Ruptured Ear Drum

Abe was not to be out done by April in the medical field this week.  Yesterday I noticed that his ear was draining fluid, but it was clear (which seemed odd to me).  So I made an appointment with our pediatrician for first thing this morning.  After seeing her I immediately called our ENT and (amazingly) was able to get him this afternoon.  Turns out Abe has a massive ear infection and a ruptured ear drum.  Dr. James says that it looks like it “just blew out” and my best guess is that it happened sometime while swimming this past week (either jumping in or Mike tossing him).  The good news is that Abe isn’t in any pain.  He sat there very calmly while Dr. James suctioned out his ear, removed two chunks of wax, and removed his tube.  I don’t know many three year olds that would do that.  He got ice cream tonight for being such a good trooper.

What now?  Well, he’s on both an oral antibiotic and ear drops for the next 10 days.  That will (hopefully) clear the infection.  In regards to the rupture, it will heal some, but because of the size of the hole it will most likely require surgery to fully close it.  Dr. James doesn’t want to do this until Abe is closer to age 5 or 6 though.  That also means that we will have to keep that ear completely dry until the surgery.  Blech.  Poor kid will need to wear an ear plug for bathing and swimming for the next couple of years.

2011 is starting out a bit rough on the medical side.   I’m praying this isn’t an indication of what the whole year will be like.

UPDATE 5/2/2011:  We had Abe’s follow-up at the ENT today.  I fully expected to go in and find that the infection was gone but that there was still a hole in his ear drum, and I was curious to know just how big it was.  I had even prepared him to get another custom ear plug since summer (swim lessons and pool) was here and it would be way more convenient to have two. Well, praise God for unexpected answers to prayers!  Abe’s ear drum has almost completely healed and the hole is gone!  I say almost only because there is one tiny crusty part where the last of it is healing.  His hearing is fantastic and no more ear plugs!  (Although we’re going to use it just a couple more weeks just to give the crusty part time to fully heal.)  I guess I built up getting a new ear plug a little too much, because Abe was quite sad when he learned that he wasn’t getting one.  At $35 a pop, I was ecstatic!  So instead we stopped at Half Price Books and Abe picked out some Berenstein Bear books.  Everyone’s happy.