Ear update

Well our poor little Jarem is sick again. He started showing some cold symptoms last Wednesday. I had hoped it was just teething but he got worse as the week came to an end. By Friday he had a full blown cold. Runny nose, cough and of course, ear pain. We watched the entire weekend as Jarem seemed to pull or hit at his right ear more and more. I was hoping it was just because the tubes were bothering him and he was still adjusting from the surgery. But listening to our better judgment, we decided to call the doctor. Jarem’s two week post-op follow-up was supposed to be on Wednesday. So we just asked if we could move his Wednesday appointment to Monday. Being that we have such an awesome doctor now, they easily switched our appointment. Eric kept Jarem home with him all day since he’s on Spring Break this week and had no homework to work on. Then we all made the long drive up to Scottsdale to see Jarem’s Ear, Nose and Throat specialist.

Dr. Josen looked in Jarem’s left ear first which is the ear we were less worried about. He cleaned it out a little and got a good look at it. Jarem was such a good boy! He laid there as three people held him down and his poor little ear got poked in. Eric was daddy of the century (again) by singing nursery rhymes to Jarem in order to keep his attention off the doctor digging in his ear. Jarem lay there perfectly still and enjoyed the awesome show his daddy was putting on. Dr. Josen finished the left ear off with a few drops in the canal. After the left ear, we moved to the right ear.

The right ear was worse than the left. After a preliminary inspection the doctor decided he needed to clean out Jarem’s ear more thoroughly. He used an ear vacuum for lack of the technical term. It is the equivalent of what a dentist uses to suck the spit out of your mouth when you get a cleaning. It’s loud and annoying but quite useful. Jarem wasn’t a fan of this part but still laid there like a tough boy. The doctor cleaned out Jarem’s ear and then put some drops in this ear, too. From there it was all cuddles and smiles from our baby boy.

What Dr. Josen told us is that basically since Jarem is so congested, his mucus membranes are full. The tubes were doing their job by pushing the fluid out of his ear. In this case, the fluid was mucus. No wonder Jarem was batting at his ear all weekend! I can’t imagine having snot in my ears! Dr. Josen gave us the drops to continue at home and also prescribed a steroid for Jarem. It’s not an Incredible Hulk type of steroid. It’s a mild steroid to help clear up the congestion and mucus from his system.

We go back to the doctor next Thursday for another follow-up with Dr. Josen. Since Jarem had mucus in his ears, we didn’t do a hearing test yet. I’m excited to do that when he’s all better to see what effect the tubes have had there. All in all we left the doctor feeling blessed. Blessed that we have such a great little boy that is tough yet still let us know he was uncomfortable. He didn’t scream uncontrollably or stay awake all night; he simply played with his ears a little and asked for extra cuddles from mommy and daddy. We know Jarem is a great baby and that we are so blessed with how tough he has been through all of this.

We also left the doctor feeling validated as parents. We felt validated that we trusted our judgment and called the doctor. We felt validated when the doctor told us we did the right thing and it’s a good thing that we came in. We felt validated that Jarem still loved us even after putting him through all these darned doctor’s visits. (But can you blame him? We are pretty lovable. JUST KIDDING! Hehe)

And last, but most importantly, we left feeling blessed that we have a great doctor that cares for Jarem and is helping us get him healthy. Thank you God for keeping watch over us always. We appreciate all of our blessings…


Here are a couple pictures Eric took yesterday before leaving for Jarem's doctor appointment.