Lurking

Harrison is teetering on the line of ear infection # 13...it's closely lurking it's way in.

I am convinced nothing and I repeat NOTHING is ever going to keep this child healthy.

Over the past 3 weeks there hasn't been a day without a runny nose, but other than that he has been relatively healthy. You could say, "kids have runny noses," which is completely true...but to toddler with a history of ear infections this is NOT GOOD NEWS.

Last night it took more than an hour to settle Harrison for bed. He rolled on the floor SCREAMING. I was finally able to rock him to sleep. Doug and I talked about the possibility of him having a bad headache or something.

This morning when Harrison woke up he was consumed with crabbiness. I decided to peek in his left ear (which is usually the ear infection side) and I didn't see anything. I took his temperature which was a low grade 99.2 (which could also be elevated due to the warm air temps). Just before I left the house to go to work this morning I decided to take a look at his ears again. To my surprise he had dried blood in his right ear. The drainage hadn't been there the night before when I bathed him.

Doug took Harrison to urgent care this morning to get confirmation of infection so we could collaborate with his ENT. At the urgent care appt. in turned out that he had no fluid in his right ear but did have some in his left ear. This was weird. We ended up placing a phone call to Dr. Case (the ENT). The good news is that Harrison's ears are draining (which was the bloody drainage) meaning the tubes are doing their job. The not so good news? The fluid is too thick (if it stays this thick he will certainly get an ear infection). We are starting a coarse of medicated drops to help thin out the sludge and make it fluid like again. If the bloody drainage consists through the weekend he will need to be seen at Gundersen on Monday.

Tonight Harrison had more bloody drainage from the right side and bedtime was another HUGE struggle. Are we optimistic the drops will work? We have no other choice but to hope.

For myself...I am thankful for the longest stretch of healthiness Harrison has had in more than a year. I got to see a glimpse of a healthy toddler and it's seriously one of the best feelings in this world.