Ear Update

I took my youngest into the ENT doctor this week.  They didn’t do another hearing test, but a test that blows a puff of air into the ear and measures the movement of the ear drum.  His ear drum doesn’t move at all (it should) which means that there is a fluid build up behind the ear drum. 

Interestingly enough, the ENT thinks that the eczema that my son deals with could be related to this fluid as well as any snoring that he might do. 

The treatment options include: A) Waiting to see if the fluid goes away; B) Treating it with asthma/allergy medication which sometimes helps the fluid drain; C) Draining the fluid out and putting in tubes; and D) Removing the adenoids which are behind the tonsils and typically disappear in the teen years.

The doctor felt that if the fluid were to go away on it’s own that it would have happened by now.  So, we are treating it with medication for now.  He will do one week of medicine and then after another week we will go back in to see if it has made any difference.  If it has, we will either continue on treatment or possibly continue with tubes anyway.  If it has made no difference, we will decide between tubes and the adenoid removal. 

I have been asked if he has had a lot of ear infections.  Honestly, I don’t know. I wonder if he has had more than we have realized.  He hasn’t had many that we know of, but the ones that he has had we didn’t know he had until his ear drum ruptured (which has happened several times). He would never complain of ear pain and then suddenly, his ear would be oozing greenish goo.  (Nice image, huh. You’re welcome.)

Not too exciting but I thought I’d give an update anyway. We’re praying the medicine will do the trick!