First Ever Ear Infection

Yesterday was a semi-eventful day. It started out with the kids getting up around 5:00 a.m. (yikes!) Thankfully I got Ryan back to bed until 7 a.m. He seemed to be feeling much better. However, occasionally he would still tell me his throat hurt. I didn't think much of it since he started to eat again and overall was in a playful mood. Around 3:45 p.m. he had handed me the temporal artery thermometer that he thinks is his own personal toy, so I took his temperature. It came back at 99.7, and this thermometer has proved in the past to be very reliable. I know that isn't much of a fever, but the fact that he's been running even a slight fever off and on since Saturday along with this sore throat said to me something must be wrong. Since it was still only 4 p.m. I called his pediatrician to see if they could fit him in the next day. Unfortunately the way things work here, they don't have anything until MONDAY!!!! So they tell me my only option is an urgent care clinic. You have to love the way military health insurance is used. The system almost forces us to use the emergency clinic for things that aren't real emergencies. This is very, very different than how I was raised, so I have such difficulty grasping this concept. I had a mini freakout, and got ready to go. My meltdown was not for worry about Ryan, but rather worry that they'd look at me like I had 3 heads for bringing him to the emergency clinic.

We arrived and they seemed welcoming and it didn't look like too long a wait. I have to say that in the few times we've been to this clinic, they've always been really great about seeing people without making them wait 6 hours like it was at our last post. While we waited to be seen, Ryan was showing the obnoxious side of himself. I am sure the guy running triage thought that he was fine and that I was crazy. When we finally saw the doctor, I explained that it seemed to be his throat and his ear may be the cause. She looked at his ears and right away saw that one was infected. In one way I was breathing a sigh of relief that I wasn't crazy. The doctor was shocked when I told her he'd never been prescribed any meds before. We got him some antibiotics and ear drops. Hopefully he won't have any reactions and will start healing very soon.

I feel like a pretty bad mother though. I wish I had taken him in sooner. It kills me to think that I made him wait so long in pain. However, I will come to my own defense and say that 95% of the time he was saying his throat hurt. I thought he had a sore throat, and usually those go away on their own. The other 5% of the time he would tell me something hurt, but it varied between his ear, arm, leg, and belly. At least now I know when he tells me sore throat that it may mean an ear infection.

Since this was Ryan's first ear infection I was clueless. But here is an interesting ==>LINK<==

that gives some facts that I didn't know like: the common cause of ear infections is the common cold, and it says in young children that get colds 61% end up with ear infections. Ryan's last cold was a bad one so I'm sure that contributed.

I should add that Sean was a trooper through this whole visit. I am sure he didn't want to be there and was hungry, but he never cried at all. He's such an easy baby, thankfully. And of course I could point out the fact that I've survived all this without Pat being around....cause that's what Army wives do ;)