A Bad Case of Ear Infections

Today Amyah had surgery on her ears. The ENT (ear, nose, & throat) doctor placed tubes in her ears. The last couple months has been pretty brutal for our two girls. Amyah's problem has hopefully been fixed. We are still working on Susie.

Going to doctor's appointments feels like an almost daily occurrence:
In total, we've gone to tons of appointments.
I took a tally, and I think my numbers are accurate:

Total doctor's appointments: 17 (since mid-Nov)
Surgery appointments: 1
Future planned appointments: 2

Starting around Halloween, Amyah came down with Croup. It lasted for quite a while. Right before Thanksgiving I took her to the doctor's a few times trying to diagnose the problem since she was still sick. At the time, she did not have any ear infections. But, her cough was pretty yucky. She was given a shot of Decadron (a steroid used to open the airway). The shot had no effect on her. We also took her to the hospital to have a nasal flow test done on her to see if she had RSV. The test came back negative. Assuming maybe she had a sinus infection, the doctor gave us a prescription for Amoxicillan. We finished the prescription, but still did not see any improvement.

She continued to be sick through Thanksgiving. By the beginning of December, she still was not feeling well. Finally, about 2 weeks into December, I took Amyah to the doctor's office again. She had not been sleeping well or eating well. This time, she had ear infections in both ears. Because she had already taken Amoxicillan, she was prescribed Omnicef (a much stronger antibiotic).

About two weeks later, the day right after Christmas, Susie came out of her room one night at about 9 o'clock crying and complaining that her ear hurt. The next morning when she woke up, her left ear was covered in yucky goo. Her ear drum had obviously burst. I took her to the pediatrician, who confirmed she actually had infections in both ears and prescribed Amoxicillan.

Later that same day, I decided to take Amyah back in just to make sure her ears were cleared up. Nope. Still infected. The doctor started her on a 3 day dosage of Rocephin by injection (shots). We finished up the shots, came back in a week later, and her ears had cleared! Yay!

By the time Susie had finished her 10 days on Amoxicillan, she still had a fever and was very cranky. I took her back in to the doctors--still infected, of course. She was put on Augmentin.

Just as Susie seemed to start feeling better, Amyah started getting really fussy and feverish again. I took her into an urgent care on both Saturday and Sunday (Jan 8 & 9). Both times her right ear had fluid in it, but no infection in either ear. We waited out the rest of the week and assumed she was just fussy because she was teething. By Friday, I had had it. She was sleeping terribly again and not eating well either. I took her to the doctor's once again, and once again her ears were infected. She was put back on Rocephin. I called the ENT as I drove away and set an appointment to see her Monday, Jan 17th.

At the ENT appointment, we decided to put tubes in Amyah's ears. The surgery was set for today, Jan 20th.

On Tuesday, Susie told me her ear was feeling weird. I took her back to the pediatrician just to make sure they were clear. I was wrong! Although Susie wasn't sick or feverish or in pain, her left ear was badly infected. They started her on another antibiotic...Omnicef. I took her to the ENT the next morning.

At the ENT visit, we decided since she wasn't in pain and since her hearing wasn't affected by the infection (an audiologist tested her while we were there), we would just let the infection try to resolve itself. The doctor was also very concerned the 3rd round of antibiotics would really hurt Susie's tummy. She told us to only take 5 days of it instead of 10 because 5 was a full dose. We left pretty confident in our decision.

Back to Amyah...
This morning, I woke up at 5, woke Amyah up at 5:30, and we were driving away at 5:40 am for her surgery. We were asked to arrive at 6:15. The surgery was planned for 7 am. The morning went as well as can be expected. Amyah could not eat anything before the surgery, so she was pretty fussy for the last 10 minutes before they came to get her. Then, when they brought her to me for recovery, she was inconsolable! Poor baby just kept crying and crying. I couldn't make her happy. Her bottle couldn't make her happy. Finally, they told me I could leave (even though she was still screaming--maybe they were tired of hearing her?). I packed Amyah into her car seat, she screamed off and on for half the car ride home, then fell asleep. Since waking up from that morning nap, she has been mostly back to normal. It feels so good to have that surgery behind me!

More about Susie...
Susie was up a couple times in the middle of the night last night. She now has a fairly high fever. And, her stomach is cramping and cramping from the antibiotics! I've set another appointment for her to see the ENT at the same time as Amyah's post op tomorrow. She only says her ear hurts every once in a while. It's not constant pain. But, she isn't feeling well. She has a fever now. I don't know what to do about my baby girl!

At least Amyah's situation has been resolved. Now we really need to figure out Susie!