ears

From the weekend after we celebrated Bennett's first birthday party back in mid September 2011 to the day after Christmas, our poor little man struggled with ear infection after ear infection, some never clearing up and some reoccurring. I felt like we didn't sleep very much many a nights and felt helpless for the little boy who constantly tugged at his ears. After trying three different antibiotics over the course of three months, nothing seemed to help all the trapped fluid behind both of his ears. So the day after Christmas, Jon and I packed Buggy up and went straight to the Urgent Care after another full day of fever and pulling his ears. We already knew the doctor was going to tell us double ear infections and we also knew that if he had one more infection, our pediatrician would schedule an appointment to the ENT. So after coming home with a pitiful baby and of course dreading the thought of our sweet baby having to have a procedure done, I called my neighbor, Nancy, a nurse. She got us in the next day at her office in Mobile and we met with an outstanding doctor. He took his first look in Bennett's ears and before he was able to adjust his thing-a-ma-bobber-ear-light in his ear, he immediately said the dreaded words I knew I would hear, but didn't want to hear. So we scheduled surgery 48 hours later.

Nervous. Wreck. Of. A. Momma.

My parents and Jon's parents met us in Mobile early, early Friday morning to sit with us during B's procedure. We walked into a room full of little people, all decked out in pajamas, and all with nervous parents and grandparents tagging along. Jon and I were able to take Bennett back to get him prepped for surgery and then they took him, screaming crying all the way down the hall... You want to talk about heartache... I can't even explain. Jon and I were taken to a private waiting room where I cracked open the top to my Diet Coke and opened a magazine. By the time I got to the third or fourth page of the magazine, the doctor came to let us know sweet boy was okay and in recovery. It only took ten minutes, and although it was a short time period, anyone with children know that it felt like an eternity. Thank goodness it wasn't any longer length of time, because I may have needed to be heavily sedated.

We got him out of recovery and headed home. After the three of us took a long nap, we awoke to a very happy and energetic little boy. He was like a different child! Obviously the draining of all that trapped fluid gave him instant relief and you could tell within hours that he felt great again. Our healthy, big chunk Bennett was back! And within days he was talking a lot more and speaking much more clearly than he had been in the past couple of weeks.

We have had one ear infection since the surgery, however, his ears drained perfectly and one dose of antibiotics knocked it out of the park :)

Francy playing with B the evening before surgery - 12.28.11, 15 mths

It was always hard to believe he was so sick and in pain because this was his disposition 9 out of 10 times!




Just watching the tube.

This is for Sue and Jay - looky what B is pulling! He loved his Christmas gift from you :)