Double Ear Infection

Last Sunday, Jack had a fever of 102 degrees. It went up and down over the next couple of days, but he had a pretty bad cough. Enough that occasionally he'd cough so hard he'd gag and throw up. By Wednesday, he was still sick so I called to get an appointment to see our PCP. Of course they had nothing that day, so at 9am Thursday, Jack saw the PCP -- who not only said he had a double ear infection, but that both the tubes in his ears were out of place.

Great... so clearly something went wrong between the ENT appointment last month and now. Then, the ENT said the tubes were blocked and gave us medicine to remove the blockage. But according to the PCP now, there is still blockage and the tubes moved.

So I placed an urgent call to the ENT, pleaded our case and they "opened" up a spot for us Friday morning. According to him, the ear infection is gone but there is fluid behind the ears (I'm interpreting that there was an ear infection but it is going away and the fluid is the residual affect from it). The ENT thinks both tubes are making their way out of the ear. Apparently there are 3 "layers" in the ear that the tubes need to work their way through -- in addition to the blockage / wax in the ears. The ENT agreed neither tube is doing its function.

Now the plan is to wait for the tubes to make their way out on their own. And do a follow up appointment in 3 months. The ENT is wary of just saying to put in new tubes now because Jack's ear drums are weak and the ENT doesn't want to put more stress on them with new tubes. The protocol is tubes go in if there are 3 ear infections in 6 months or fluid stays in the ears for 3 months. Jack had an ear infection in November and now. So if he has another one by May; he'll need tubes. Or if Jack still has fluid in his ears by our next appointment in May; he'll need tubes.


Many thanks to Scott who has carted the kiddos around to all of Jack's appointments. Which by the way, we're already at 4 dr. appointments in January and 5 in February. I'd much rather see this trend go down instead of up.