Why I Have Gray Hair

Nolan has been having difficulty hearing again. It is no surprise that he is congested - his ears seemed fine for most of last week, thank goodness, but he was constantly poking at his right ear yesterday. This is generally not a good sign.

Last night, he told me that he couldn't hear at all in his right ear. I took a look with the otoscope, and was rather freaked out by what I saw. A thin, white triangle jutted out of yellow fluid and wax. I wasn't sure what I was seeing. I couldn't see his tubes in that ear (this is the ear with two tympanostomy tubes). I thought his eardrum might have perforated and that I was possibly seeing middle ear bones. I had a silent panic attack and was going to take him into the pediatrician on Monday, to confirm what I was seeing.

This morning, I decided to take another look. There was something lying in his ear canal, and I pulled it out. It was a glob of earwax embedded around one of those plastic tags that holds the price tag onto new clothes. It was bent over, and was apparently used by Nolan as a way to scratch an itch in his ear.

Thankfully, it didn't puncture his eardrum and came out on its own. His eardrum was behind the mass of plastic tag/earwax and looks just fine (both tubes in place, one metal and one plastic U-tube).

Of course, the big We Never Put Things in Our Ears lecture was repeated. Hopefully he'll never try a trick like that again.

I am a little concerned that an infection is brewing in that ear, a scant four weeks after surgery. It is itchy, and he isn't hearing well out of it. He's congested and putting his hearing aid in is a little painful. I'm going to watch and wait, and hopefully it will dry out and the cold will disappear. We have PE Tubes #5 and #6 sitting in that ear, and I am truly hopeful that they will last a long (long, long) time.