Monday, February 2, 2009

What I Learned During the Superbowl - Don't Freak Out if Blood is Ozing From Your Child's Ear


It was Sunday afternoon. We were all ready to sit down and watch the big game. Conor had a cold for the past few days, but we had been able to control his coughing with the nebulizer, and he seemed on the road to recovery. (Yes, any time the asthmatic child gets sick, it is always a deal. I hear someone sneeze and immediately ask "Who is it?" If the response is Michael or Natalie, I always think oh good. Not good for them, but at least it is not Conor) I thought all was well, when he starts screaming about a terrible pain in his ear. After I force him to drink his chocolate milk spiked with ibuprofen, I realize it is time to toss him into the car and head over to the local after hours pediatric clinic. For those of you that don't have one of these places, I feel for you. It is just like a pediatricians office that is open from 5-10 pm during the week, and 10-10 weekends and holidays. It truly is one of the greatest inventions of all time, and cures the problem of what to do when your child decides they are sick first thing Saturday morning, and your Dr is not open again until Monday, and you really don't think it is that worth of the ER.


So I bribe my sweet little thing into the car with 2 cookies, and his sister decides to come along for the ride because she has no interest in watching football, and would rather watch her little brother get poked and prodded. We finally reach our destination and go into the office. The doctor comes in, and looks in his ear, looks at me, and proclaims that his eardrum is about to burst. OK, between my three children we have probably had about 10 ear infections and no one has ever mentioned the possibility of an eardrum bursting. Even better, she told me if the eardrum did burst, Conor would probably have blood and puss oozing from his ear. Cool!!! No doctor ever told me of this possibility either. If I woke up in the middle of the night to my screaming child with blood oozing out of his ear, I would probably freak out and rush to the emergency room.


Little did I know, that although a burst eardrum is not a good thing, it is not that bad, and usually relieves the pain and heals by itself. No one ever told me these evil ear infection possibilities. If they did, they could probably save alot of crazed worried parents some panic when dealing with their oozing ear infected children.


So just in case you want to learn more about this cool phenomena of eardrum bursting and puss and blood here is a link or two.








Thankfully we seem to have caught the ear infection just in time, and so far I have not seen anything oozing (I like that word), out of ears. (Noses are another story though) We are on the cool antibiotic that takes less time (the one good thing about being allergic to penicillin) and are hopefully on the mend.

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