First Ear Infections

I meant to document this awhile ago...

Over Christmas break, Ava was sick w/ a virus, cold-like, that lingered on and on for about 2 weeks. She just couldn't rebound from it. It seemed like every child we knew was sick with this virus as well. We had her ears checked before we headed out of town for the holiday weekend and they were clear.

About a week after we came home, she was still stuffy and congested, but no fever. As we were driving home from the mall one afternoon, she said, "My ear hurts from the doctor looking in it." Well, I knew that was over a week ago and it wasn't from the pedi looking in them. Once we got home, she was so not herself; whiny, crying, not letting me put her down....for THREE hours. I had tried to get her into the pedi but it was late afternoon and they couldn't see her until early the next morning.

She finally fell asleep at about 5:00 for an hour or so and woke up in a complete 180! Back to her normal self. I took her in the next morning and noticed an orangish/reddish crust in her ear. Her pedi concluded that her she had an ear infection and that her little eardrum perforated, or ruptured. Poor thing! She was miserable! I know adults that have had it happen and say how painful it is...I can only imagine for her little 2 and 3/4 body how bad it was.

So she took a 10-day supply of her first antibiotic and all was better. Until....

She became congested again last week! I'm now hyper-sensitive to this snottiness and congestion for fear of not just an ear infection, but a perforated ear drum. So I noticed her touching her ears and she won't be straight with me if they hurt because she hates, hates, hates for the doctor to look in them. It's like notes of kicking and screaming and restraining are on her record....it's that bad.

So I took her in again. The first time, a dr. new to us said all was good. However, the next morning I noticed a crust coming out and her eyes a little goopy. They fit me in the next day, end of day, with the nurse practitioner. She was so thorough and finally used a machine to detect fluid behind her ear drum, confirming an ear infection. It hasn't ruptured this time and she is on her 2nd antibiotic.

My poor little girl has had a rough first month of 2010. Let's hope it gets better from here!