Ears

We had appointment for both kids with the pediatriac ear, nose and throat doctor today. It seemed like a good idea to have Andy with the nurse practitioner at 9:40 followed by an appointment with the physician at 10:00, but it was a long-ish morning in their office.

Note to doctors everywhere -- you have good toys in the waiting rooms. Would it kill you to put some of those in the waiting rooms, too? Not a sermon, just a thought.

Andy went first. One tube was out and lodged in some ear wax (doesn't that sound disgusting). The other was also out, but still touching the ear drum. She took long tweezers, laid him out and pulled the left one out. The right one is no longer functional, but she said it would H-U-R-T to take it out so we've got an appointment in May to come take another look unless it falls out between now and then.

Meg then moved on to meet with the doctor. Based on her SIX ear infections in the past six months and her family history, my girl is a candidate for the surgery. We could schedule it today and have it done in March sometime. While I'm sold on tubes, the question now is when. They clearly changed Andy's life for the better, but she is just so young that I hesitate. Plus, we're coming on spring/summer when things are generally pretty clear up until the next fall and winter. So we could wait until the summer to get it done, she'd be 18 months then and since the tubes last a year, that would put her at 2 1/2 after that and hopefully ready to outgrow the problem (although Andy did get his first set at nearly 3).

All that said, if we could do the surgery now (well, March) and go ahead and knock it out, wouldn't that be all the better? Then if she does need another set after that, well, we'll just cross that bridge when we get there?

I think I need to sleep on it.