Double Trouble

We went into the pediatrician's office this morning for Nora's ear "recheck" appointment from her latest ear infection diagnosis two weeks ago. I had an inkling that things were not going to go well.

Sadly, we've gotten pretty good at diagnosing Nora's ear infections on our own, just by observing her behavior and her general demeanor. She's usually not miserable, but she's just not herself. A little moody. With a short fuse. Occasional rubbing of the ears. Interrupted sleep.

That last one has always been a tell-tale sign. On Saturday night, she was up--wide awake--for three hours in the middle of the night. Fun times, I tell you.

Anyway, the doctor took a look at one ear and sighed, "That one is a mess." And then she looked in the other one, "That one's not good either."

Let's back up here. December 22: Left ear. January 9: Right ear. January 23: Both ears. The last two were diagnosed at appointments that were supposed to be "rechecks"--in other words, appointments to confirm that infections had cleared. Our poor girl has not been ear infection free since well before Christmas.

The kicker this time was that she had been on Omnicef, which is considered a broad spectrum (a.k.a. strong) antibiotic--because amoxicillin hadn't been doing the job. Now, it appears Omnicef isn't working, either. So, the doctor opted to give Nora injectable antibiotics.

INJECTABLE. Antibiotics.

They're the big guns, y'all. Not cool.

We have to go back tomorrow to have her ears reevaluated, because apparently, these antibiotics are so good that we should see marked improvement in just 24 hours. At that point, the doctor will decide if she needs another round. Rinse and repeat for Wednesday. Poor little Nora is going to be traumatized, I fear. Needless to say, she was not thrilled with the two needles that were stuck into her chubby little thighs this morning.

We also walked out with an ENT referral. We're at the end of our rope with this stuff. We want our baby to get better. We've looked into chiropractors, and it is just not a feasible solution for us right now. We've considered the dairy sensitivity, and will be talking to our doctors about that a bit more, but overall, we're just happy to have the appointment with the ENT (next week) to get a formal evaluation of her condition, and go from there. This isn't the way we wanted this to turn out, but we just want to put an end to this endless sea of ear infections, trips to the doctor, and antibiotics.

Baby steps.