A week ago tonight (11 days after that ENT appointment), we noticed that she was still tugging at her ears. I looked in them with my Dr. Mom otoscope (a handy thing to have if you know what you're looking for!) and my heart nearly broke. Nola's ears looked awful. They were most definitely infected. Monday morning (5/3), I called the pediatrician's office and took the only after school appointment they had available. It wasn't with our doctor, but I didn't care. Dr. Engmann saw Nola and when he looked in her ears, he actually said, "Eww." This is not what you want to hear from a pediatrician. He started her on another round of antibiotics - 10 days of OmniCef this time.
On Thursday night, Nola was just not herself. For the first time since our trip to the ER, she was doing everything she could to tell us just how uncomfortable she was. I looked in her ears and saw no improvement, so Rudy decided he would stay home with her on Friday (5/7) and take her back to the doctor. Again - she couldn't get in to see Dr. Schaefer, so Rudy took the first appointment available. This time Dr. Jewell saw her and said her ears looked really bad, so she gave her an antibiotic shot to boost the healing and infection control. We were told to bring her back on Monday if things aren't better or wait until the end of the 10 days of antibiotics if they are. Guess what...I'm calling at 8:00 in the morning for yet another appointment. I looked at her ears tonight and they still look horrible. I can't even see her eardrum now.
The poor thing has inherited her father's ear troubles (he got tubes again last year at age 33!) just like her brother did (he's on his second set of tubes after his pediatrician actually said his ears were a 'trainwreck'). We're on the short path to the ENT and I'll do whatever I have to do to get tubes put in her ears as soon as she's old enough. I'm not sure how old she has to be but I've found a few things online about babies getting them as early as 4 months. I'm definitely going to ask about it and be proactive. We waited so long for Caleb and he was miserable for way too long. He didn't get his until he was 10 months old and there was really no reason for us to wait that long. I'll keep you updated...you keep the prayers coming for baby girl to get some relief.
Doesn't she look like she's saying, "Oh no! Another ear infection!"
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