So frustrated (re: DD and her ears)

Susie2005

I thought ear tubes were supposed to make all this bullsh!t better.  Ear tubes placed on the 12th.  She already has a f'ing EI.  I'm so frustrated. She is always in pain.  Make it stop.  She did great for the first week after the surgery.  This past Friday she started with a cold.  Started pulling on her ear Fri night.  Saturday morning the on call pedi said there was some fluid but it was clear and the tubes looked fine.  Saturday afternoon bloody crap coming out of her ear.  Calls back and forth to the ENT blah, blah, blah.  Appt today, left ear is infected.  But, the tubes are clear and in place so we can treat with drops.  It takes two full sized adults to hold down a barely 20 lb one year old to put in the drops.  She hates them.  I feel like I am torturing my child.  Ten days.  How am I going to do this for 10 days.  Ahhh.  So frustrated.  Make it stop.  Sorry I think I already said that.

Okay.  Vent over.  Carry on. 

meghans30

I was told that ear tubes do not necessarily mean no more ear infections. The tubes should help the fluid drain. We have been lucky. DS#2 had tubes placed in Nov. and has had no EI's since.

ILoveBoys

Hi. What a tough situation. My youngest son had his ear tubes placed almost a year ago. I remember when the day they were put in, his ENT told us that he may get some stuff coming out of his ears within a couple weeks. Apparently, sometimes they can have infections and we don't know it? Then the ear tubes are placed and it disrupts it? I'm not sure. He's had one ear infection since then, and you're right the drops are awful. We are going with oral abx next time. Good luck!

true_norskie

Do you have a good way to hold her down?  We got this awesome visual drawing on how to hold down a child to administer drops (we had to do both eye and ear).  We didn't have it with #1 but did with #2 (both had tubes). 

You lay your child on his/her back and then put your legs on either side of them (essentially their head is toward your crotch and their feet toward your feet).  You place their arms out perpendicular to their body and then put your legs on top of their arms--basically immobilizing them.  That gives you both hands free to hold their head.  It sounds horrible and man do they squirm and complain (read: throw an all out fit), but it works!

Aside from that--DD1 had tubes at the end of January (when she was 10 months old).  It took over two weeks for the drainage to stop.  It finally did.  Then she got an ear infection a few weeks later.  I remember she had ear drainage on her first birthday.  :-(

We treated it with drops and they did NOT work!  We wound up going with oral antibiotics and they finally cleared it up.  So it took about 3-4 months after she got tubes and a round or two of oral antibiotics (after trying two different types of drops) to finally clear things up. 

At that point, thankfully it  was April/May so we were out of the cold season.  That is what put an end to her EIs.  About a year later one of her tubes was "removed" with a giant gob of wax by the ENT.  Her pedi removed the other one the same way (she sat really still) a few months later.  They were both "just sitting in the ear canal" or something so they had fallen out but hadn't come out.

I hope the drops work for you and/or you find something that does!  It is summer really soon so the cold season is almost over.