Yet, another trip to the Doctor...

We went to the ENT yesterday. Kennedy had her left tube, that was not functional, extracted. Poor thing lay still as could be and cried while they pulled it out. She had me in tears. (I can not brag enough about how amazing she was and did not try and pull away at all. The doctor was very impressed with her.) Where the tube had been there was swelling and irritation. Once it was removed her ear started bleeding again. Most of the time the tubes fall out and you do not have to have them extracted, but of course we once again fall in the small percentage of times where they do not. The Doctor told us to use the antibiotic ear drops to help the hole heal and not get infected. He thought it would be best to wait awhile for another set of tubes. He didn't want to throw her into another surgery. I am glad that he suggested this. I think that she has had enough done for right now. He then sent us down for a hearing test and to take a picture of the ear drum. Kennedy was terrified. There was a lady from my old ward that did the hearing test. She was so kind and patient with all of us. I am so glad she was there. (I really feel that she was there for us today. She never works and she is only on call when they can not find anyone else.) Kennedy's hearing was in the lower range of normal, but she told me that these tests can be difficult for little children. Kennedy ended up raising her hand when there were not any beeps being sent to her headset...so it could actually be better than the test results or it could be worse. It is too hard to actually know how many she actually heard and how many she thought that she was suppose to hear. When we went up to talk to the ENT about the results and he felt they were good and he was happy with them. I was too. We will do another hearing test when she is older. Jacob was checked and he still has fluid and puss in his ears. He said that Jacob did need tubes. I asked if we could wait a while and he did not suggest it. He said he needed to be put on antibiotics until we could get him in for the surgery. I was a little hesitant to put him on more antibiotics for another 3 weeks just because he has been on them for the last 3 months straight. After calling and talking with his Pediatrician I felt more confident about putting him on antibiotics. (I needed a second opinion. None of the 4 previous medications where working I wasn’t really understanding why he needed more. All it seemed like the antibiotics were doing was giving him diarrhea and a terrible diaper rash. Instead of his ears just hurting he was having his bum hurting too!) Our Pediatrician went on to explain that he needed the antibiotics to keep his ears from getting any worse. Jacob’s Surgery date is January 4th.As bad as this sounds, I can not wait until his ears heal because I am going CRAZY!! I am not sure how much crying, whining and grumpiness I can take. Just a funny spin on this, while Kennedy was waiting for the ENT to come back in the room to extract the tube after they put these drops in her ear to soft the ear drum so the tube would come out easier. Maddie was holding Kennedy’s hand telling her, “It is okay Kennedy. It is probably going to hurt really badly, but you will be okay. And it's okay if the doctor makes a mistake because it is okay to make mistakes.” Kennedy held her hand tighter while tears fell down her face.