Ear infection? And WWYD?

mamarazzi

I think DS2 has another (or the continuation of an) ear infection.  He's fussy and not sleeping for crap.  For some stretches last night, he was getting up every hour.

He's been treated for a double ear infection with three rounds of antibiotics.  His ped saw him Dec. 30th and he was at the tail-end of his last prescription.  His ears were still very red, but not as inflamed.  The doc said to give him the rest of the medicine and that would hopefully take care of it.

He hasn't really seemed to improve and now he's getting worse.  It's the worst at night.

My questions are these -- does it sound like an ear infection to you?  If so, here's my issue.  We're without regular insurance until Feb. 1.  We'll have to pay out of pocket for the entire appointment.  This isn't a big deal and totally worth it if it makes him feel better.  My concern is that the doc will recommened ear tubes or mark his chart that he has another ear infection and since the diagnosis fell between insurance coverage, it will be considered a pre-exisiting condition and we'll have to pay for surgery completely on our own dime.

I thought about taking him to a Minute Clinic where they don't even file with insurance, but from what I read on their site, they only see patients 18 months +.

If you know anything about ear infections or insurance coverage, your input would be greatly appreciated.

true_norskie

How is your rapport with the pedi?  Honestly, if it were us, our pedi would "work with us" to ensure anything she recommended would fall into an appropriate insurance period--especially when Feb 1 is less than two weeks away.

I don't know, maybe people would think that was wrong.  But regardless of what your pedi says, YOU can always say you aren't comfortable going to an ENT yet, you want to wait it out, etc.

For the sake of your child, there are ways around a small break in insurance coverage.

hopefulmom

You can always go to Urgent Care and say you don't have insurance.  When the new insurance wants a list of doctors don't put that one down.  What symptoms is he exhibiting?  My DD would not have symptoms but when I took her in for her 18 mo shots (think it was 18 mos) he wouldn't give them saying she had an ear infection.  She was put on meds and every time I took her back for her recheck he'd say she had an ear infection and prescribe a different one or prolong the one she had.  She was on medication for like a month and a half until I finally took her to an ear specialist.  He said she did not have an ear infection but did have fluid in her ears (this was 2 days after the doctor said she had an infeciton).  You mentioned redness so this is probably not the case in your son's situation.

GL