Caleb had fluid in both of his ears, and Dr. T. said that he was unable to tell at this point if it was a viral or bacterial infection. He asked me about Caleb's ear history (which I shared here in my post Thursday), and from there we started talking about possibly getting the tubes in and the adenoids removed. He wanted Caleb to take a hearing test and a tympanometry. He led Caleb down the hall to a sound-proof room (which I believe every mother should have in their house! Bliss!). In the room, I held him in my lap while a lady put some headphones on his ears and explained that we'd play some hearing games. She was outside the booth, and she said words into a microphone, which Caleb could hear in his headphones. He had to repeat each word she said. He did great, but he did miss a couple. Then she came in the room and did the tympanometry--a test where they put a device in his ear for a few seconds and basically see how his ear drum responds to different amounts of air pressure. (Sounds weird, but it's painless. He's had it done before at the doctor's office.) He failed this test pretty miserably. From what I understand, Caleb is hearing things right now kind of like he was underwater--noises sound a bit garbled.
So we talked to Dr. T. for another minute, during which he confirmed that Caleb should have the tubes in and the adenoid removed. We went to check out and schedule his surgery. Here, we dealt with a lady on the office staff who was rude and treated me like I was stupid, but I won't even get into that here.
We scheduled his surgery for Thursday, 5/21 at one of our hospitals here in town. It's an outpatient procedure, so if things go normally he'll be home that afternoon.
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We got home from the doctor and Caleb mostly just laid around and watched TV. I put him on my bed with his pillow and his nap mat from school.
I thought he'd take a nap in the morning, but he ended up staying awake until his normal rest time after lunch. I let him sleep from 2:00 until 4:30, then I went in to see if I could wake him up. He was absolutely burning up. I scooped him up and took him to the living room and rocked with him for a few minutes. I got out 2 different thermometers and took his temperature. 104.2!!! And keep in mind that this is underarm temperature, which is about half to one degree lower than an oral temperature. AND Caleb's normal temperature is a degree below the average normal temperature (just like me--our norm is 97.6 instead of 98.6). So this was like having about 106 in the average person. I got a bit worried.
Dr. T. hadn't given us any prescriptions for Caleb's ear infections. I assumed that it was because he thought it might be viral, and he didn't want to prescribe an antibiotic for a viral infection. But I called our normal pediatrician (at 5:00 on a Friday!) and she was worried like I was about his high fever. She immediately prescribed some Augmentin for Caleb.
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That brings us to today, Saturday. I sit here typing at 8:08 in the morning and Caleb is still asleep. He slept all through the night for the first time since Tuesday. Hopefully he's on the mend and will be back to his normal self soon.
Isaac, on the other hand, kept me up during the night, tossing and turning, coughing and sniffling...
