Today, I took Dash to an ENT for a consultation on his many ear infections. As luck would have it, Dash has another cold, and, of course, both of his ears were full of fluid. The doc placed him on an antibiotic (FiFi medi again!) for two weeks, after which we return for a re-check and a hearing test. If the fluid's still there, or if it's not and the hearing test is poor, the doc recommends inserting drainage tubes since this is the fifth ear infection of the school year. Meanwhile, while we were there, the doc excavated a hunk of ear wax from Dash's right ear that was the size of my pinkie fingernail. Quite frankly, that's the closest to vomiting I've come in a long time, both because the chunk was disgusting and because I couldn't believe he pulled such a huge thing out of my little guy's ear. Needless to say, the little guy in question made no secret of his extreme dissatisfaction with this process, which must have hurt like hell. He started screaming "I don't want this doctor! Take me to Starbucks [next door] right now! I want chai! I don't want this doctor!" repeatedly.
Aside from the obvious getting-a-two-year-old-to-cooperate issues, there are several things that more or less suck about the possibilty (which I think is actually a probability) of Dash getting tubed. For starters, Dash received three rounds of anesthesia -- the max amount -- before an endoscopy a year ago and could not be knocked out. While he was dopey for the procedure, he pulled the scope out himself at the end, "a first" according to the doctor. Small babies, toddlers, kids and teenagers emerged from the same procedure sleeping and calm. Dash came out screaming "Go home! Get Vito's pizza right now!" And he didn't even nap that day. SO -- the prospect of him getting anesthetized, or not, again makes me rather nervous.
What also rattles me a bit is that I really like this doctor -- and I am big on gut feel -- but he is old. As in, his medical degree is from the University of Tehran, which means that he graduated before the Ayatollah happened. Someone in the local apothecary today told me that she saw him when he was relatively new in 1976. I was three in 1976. That was a long time ago. On the up-side, he is experienced, and, according to the NJ doctor list, he has no malpractice or other legal woes. On the down-side, he does this procedure at a hospital in Trenton that I do not like at all. It is an inefficient, dirty place with which we've had billing issues over basic ER visits. To have an actual procedure that involves an operating room and an anesthesiologist in addition to the doc means that there's even more room for a lot of insurance coding errors. Maybe we should just go to CHOP. How do I decide?
In any event, it feels like Progress Is Being Made, even if Dash is still sick, au pair Maria is throwing up, and I'm coming down with yet another cold. This is life, it seems, and life with kids involves things like endoscopies and ear tubes that I never could have predicted or can accept, really. I sort of feel like I have some cosmic due for breastfeeding two babies for 18+ months each, and that the asthma, ear infections, and strep throats I'm getting aren't what I deserve after all of that. BUT -- this isn't about me, this is about Dash, and, if ear tubes make him better, then ear tubes he will have. Of course, that means that he has to let the doctor near his ears again in two weeks. For once, I'm glad that I'm the mom and not the doctor!
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