Doctor Update

Carter had a doctor appointment last Friday. It was a follow-up for his ear infection, plus a weight check and re-schedule of his Hep-B vaccine (postponed from his well-baby checkup because he was running a fever last time). Well, I'll start with the Hep-B vaccine. He still didn't get it because he's still sick. No fever this time, but some mild congestion and . . . drumroll please . . . both ears are still infected. Surprise, surprise. I'll come back to that topic, though.




His weight gain was 15 ounces in three weeks, bringing him to 20 lb, 12 oz--and back to the 50th percentile. Whew--so we get the all-clear from the doctor on that one.


His ears, as I mentioned, are still infected. In fact, his left ear is so clogged that she had to "dig" for about five minutes (not unusual; she has to dig every visit) before she could see even a corner of the inside of his ear. That was all the further she got with it. She sent us home with a prescription for one final oral antibiotic, plus a two-day supply of antibiotic drops for his left ear (the one that bled--and possibly but unlikely experienced an ear drum burst) after the last visit. She also gave me a list of recommended ear-nose-throat (ENT) doctors in the area. I need to make an appointment with one of them as soon as possible, and we likely will schedule him to have tubes. Both ears have been infected since November 10, though the right one cleared up for one week in early December. We've been through six rounds of (oral) antibiotics, two rounds of breathing treatments for the related bronchiolitis, one round of steroids for the croup that developed and have seen Carter's doctor a total of nine times since then. The longest stretch we've gone between visits was four weeks and the shortest was five days. It makes him sound really sick, doesn't it? It's just those pesky ears, though--the infection just won't clear.