Ear Trouble...Again

Little Guy has had trouble with his ears since infancy. He was only four months old when his left eardrum burst. After that it seemed that the ear infections never really went away. We'd clear one up only to have another almost immediately. Antibiotics were being prescribed so often, that some of them stopped helping. Our pediatrician recommended that we meet with an ear/nose/throat specialist to have tubes put in his ears.

The first round of tubes were inserted in June of 2009. During that procedure, the ENT doctor noticed something wrong. There was a small cluster of cysts on Little Guy's right ear drum. The technical term was cholesteatoma, and left untreated - could have meant hearing loss, nerve damage and a lot of other ugly stuff. Little Guy had a follow up operation in August of 2009. His ear canal was too tiny, so they had to cut all the way behind his ear to get to the eardrum and remove the cysts. The stitches started at the very top of his ear, and curled around the back of his ear, stopping at the base of his ear lobe.

The picture on this post is of the two of us after his procedure was completed. He had to wear the bowl thing so that he wouldn't dig at his stitches.

He healed rapidly, with only one complication. Another cyst began to form within the line where the stitches were healing. This cyst was not cholesteatoma, we were assured. It was not a big deal.

It still bothered me, and I nagged the doctor about it several times. In December of last year, our pediatrician did an ultrasound and confirmed that it was harmless.

Miraculously, the thing began to shrink this spring, and now is hardly noticeable (where once it had grown to the size of a grape). I'm no medical professional, but this seemed like good news to me. However, we went in for a routine check up yesterday and the doctor said he's concerned that the cyst is now growing into Little Guy's head. His exact words were, "burrowing under his skull".

To say that this freaked me out would be the understatement of the year.

We have scheduled a CT scan and after that is complete, the doctor will know more about the scope of what needs to be removed. We have a really good doctor. I have a lot of faith in him. After all, he was the one who found the first little group of cysts when the other doctor had missed it completely. We have good insurance, so the cost will not break the bank. Most importantly we have faith that God will watch over our Little Guy and get us through. Generally, he is a very healthy kid, and this should not set him back much (if at all).

But I'm his Mom, and he's my Sweetheart, and so I'm scared and nervous just the same. It probably doesn't help that I'm still a little emotional after the birth of our second little sweetie. I know that this is not the end of the world, and that there are people out there dealing with so much more than I. I am so blessed, and I am thankful daily for all the wonder that my life holds.

So last night, there I was - holding the baby, and sitting next to Hubby. Little Guy could tell something was wrong, and he crawled up into his Daddy's lap and said, "Let's give Mommy a big hug, all together!" And that's what they did..... and in that moment surrounded by the love of my little family - I felt so much better. It's going to be allright.