 | Diary Navigation:
|
April 2, 2001
April 2nd 2004
(I still don't know how to get the correct date)
This is a diary entry I have not wanted to write. It is really nothing earth shattering, but somehow writing it down on paper makes it seem real.
Despite having tubes placed in Elise’s ears on December 31st, the ear infections have continued. I know there are worse things we could be dealing, but as a parent, you just hate having your little angel go through anything painful or difficult. I just have not wanted to admit that we are part of the statistically small percentage of people that do not get a significant reduction in ear infections following tube placement.
About 3 Weeks after surgery, she got one. The tube was blocked and when it did become unblocked (after 17 days on oral and ear drop anti-biotic) icky puss started coming out of her ear. But just two days after that it stopped draining. So then we went on several cycles of oral and drops. Two days off, the puss would start flowing again.
I do not want to seem negative about the tubes. I am not a medical expert by any means, but it is my understanding that hearing loss from chronic ear infections is usually caused by the infected, yucky fluid staying and hardening. Based on the goo that came out of her ears AFTER 17 DAYS on oral antibiotics when the tube was blocked, I think she would have always had that nastiness trapped in her cute little ears. So I think with the tubes we do have a better shot at preventing long term hearing loss.
In the meantime she had an allergic reaction (hives) to Cefzil. That also means they don’t want to give her Omnicef either. Great.
About two weeks ago, she got her most recent ear infection. This time the doctor said eardrops only. In my husband and my opinion the oral antibiotics were not improving things. Two days off and she would get another ear infection.
Today is her second day off the eardrops. We had her at the doctor for pink eye a couple of hours ago. Her ears are clear. Let’s hope she can go a few more days without another infection.
I will say it was nice this time to only have the eardrops and not the oral antibiotics. This cutie has been on 6 different oral antibiotics, all but one of those at least twice. We just hate that over exposure. I am kind of resigned to going 10 days on the ear drops, 2 to 4 off and then a new infection.
She has a bit of a cold. We had her 1-year-well check this past Friday. When I picked her up in the afternoon, she was beginning to get a fever. We opted to delay vaccinations until her next well check up. Our doctor’s office is very cool about things like that. I told her I was concerned about getting the shots even though her fever was only 99.3. The doctor said we could wait. After the exam, our doctor said that she was coming down with a virus and we should wait. It means a lot to me that the doctor was willing to go with my concern as a mother and would have supported a delay based on my concern alone.
Okay enough of the icky stuff, on with the good.
My little baby is a year old. We did not do anything major, just tortured her with an ice cream cake. My husband picked it out. She was cool with the icing, but screaming bloody murder when she got to the cold ice cream. It as very funny.
I can’t believe that Elise is a “toddler.” She is bald and small (17pounds 12 oz) so she still looks like a baby. She cruises everywhere. Turns chairs into walkers. However, she is not walking on her own.
It is strange because she has been cruising for months. We thought she was going to be an early walker. Her big sister did not cruise much at all. She was not walking on her birthday at the beginning of October, but by Halloween she was.
Lily is still a great big sister. She really wants Elise to play with her. There are times she gets frustrated if Elise is not doing what Lily wants. She tries to get me to make Elise do what Lily wants. Lily likes for them to be shut in the bottom of a book case cabinet. The only stuff we keep in there are kids books. It is kind of hard to explain to a 3 ½ year old who wants to be shut in a dark cabinet that not every wants to play that game.
Lily has a huge imagination. She is always trying to get us to play characters she has seen on TV or read in a book. The other day we read something about a kangaroo, the next thing I knew Lily (who had taken her shirt off to eat dinner) had the head of a stuffed dog sticking out of her shorts, saying it was her baby Joey.
The Child Care facility where we have Lily is having an outside organization conduct a Literacy screening. We have having Lily take part. It is going to cost $23 and it does hearing, vision, cognitive and behavioral. Apparently, in the past the screening picked up mild autism in a 4-year-old whose family did not know that he had it. It also looks like they are very experienced in Dyslexia. It will be interesting to see her evaluation. I have no reason to believe that she has hearing problems, but she too had a decent amount of ear infections, so I do think it is important to get tested. Plus most of my family (including me) wears glasses. This screening apparently takes 4 hours. It is made up of a lot of different stations where the kids work on activities, sometimes interacting with other kids.
It is also fun to see Lily develop real friendships. She has always had friends, but now she has this one little girl that she runs with all the time. They don’t play together 100% of the time but I think it is a good 80%.
Thanks for reading; sorry I was so long winded.
Oh, and I want to welcome Jeanette back to Mom’s Today. That shows you how bad I have been about keeping up with the diaries, I was happily surprised to see her back!
 |  |
|
want to keep a diary on iParenting?
Authoring a diary on the iParenting network allows you to chronicle your family's story, preserving it for years to come. It's also a great way to get the most out of the iParenting community. Click here to start...
|
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families. 
