ENT Update: Okay, first the good news. I didn't need bail money. Now the even better news. James's ears are MUCH improved from the last
time we were there. Now for the AMAZING
and somewhat DISTURBING news. Doc believes he may have found
the source of the major mass that was in James's right ear. Lemme just start at the beginning.
We arrived at the office a little before 3 and
receptionist assured us that the doctor was on time with patients. Fast forward to a little after 5 o’clock and
we finally moved from the waiting room to a patient room. We are sitting there in the quiet room when
James’s nether regions make a noise that sounds like a cross between an angry
honey badger and a volcano that is seconds from explosion. (Colitis is a blast. Pun intended) I grabbed James’s hand and we
make a seriously mad dash for the bathroom.
Phew, we made it. So after the
business and paperwork are complete in the loo, I am thinking to myself “man, I
sure feel bad for the next poor scrub who has to come in here”. It’s at that moment that I notice an air freshener
dispenser up on the wall, near the door.
It looks like one that you press on it and it squirts a tiny blast of
air freshener into the air. So…. I reached up, with one finger and press in gently
on the bottom and lo and behold, the entire freaking contraption leaps from the
wall and comes crashing down on my poor child, who just so happened to be
looking directly up to see what kind of ridiculous mischief Mom was getting
into. It landed squarely onto his
precious little upturned face. He, of
course, immediately buries his face in his hands and I just know I’ve mangled
his poor little nose. I start to move
his hands away from his face, all the while repeating “I’m so sorry baby! I’m so so sorry! Let me see. Jamie, I’m sorry, sorry, sorry!” When I peel his hands away, I expect to see
tears and a crumpled little expression.
Nope. James looked up at me with
the most distinctly exasperated look and said “God Mom, Seriously? Ouch-uh.” What could I do??? I started laughing and James just shook his
head and started laughing too. I should say
that at this point, both his chin and forehead were bleeding and his nose did
look decidedly bluish, but he was laughing.
Sometimes that high pain threshold is not such a terrible thing.
I picked up the offending air freshener,
investigated whether it could be put back on the wall and determined that this
may indeed not have been its first suicidal leap and it may in fact have jumped
from the wall before and been precariously placed back on its spot, waiting for
some doofus to come mess with it. (Doofus raises hand) Instead of setting up
someone else’s poor child, I tossed the
stupid thing in the sink, cleaned Jamie’s face with a damp paper towel, kissed
all the booboos, then I put my arm around him and we headed back to the patient
room. On the walk back James looked up
at me and said “This is kind of a craptastic day, huh”? Yes son, it sure is. Back in the room, we all sat and waited for
the doc. James had tissues stuck to his
face in the two little places where the skin had broken, and looked like a teen
who had just tried his first solo shave, but by the time the doc showed up, his
face was better and no longer bleeding.
HOWEVER…… His first words to the
doctor when he entered the room was “MY MOM HIT ME IN MY FACE, SEE” and he
proceeded to point out each little injury to the doctor. What could I do but laugh? I did attempt to defend myself and say that I
bumped something and it fell and hit him. Doc didn’t look too sure. (I might still need the bail money after
all).
The doc looked in James’s ears and escorted us
to the torture room (at least that is what James’s calls it) where he has a
high powered microscope and an ear vacuum.
(Yes, I did say ‘Ear Vacuum’. I
know. We all want one. ) After much
coaxing and prodding, James got onto the table so doc could gaze into his ears
with the microscope. He said James’s
ears were much improved (that’s the really good news) and proceeded to vacuum
his ears out. After a minute he paused,
looked puzzled, leaned in to look again, paused, and looked one more time. He opened a drawer and pulled out the ‘evil
looking little curved scissor things that they use to dig weird stuff out of
ear canals’ (I’m sure that is the technical name) and inserted them into James’s
ear. James was not so impressed with
this, and let everyone in the building, and most people in the surrounding
neighborhoods know about it. He pulled
out a little blue plastic thing, shaped like a T. I’d ridden in this rodeo enough to recognize
that wicked little blue devil. He had
removed the useless PE tube James had placed in December. Then he muttered under his breath and went
back in. I thought, what the heck is he
trying to pull out now? There shouldn’t
be anything else removable in there. At
least nothing he should be taking out while James is awake. Now
for the amazing and disturbing part. He
pulled out another little, sort of blue, really mangled T shaped thing, that
was covered in stuff you would rather I not share, but it was obvious that it
wasn’t the sparkling new tube that was inserted in December. No, James’s last set of PE tubes, before
December 2013 was from 2008-ish and according to his regular ENT, they disappeared
from the ear drum within 3 weeks of being placed, presumably having fallen out
of his ear. No, this tube was not in his
ear drum where it should have been. It
had embedded itself into his ear canal and gotten infected and grew polyps and
granulated tissue over top of it. The
steroid and antibiotic treatment had shrunken the surrounding inflammation
enough that the doc was able to see something was under it and pick it
out. After clearing the other ear out
in the same manner and removing a tube and some other stuff you don’t want to
know about, the doctor told us that he believed the tubes may be the cause of
all the issues. James’s ears are still
pretty inflamed and have some “stuff” going on, but the doctor believes with
continued treatment and frequent vacuum treatments, the rest of the inflammation
will subside and he can remove any other foreign bodies that may be present (perhaps
an old tube is hiding out in the left ear as well, or a green army man, or a
piece of moon-rock, or some nuclear waste or whatever) and James may not need
surgery at all. Yippee!!!!!!!! So VERY long story short, thank you all so
much for the prayers and good thoughts, I do believe we may have the miracle healing
we were praying for. We are to continue
his medicines for three more weeks and then return to Ochsner on the 7th
of April for a recheck and clean out, but doc said if all has healed, he will
clear him of surgery at that time. I am
SO relieved and no longer bitter about the nearly 3 hour wait!!!! The poor kid needed a break. Especially after I clobbered him in the face
with an air freshener!!! Oh by the
way, if he talks to you in the next week or two and says “My Mom hit me in my
face”, there really is NO need to call CPS.
Lol.
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