The Mini Van Soap Box

We're home from school/work, dinner has been served, and all three of us are curled up on the couch for an evening chock full of reruns. Out of the corner of my ever so bionic mother eye, I notice something peculiar in my daughters ear. A red river of gushing blood to be exact.

There have been many things that have gushed out of her ear before, I'm very well versed in the child ear ailments at this point in my life. However, bright red blood is a first for us. Needless to say, slightly alarming.

"Baby, does your ear hurt?"

"No, I'm happy"

"Does it hurt when I pull on it like this" (pulling slightly)

"Nope"

"Sweetie, do you feel okay?"

"I love you mama"

Really not exaggerating much ... that was the conversation. However, I'm thinking blood gushing is not necessarily the sign of a 100% healthy child. The thing is, (and the thing I'm sure is going to have Social Services knocking on my door any day now), is that she has SUCH a high tolerance for pain. Bump her toe ever so slightly on a door and she'll cry for an hour and want a band aid....Burst an eye drum (just a year ago) we won't know until her ear starts to smell bad.

I'm really not kidding.

I heard an interesting story about Big B just last night from my mom - after bitching about the nurse at the emergency room that kept asking "You didn't notice ANY sign of pain?". Turns out that when she was little she had an abscess in her ear. Yea....chew on that for a second. I can't imagine how much that hurt. However, they didn't even know until she hugged her the wrong way. Just a little pressure in the right place and she was screaming like the devil was chasing her.

Kind of the same thing with us....minus the abscess. Thank God.

So, because she NEVER gets sick during normal business hours, emergency room last night, where the nurse and doctor scared the crap out of us. I swear we watched that kid all night like her head was going to blow up at any minute.

Call to the her ENT this morning for an emergency appointment.

She had tubes put in her ears little less than a year ago. About 3 months ago, the tube in the right fell out. No big deal with that one (except for the 4 ear infections that followed). Apparently, the reason for the river of nastiness is that her left ear is rejecting the tube...in a bad way. Kind of a - side ways, going to rip your ear drum, cause as much damage as I possibly can, kind of way. Oh... and an ear infection of top of that.

Go figure.

So, two sets of antibiotics and a full set of neck and head X-rays later, here I am.

In 10 days time he'll decide if she needs to have another set of tubes in, or have her adenoids surgically removed.

WHATEVER the hell those things are. WebMD here I come.

However, the X-ray tech thought I was a fuckin' riot when I called them Altoids.









He's lucky I didn't x-ray his balls for an hour after the day I just had.....