Wednesday, October 22, 2008

He's got what in his ear?!

So I got a call from the school nurse Monday afternoon about an hour before school was out. She said that Deklan was complaining about his ear. When she checked it out he had a piece of paper stuck in his ear. She said he was ok but that we should irrigate it when he got home. (He was so close to coming home that I didn't go pick him up.) When he got home I asked him what was in his ear. Of course he wasn't exactly sure - he didn't do it - he wasn't sure how paper got in his ear - someone else must have stuck it in there. I tried to irrigate it (take a syringe with warm water and shoot it into the ear canal), but it didn't work. In fact I lost sight of the paper completely. He was complaining that his ear hurt now so I stopped. My middle daughter had a Girl Scout ceremony that she needed to be at so I took her to that. I was hoping 1. that it might work itself out and 2. that his ear would quit hurting so we could check it out again when I got home. It did not do 1 but did do 2 above. When I got home it still hadn't come lose from his ear so Emergency Room here we come. I was afraid that it would become infected or do damage to the ear if it wasn't taken care of right away. Guess what? ER couldn't get the paper out either. They tried the irrigation thing too - a lot - and it just wouldn't budge. The doc said it was a tiny piece of paper stuck right up against the ear drum. Now we have an appointment on Friday with the ENT specialist. They said that for no longer than it'll be in there he should be fine with no ear infection and to just do normal things. Guess they figure if I make a big deal out of it so will he. He's done really well so far - only pulled at his ear a couple of times and did ask what the doctor said about getting it out.

Does anyone have any idea what the ENT will actually do? The receptionist used the term that my "check in time" was at 1:15. That makes it sound more like a procedure than an exam which makes me a little nervous.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yikes! How scary! Good luck. I remember getting a popcorn kernel stuck up my nose as a kid and I was terrified it was going to grow something. It seriously taught me a lesson!

Marshella said...

Do I want to know why it was up your nose? :) Well, so far, he hasn't stuck anything in his ear again. I think the sucking noise from the vaccuum-type machine was enough to keep him from doing it. Thanks!