Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Another Trip to the Doctor

Mila's ear infection/fluid on the ears will not go away.  I made an appointment with her pediatrician last Monday so we could discuss everything: Three months, four antibiotics for her ears, two topical ointments and an oral anti-fungal for diaper rash (as a result of oral antibiotics and subsequent diarrhea) and she STILL has fluid on her ears.  Thankfully it wasn't a full on infection, so the doctor sent home a prescription for a fifth antibiotic in case she developed a fever before I could get her in with the pediatric Ears Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist.  

The appointment with the ENT was yesterday.  We never had to fill the fifth antibiotic.  SHOO.  Before we saw the doctor, Mila had a hearing test.  It was hilarious.  I was trying so hard not to laugh and distract Mila the whole time.  We sat in a chair in the middle of a tiny sound proof room.  There were three speakers: one in front of us and one on either side.  Next to each speaker was a TV screen and a box with a remote control toy inside.  The hearing specialist went back and forth between sound frequencies/voice recognition on the speakers, pictures on the TV's, and movement with the remote control toys.  Mila turned her head to look at things when they made noises.  I wonder what she was thinking.  It was so strange.

Afterwards, the hearing doctor explained that Mila was just a little outside the normal hearing chart.  They did something where they put headphones on that touched the bone behind her ear.  She said that way they could bypass her eardrums to test her hearing.  She passed that part fine, which means it's just the fluid impeding her hearing, not any permanent damage.  Yay!

A little while later we were sitting with the ENT. She said only 6% of children still have fluid on their ears, three months after their initial ear infection.  Mila is part of the 6%, so she recommends getting tubes put in her ears.  So, surgery it is!  Her surgery is scheduled for May 28th, the day after Memorial Day.  I know it's not a serious surgery, but it's still going to be so hard to hand her off to the nurse while she's wearing tiny baby scrubs.  =(

1 comment:

Alexa said...

Awe, Mila's story is identical to Blair's. When he was 6-12 months he had 4+ infections and he went on numerous antibiotics. He got the tubes at TCH 10 days after his 1st birthday and he didn't need any more antibiotics!! The tubes were fantastic. Handing him over to the Doc was the hardest thing EVER, but it was only 15 minutes and we were with him in recovery. He was better within a couple hours.

Powered By Blogger