Another doctor's visit

Audrey had a really bad day on Tuesday. Her ears were bothering her more than usual despite being on day 6 of her current antibiotic treatment. Day care called me at work to tell me that she was running a fever and was fussy and not herself. I left work to pick my sweet girl up and give her cuddles, but wouldn't ya know it, there was a fire on the highway and it took me 3 hours to get to her. Poor thing. When I finally got home with her, she was miserable. She didn't want to eat, was tired but couldn't sleep, and ended up crying inconsolably for over 2 hours that evening. I ended up taking her in the bathroom and sitting on the floor with the shower running so she was distracted by the water pouring down from the shower. I think maybe the steam felt good too. I took a warm shower with her and then finally we climbed into bed. She didn't sleep well, but she did sleep some. Josh stayed home with her yesterday.

So after the terrible Tuesday that we experienced, I started calling other ENT's around town to see if anyone had an appointment sooner than the one I had scheduled for next week. I was able to get in on Thursday with the specialists at Children's National Medical Center. The doctor took one look and confirmed that it was a pretty bad infection and then we did a hearing test. He said that she does have very slight hearing loss due to the fluid, but that it should be back to normal once the infection and fluid is gone. He also did a hearing test behind the ear drum to make sure that she doesn't have any permanent hearing loss, and she doesn't. I told him that we want to avoid surgery and tubes if possible, but that we of course do not want her to be in pain if she doesn't have to be. He said that generally they suggest tubes if there are more than 4 infections in a 6 month period (I think that was it) and she's on #4 now. We decided to continue on her current antibiotics - she started a different one yesterday, that's the fourth different one, too - and if she isn't cleared up in a month when we go back, then we will discuss putting tubes in her ears. I researched the procedure before the appointment, and it is a very common procedure, but we simply would like to avoid it if we can. We really hope that this round of antibiotics does something to kick that fluid out and our girl can be pain-free.

We are lucky that Audrey is such a happy girl, because even with the infections she has, she still doesn't fuss much except when she's tired. It seems that her ears bother her more when she's sleepy, and that probably has something to do with her laying down and the pressure on her ears. We've been propping her up with a pillow under her head to keep the pressure to a minimum.

Thanks for the good thoughts!
xoxo