Back to the doctor

Today was Ryland's follow up appointment with the pediatrician. We had prepared to be referred to an ENT doctor, because we had noticed Ryland pulling at his ear over the weekend. We saw the Ms. Linda, the nurse practitioner, and she said he had a double ear infection again. This makes 7 ear infections in a little under 11 months. RIDICULOUS! She wanted to try one more antibiotic before we go to the specialist. I agreed to give it a shot.

The new medicine can only be found at a compounding pharmacy. This was a new endeavour to me and I was very unsure. Luckily, our friend Sharon is a pharmacist at a local compounding pharmacy. She was happy to help and warned me that it tasted terrible. She tried it, and said it was disgusting.

Later that afternoon, I gave him the medicine and he very quickly spit it right back out. I couldn't even get anything in him to chase it. I tried this evening again, and he threw up everywhere. John Chris and I both tried a little taste of the medicine and it is terrible. We will continue to try.

Ear infections in children are very common; however, if a child has repeat infections usually a specialist will put tubes in the ears. Antibiotics can clear the infection, but sometimes the fluid stays in the ear canal. The process then starts all over if the fluid remains. A way for the fluid to drain is to have tubes put in the ear. The doctor puts a small straw like tube in the ear canal and through the ear drum. The fluid then drains out the tube. Gross and painful sounding but can sometimes be very effective.