Nicholas has had a tough time when it comes to ear infections. We have had 7 in a year. 7. They’ve become so frequent I can spot them within a few hours of coming on. Since Nicholas was a micro-preemie who had lots of respiratory troubles in his first few months & then had RSV at 9 months, it’s normal for him to be so good at getting ear infections. 

Just last Sunday we picked him up from his Sunday school class after church. He was hot. 102.5 to be exact. And he didn’t want to eat anything for lunch. I looked at Andy and said “I think we have an ear infection- I’ll call the doctor tomorrow”. Andys response “Oh. Bad time to mention I have to leave tomorrow, not Wednesday, for Maine for business, huh?” (True story). 
So, on Monday off we went to the doctor for the normal “yep that’s an ear infection all right” appointment. We got our prescriptions and headed for the pharmacy & then home. 

When Nicholas has an ear infection he is happy & playful.  He’s not clingy or fussy. In fact you wouldn’t know unless you took his fever or tried to feed himself & he used his “NO” repeatedly that he’s sick. 

So a day of antibiotics in and no fever, off we went to school the next day. (Remember, single parent here this week). Tuesday he was better. Wednesday he was eating, had no fever, but looked miserable. By Wednesday  afternoon the fever was back. So, Thursday back to the doctor we went. The infection had spread to both ears, and the bacterial infection was now in his eyes. We had a round of antibiotic shots (which are awful to watch, by the way) and came home. And poor thing slept. For 6 hours. Through lunch. 

Andy came home late Thursday where with all the love in my heart I said “I’ve missed you. And I love you. But it’s your shift now for a bit. I need some wine.”.

We had a follow up appointment Friday for more shots & had another “I want to sleep not eat” day. 

By Sunday he was better. Much better. But at the doctors’ request the ENT had agreed to see us. So off we went this week. We thought we’d hear “he needs ear tubes”. We did not think we’d hear “he has hemorrhaged his right ear drum and we need to fix that”. The hemorrhage most likely happened during this last fury of ear infections. Since it didn’t rupture (which would be worse & we would’ve seen ourselves) we aren’t really sure when it happened: this ear infection or the one 2 weeks ago. 

So, Nicholas will have surgery. In the next week or so to fix the hemorrhage and place tubes in his ears to hopefully stave off future ear infections. It’s a minimally invasive procedure & very quick. His hearing in his right ear has been compromised a bit due to the hemorrhage and the doctors think that correcting the hemorrhage and tubes will fix the issues on their own. (He can hear voices but some high and low tones he doesn’t respond to). But, we’ll have to wait and see. 

More to come.