that it's the "sticky" kind and won't budge.

For the left ear, there is a peak. However, the peak is suppose to occur at the zero mark. Her peak occurs at the -100 mark, which means she does have fluid in this ear but it's the "movable" kind.

Back to the room we go to chat with the doctor. When he comes in, we look at the charts again that printed from the machine and the verdict is that Nicole needs tubes in her ears to drain the fluid. From this point forward it's a whirlwind. The doctor would have put the tubes in Nicole's ears this coming Tuesday had she not started with a cold. Instead, we are holding off a week and were given another antibiotic to get us through the cold so that neither a sinus nor ear infection occur. We are then given to the nurse who checks Nicole's heart and lungs and then takes us through the pre-op procedures.

From the nurse, we are taken to the front desk where they call the surgery section at Logan Regional to schedule Nicole's surgery. We are scheduled for the surgery on March 2. It may have to be postponed if Nicole's cold is not better or if for some reason she can't "bump" others and be the first surgery of the day, which would be 7:30 am because she has to fast for 12 hours and they can't make a 2 year old fast until late in the day.

Our appointment today was at 3:15 and we left the doctor's office at 5:10. By the time I hit the van, I was exhausted as to all that had transpired. Again, I was not expecting what occurred as this appointment. I thought for sure we'd go in and the doctor would say that all was good and she'd be given a clean bill of health. Not so.

However, I try to look on the bright side. Had I not taken the girls in to have their ears cleaned I never would have known Nicole had any problems. If her ears have been bothering her, she never showed any signs. There has been no crying, no tugging, no irritability, no nothing. I am grateful for the prompting and the events that occurred prior so that I made the appointment. A rough road could have been ahead of us had we not found this out sooner. Especially, before we ran into hearing loss issues.

As of now, we have started round 2 of the antibiotics and we'll plan for March 2!