Ears, ears, ears!

OK so I don't really think of it as a disability as such, but I guess it is, and it's certainly a source of frustration so I thought I'd start a thread for us lucky mums of kids with ear problems to share that frustration!

The gremlins have had continuous ear infections, Mercedes started with a ruptured ear drum at 5 mths and Sienna wasn't far behind. Mercedes got her first lot of grommets at 9 mths, Sienna at 11 mths. Since then they've been plagued by infections, sometimes so bad that the gunk pours out of their ears all over their clothes, poor little things. Lots of pain which is probably one of the reasons they don't sleep well and we've been making regular trips to Starship to have their ears suctioned. They recognise it now when they get out of the lift and scream coz they hate it

They had their second lot of grommets put in two weeks ago today and Mercedes has already lost one . Spoke to their specialist this afternoon and he said their ears are some of the worst he has ever seen (and he runs the paed ENT clinic at Starship so he sees a lot of ears ). He wants them to have a blood test to check for immune disorders to rule out any underlying problems but he said he thinks they are just really unlucky with the shape of their eustachean tubes.

So far thankfully Mercedes hearing doesn't seem to have been affected, she's having another hearing test next week but it doesn't seem to be a problem, but Sienna's last hearing test a few months ago showed a small degree of high frequency loss. It means she still hears OK, but not wonderfully and it's been enough to affect her speech. We saw the speech therapist yesterday and she's given us some strategies to implement at home to encourage her language development.

Soooo... that's our story. I'm sure there are others who can relate!

ETA: my bad, it's high frequency not low frequency loss, means she has trouble isolating sounds from background noise.

Edited by Maya

My poor Sienna The discharge from her ear stinks, it must be really nasty She was sitting on my knee and I could smell this awful smell but it wasn't the usual dirty nappy smell, then I realised it was coming from her ear. Must be from the infection. It's not copiously discharging but it's so yucky. Have dosed her on paracetamol and tucked her up with Willie coz she wouldn't settle and will ring the specialist in the morning. It can't go on like this, I hate to think how much pain she is in

Edited to fix my England...

Edited by Maya

They've fitted her in to tomorrows clinic, they couldn't get a space today. Have been dosing her up on pamol and nurofen to try and keep the pain at bay and gave her some phenargan to help her sleep poor girl

Poor Sienna   I hope she gets some relief from this soon

Well, we are just at the beginning of this rollercoaster journey of ear problems.
Samantha has pretty much had constant ear infections for the past few months. Every time you get the all clear within days they are back with a vengence. We are yet to see a specialist yet, but I am in the process of changing doctors and am hoping if this pattern continues hopefully we can see one soon!

Emma, it has to have a lot to do with the sleep trouble because I have gone from a child that slept 12+ hours a night to one that is lucky to sleep an hour at a time without waking up screaming!   Ugh - EARS!!!!!!

How did your appointment go today Emma?
I really hope they can do something for Sienna, its just not right that she's still going through all this pain!

Woohoo Emma. 2 whole weeks problem free!

Well Sam is doing ok. We switched doctors and the new one is fantastic. He only needed to have one look at her ears before recommending Sam see a specialist. She has very bad glue ear which is really effecting her speech now so the hope is that we can get it sorted asap. His opinion was that she will most likely need grommets.
So the appointment is next Friday with the specialist. Hopefully a decision will be made then and we are not made to wait another few months

Here's to a ear problem free summer for all our girls!

We have the specialist tomorrow. Wish us luck

I have this horrible fear that I am going to go and pay huge amounts of money for this appointment and her ears are going to be fine

Ugh, just got back from the specialist.
Sam's ears are quite bad apparently and the specialist didn't really see any options apart from Grommets. He didn't want to leave it over Summer to see if they would clear up as it is clearly effecting her speech already.

So surgery is booked for the 3rd November. Man, it is happening faster than I expected. My poor baby

Emma, you were going to tell us how the hearing test went?

Edited by Mum2Sam

Yay for Sienna passing her hearing test - that is brilliant news
It's pretty scary to think they can't hear isn't it. The specialist yesterday said that Sam's right ear is so bad that he would be very surprised if she can hear out of it at all at the moment.
It does explain why she seems to have more selective hearing than usual though

I am really glad it is all going ahead so quickly. My Mummy instinct knew something wasn't right. It makes me very glad I changed doctors! I think if I hadn't we would still be on the rollercoaster of antibiotics and ear infections!

So I guess no more swimming lessons