Last week we had the appointment with the ENT for Peanut’s ears.
We arrived and had to wait for over 30 minutes. Not impressive but we do get spoiled by our family doctor and the fact that he’s 90% of the time on time. I think it’s a rarity with most doctors.
Once in the examining room we didn’t have to wait too long. The doc came in, looked at her chart (on a tablet PC…kinda impressive), confirmed why we were there. She looked at Peanut’s ears, throat and up her nose.
And that’s the kicker. Right now she’s fine. No infections, and no hearing loss. Yay!
However, if she is to get lots of infections again, the only thing that she can do for her is give her tubes.
Yikes! I said that’s not really what we wanted.
The doc explained that kids eustachian tubes are small and don’t work properly as they are still developing. So when Peanut gets an infection, the eustachian tube can’t do it’s job properly and drain the ear.
I found this online…
Ear infections are more common in children because their eustachian tubes are shorter, narrower, and more horizontal than in adults, making the movement of air and fluid difficult. Bacteria can become trapped when the tissue of the eustachian tube becomes swollen from colds or allergies. Bacteria trapped in the eustachian tube may produce an ear infection that pushes on the eardrum causing it to become red, swollen, and sore.
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| Image from here: http://health.allrefer.com/health/otitis-media-acute-eustachian-tube.html |
So as you can see from the the pic, she most likely will out grow this. In the mean time, we try to keep her healthy. If she gets an infection, then we’ll try to hold off on antibiotics if we can. But if the infections get too frequent or too serious, then to reduce the risk of permanent damage, she needs to get tubes.
Next step is to figure out how to boost her immune system to fight the ear infections better or not get them at all!
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