On Friday I took the kids into the allergy clinic for their shots. I decided to take Brooke over to the ENT's office to see if they would peak in her ear because when I dropped her off at school that morning I noticed that there was a bunch of gunk coming out of her left ear and stuck to the side of her face (how I missed them when doing hair, I have NO idea!). One would think that this would be a fairly easy objective, especially at the ENT's office where we have spent so much of her five year old life. Nope. I told the receptionist why I was there and could someone please check her ear to make sure nothing had ruptured as I know that would delay surgery. She went back to speak with the nurse and came back out and told me, "The nurse said to just go ahead and do drops." At this point I knew I was in for a headache. I explained to the receptionist that we had already been doing drops for a month. I re explained the situation and asked if someone could please just check in her ear (Dr. Blotter and Lindsey were both out). She calls the nurse and asks the nurse to just come up and speak with me. The nurse comes up and I explain what's going on to her (we were here the 30th, we've been doing drops for a month, we were back this week, the one ear is severely retracted, the other ear has a 3.5 yo tube in it that's totally healed over, one ear is draining, we're having surgery March 16th, etc.) The nurse finally pulls B's chart up and says, "Well, they're just replacing the tubes in there, aren't they?" At this point I'm annoyed. No. No they are not just replacing the tubes in her ears! Dr. Blotter doesn't really know exactly what he's going to do until he gets n there and sees what's going on. Please, for the love of all that is holy just have someone check her ear to make sure nothing ruptured! If it ruptured we'll have to delay surgery which delays anything the eye dr. wants to do! She finally agreed to have Dr. Wood come look at it. We go back and they put us in the procedure room. B was NOT having that. She's been in that room and knows what goes on in there. She immediately grabbed the door jamb and refused to go in. I had to coax her into the room and promise the dr. wouldn't touch her tube while explaining to the nurse why she's freaking out. Dr. Wood comes in and takes a look in her right ear - same as earlier that week - fluid, severely retracted, etc. Looks in her left ear and goes, "Oh. There's pus coming out of that tube. She's got an ear infection in that one. Since you have 10 days until surgery do you want an antibiotic?" YES! He then asks me what antibiotic they usually give her. I tell him the two options she has (she's allergic to penicillin) and he agrees those are both good ones (duh). He asks which I prefer and I tell him. His nurse called the prescription into the pharmacy next door and I leave the office wanting to strangle people. The next time I go see Dr. Blotter or Lindsey I'm going to tell them that when someone comes up and asks for someone to look in one of the Bown kid's ears they just freaking do it without questioning me!
I also got the call last week that Caleb's Celiac's test came back negative. That's good. Tomorrow we head back to see JanaLee at the Wellness Clinic. Hopefully she may have some new ideas for us.
Friday also had Samantha back at physical therapy and the orthopedist's office. She did another treatment of the Iontopheresis at physical therapy. Dr. Seale ran through a series of tests with her in the exam room. I told him that Laura had told me that one of the trainers explained to her in high school that often times with athletes, especially dancers, the outside quad muscles become stronger than the inside quad muscles and it can pull the knee cap diagonally instead of straight. After looking at her a bit more he agreed that it seems that has been happening with Sam as well. He's given her another set of exercises in addition to what the physical therapist has given her. He seems to think that if she can strengthen that inner quad muscle she should get some relief. He said that it would appear she's got a light case of runner's knee as well. yay. On the upside, she was able to compete on Saturday at Will Dance For Kids Project and hasn't complained of any knee pain so that's a big bonus!
