Double Ear Infections=a Milestone????

Sick little Bobaloo

It started about 9 days ago when I noticed Noah was sleeping more.  He normally stays awake until 7-8pm but was falling soundly asleep around 5pm and I couldn't keep him awake.  I noticed a new tooth was coming in and chalked it up to this.  Then last Sunday we were meeting some friends for an outdoor concert that was in the mountains.  I naively thought that since it was in the mountains it would be cooler instead of the blistering heat that stood in the valley.  I was beyond wrong.

We were surprised that Noah actually slept in which was odd but woke up relatively happy.  We loaded the van with his arsenal of stuff but decided to leave his many cool packs/towels/fans at home since we were after all heading into the mountains.

Two seconds into his carseat he threw up everywhere and we couldn't get him to stop.  We were fighting whether we should continue to go or not but after he was cleaned off he seemed fine, so we cleaned the van and headed out.

We loaded his stroller full of his many bags and met up with our friends to enjoy a nice afternoon of music and fun.  We lasted all about five minutes...if that.

Noah started to fuss and cry.  The weather was much hotter than I had expected so Jer and I took turns carrying him indoors where the air-conditioning made for a much  more enjoyable experience.  However, when it was my turn Noah just screamed bloody murder and I didn't know what was wrong.  He was burning up and his face was as red as a lobster.  I sat on some couches in the basement of this lodge trying to pretend to all those walking by me that I had things under control when I honestly didn't. 

Needless to say we loaded back up in the van and headed home a mere 40 minutes after we arrived.  The entire 50 minute ride home was full of retching and gagging and screaming and whimpering.  I felt so bad for our little man. 

The second our garage door shut I had Noah out of the carseat and stripped down to a diaper.  105.7 was what the thermometer was reading and the puking that followed brought me to the conclusion that Noah had the flu. 

For four days straight Jeremy and I fought a losing battle against this fever.  We were running off literally a couple hours of sleep each night and rotating motrin and tylenol every few hours just to keep his temp below 105.  Noah's bedroom floor became a campsite made out of towels, buckets, and cool rags.

We struggled with bringing him to his pediatrician because in the past 20 months of Noah's life we have received the exact same treatment plan for every fever or chill.  Keep him hydrated, give him tylenol or motrin, do cool baths and cool wrags, ect. 

Working full time means that I have less opportunities to get Noah to an unscheduled appointment. However, after the third day of this temperature reappearing every few hours despite the fact that we now had a way to keep him well hydrated (gtube), I knew it was just time to take him in. 

I woke up that morning and to my surprise Noah's temp was only at 99.9.....much lower than the past few days.  Did his fever just break?  Do I take him in now?  He actually felt so much cooler than normal and he didn't puke once in the past 30 hours....maybe he is on the mend and it was only a simple flu bug. 

So, I went to work and Noah went to his aunts house for the day.  Everything was going okay until I get a call that Noah was in this total scream-fest out of the blue.  I dropped everything I was doing at work and rushed him to the doctor.  Jeremy met me there because we knew something was just not right. 

As murphy's law would have it we pulled up into the parking lot of the doctors office to have Noah smiling, and kicking happily, and cutely babbling, and acting like he just pulled one over on his parents.  It was ridiculous!  All these days of struggling on what to do, if what we were doing was right, if we were bad for not immediately bringing him back into yet another doctor, leaving work last second.....uh.  Then when we finally do take him in Noah is all happy and chipper and a total angel.  Even the receptionist commented on how cute he was and how well he was doing for be "SO sick" as I had stated to her over the phone. 

Since it was a last minute appointment the doc was running a bit late.  I finally told Jeremy to leave and go back to work since Noah obviously was okay now.  After some convincing he did and I waited another 15 minutes until our doc came in. 

Noah was all super cute and adorable and continued to make a big liar out of me.  UNTIL....Dr. Z took a long look in his ears and pulled out what could only be described as a cherry sized mound of earwax (not literally but it was still massive).  After digging his way into his ear canal he noticed that Noah had a major ear infection in one ear and a minor ear infection in the other. 

Of course like any mother might feel I left the office with mixed emotions. On one end I felt horrible for not getting him into the doc beforehand.  On the other I felt happy that Noah had something that could actually be treated. 

This is a milestone for Noah.  In all 20 months since his birth and throughout every single hospital stay we have had he has never once been prescribed antibiotics for a simple "typical" child condition.  Not saying that we are celebrating this because double ear infections are not fun for anyone involved. However, it was an ear infection that lead to a high fever which in turn made him nauseous and caused vomiting.  It wasn't some crazy hormone imbalance or undiagnosed virus or infection or backed up GI tract. 

Noah got sick....just like any other child could with something any other child gets.  We left the office with a real solid treatment plan of 6ml of Amoxicillan 2x daily for 14 days.  This is the first time ever that we left a doctors office with a definite plan of action and one that had a start and stop date and an outcome to look forward to.  WHAT A RELIEF!!!!