We visited the pediatrician with Luke today. As many of you know, over the past few months we have been to the Dr. with Luke quite a few times due to his ear infection troubles.
In early November Luke got his first ear infection and was put on amoxycillin. Michael always had tons of trouble with his ears as a kid, but we were hopeful since this was Luke's first bout and Michael's infections started earlier in his life.
Well, by the weekend after Thanksgiving we were back to see the Dr., only to find that both of Luke's ears were infected. He was put on a round of augmentin.
The weekend before Christmas we were back at the pediatrician's. It was determined that his ears "may" have been infected, but the eardrums were covered by wax so the Dr. was not able to see. He was diagnosed with tonsillitis, and we decided just to ride the virus out and hope that the ears didn't become an issue since he had already been on two rounds of antibiotics in a short span of time. We re-visited the Dr. again on Dec. 23rd because Luke's balance seemed so off and just to be sure that we were safe through the holiday, which we were.
Luke made it through the holidays, but we were back at the Dr.'s last Monday with a fever. His ears were washed and looked mildly infected, so he was put back on amoxycillin again. At this point, we are just so frustrated because we want him to be well.
So, today's appointment brought both good and bad news: the bad, his left ear is very infected again. He hasn't shown any recent symptoms, probably because of the amoxicillin. The good news, his right ear looks normal and the rest of his checkup went great. His language development is ahead for his age (a very good thing since the ear troubles can cause hearing loss ... it seems like Luke is still hearing fine, but may miss out on some specific sound frequencies). He weighs 24lbs, 2 oz (25th percentile), and is 33 inches tall (75th percentile).
Where do we go from here? That was obviously our first question to his pediatrician. It is obvious that the infection in his ear is not responding to the amoxycillin that he's on, so she gave us a prescription for augmentin. We will only fill it if he starts exhibiting signs of discomfort or is running a fever. This will give it time to go away if it is just viral. In the meantime, we will be back to visit her in 6 weeks. If his ears don't look good at that check up, we will be visiting an ENT specialist to discuss putting tubes in.
Send Luke your good thoughts for healthy ears!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment