"I'm not cold!!"

OK, so we had the follow-up ENT appointment. Some interesting stuff came out of it that I wanted to get down.

- Her ears are fine, no fluid. Some negative pressure in both ears (eardrums are a little concave, affects hearing slightly since they can't vibrate perfectly). That happens after fluid recedes and should correct itself soon.

- Eardrums are fine. I've been worried about scarring/ problems. The doctor said that naturally-occurring perforations tend to be very, very small, and they heal well. It's not something you want to have happen but it's not necessarily a big deal and her eardrums don't show any ill effects.

- I followed up on the persistent stuffiness thing. Especially, I realized that what we've been calling "seasonal" could be "pool season vs. non-pool season." He agreed that pools are helpful in cleaning things out and dealing with congestion. (Don't think too much about what that means re: pool water -- shudder.) He said he really didn't think there was some underlying cause like enlarged adenoids, though. He said that basically she just has a very sensitive nose, and that happens. It's easily inflamed/ irritated -- he had a line about sacrificing itself to save her lungs. He said that there really isn't much to be done about it except for what we're already doing (saline, etc.) -- unless we want to do a surgery where the skin inside her nose is cauterized. He said that in terms of, she's doing fine, dealing with the problem medically is more trouble than it's worth.

I asked if there was anything I could do to prevent irritants from getting at her nose -- better air filters, whatever. He said, well you could put her in a bubble. :-) Basically he's saying, that's life. There are a lot of pollutants out there. It's a low-level annoyance but it's not really that big of a deal, so there's nothing we should do about it now beyond what we're already doing.

One interesting tidbit! I mentioned in passing how the congestion was linked to ear infections, and the doc said yeah and mimed sniffing -- you know, like if you're stuffy and want to clear your nose (inwards). He said that doing that can help get fluid into the Eustachian tube. Score one for mother's intuition -- I'm always telling her "better out than in" and telling her to blow her nose instead of sniffing. E.G. thinks I'm weird. The ENT doc said there are studies and everything. Yay! Something specific we can do, if minor.

- Her hearing is normal. About a 10 db loss (normal range is 0-20). That's with the slight negative pressure, so should get a little better yet once that resolves.

- We're supposed to go back in 6 months to see how her nose is doing, and go back in a year to see how her ears are doing. So we're separating out those two parts of ENT.

Overall looks good. The doc proclaimed the audiogram results an A+ when he informed sozlet of them, and overall he seems happy with how things are going.

Sounds almost too good to be true. According to Murphy's law, this means she'll soon break a leg playing soccer or something. But until that happens -- congratulations!

Even a little bit of control makes mothers (and eventually daughters) feel less like hapless pawns of malign fate.

Yep.

I looked for this one from last year, found it on "Sozlet Stories" (August 7th, 2007):



Very similar thing happened Sunday night/ Monday morning, except that she DID have a fever (103.5). Unclear if any suggestion was involved. She has an emerging tooth that is sore and she wanted ice chips to soothe it. I went ahead and smashed some up and remarked that I hadn't had to do that in a while (it used to be a standard response to nausea, seemed to help). That was Sunday evening (before bed, before barfing).

Common thread -- hot weather and lots of activity out in it, even though I'm fairly confident that she was kept hydrated.

Also seems like both were short-lived.

Meanwhile a friend of hers who she hadn't seen for more than a week (but we have mutual friends) came down with almost identical symptoms yesterday afternoon. So may yet just be a virus of some sort. (Or maybe both hot weather related.)

Fine all day Monday after she woke up and all day yesterday -- assumed this was all over. Then she came downstairs this morning looking awful, shaky and hot -- temp of 102.6. Gave her Feverall, set her up in the family room, and she was mostly fine -- chatty, silly, just tired. Mild nausea, not too bad. Some appetite, less than usual though. Fever went down but didn't go all the way away -- hovered around 101.5.

Then about 2 PM she got really tired and napped fitfully for the next couple of hours.

At 4 PM, she got a bad look on her face and I ushered her to the bathroom. Took her temperature after that... 104.5.

Damn.

Gave her Feverall again, called the doc right away. Long story shorter, we have an appt. for 1 PM tomorrow and directions to go to urgent care/ER if she takes another turn for the worse. The fever responded to medication and while it's unpleasant that it was that high, if it's brief it's OK.

I'm packing a bag and stuff and hoping for the best. This seems to be more about fever and then nausea following it, so hoping that if I stay on top of the fever she'll do OK. (The Feverall wore off in those 2 hours that she was resting and I was trying not to bother her, I think.)

No idea why it resurfaced after two days of health. Maybe unrelated/ opportunistic. Thought of pneumonia first because that happened last year -- sick, well, then sick again -- but coughing was a major symptom and she doesn't have that, or any trouble breathing.

We'll see.

Poor sozlet! and poor mom too! I hope you both manage to get some rest tonight.

Awww...I hate it when little ones are sick. I hope sozlet gets some good sleep tonight and her fever breaks.

(I hope Mommy gets some sleep, too.)

Thanks guys! Just got back from urgent care...

They're seeing a ton of this. (The vomiting and high fevers.) Some sort of virus. Sozlet is better than previous visits to ER, tired though! I'm less concerned and more willing to ride it out. (She had some symptoms that were meningitis-y, for example -- not something I want to mess around with.)

G'night!!

Sweet dreams!

Eek, hope she's better. Get some rest!

Poor kid. (Telepathing positive thoughts to both of you.)

Good, I was thinking meningacoccle was somehing that needed to be considered.
Symptoms in children and adults:

A. Symptoms common to meningitis and septicaemia:

fever (which may not respond to paracetamol)

nausea or vomiting

lack of energy

tiredness or drowsiness

confusion or disorientation

dizziness

irritability or agitation

a sore throat

http://www.meningococcal-australia.org.au/main/symptoms.html

So sozlet hasn't been sick since that last episode in July. This is virtually unheard of, to get through the start of school and the summer-> fall transition without getting sick.

Just had a weird episode last night that I want to get down because it seems like it's something that happens occasionally and I'm not sure if I've written each episode down. We've joked that she's allergic to pie from a certain bakery because it seems like she frequently has barf attacks after social events where we've brought that particular pie. Another event yesterday, with pie, and another barf attack. She says she didn't have the pie though.

So other commonalities are a) a lot of food, b) much of which is sweet, and c) lots of physical activity, while d) not really getting enough to drink. Yesterday she was running around for about 4 hours straight, playing soccer (with grown-ups -- she proclaimed to me when she got home that she "crushed a grown man" at soccer and E.G. added that she was trash-talking the guy afterwards -- "I'm only seven..."), wrestling with a friend her age, etc., etc. E.G. said first thing when they got home that he didn't think she'd had enough to drink.

Anyway she didn't show any signs of illness (except for saying that she was a bit short of breath -- a glass of water solved the problem) but then came and got me in the middle of the night and said she felt awful. No fever. Barfed, went back to sleep, that was it. She seems fine today.

(I miss Noddy.)

Ah those soccer games, I do remember that too - not drinking enough liquids and eating too much sweets is just part of it, and depending what parents bring as treats afterwards, my daughter used to get super hyperactive and hard to handle. Some candies are better than others and I had started reading the labels carefully for food additives and learned through trial and error which sweets to avoid. Sozlet might be very well allergic to certain food additives or/and peanuts.

My daughter's school has eliminated all peanut related foods from their
menu and asked parents not to give peanut butter sandwiches for lunch
since such a large number of children are allergic to peanuts and lets face it,
kids do share their lunches. Plus candies do contain peanuts as well (Reeses, Snickers, Mars etc.).

Here is a good article on the subject http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/312/7038/1050

Well, I'm not Noddy but I'll try to channel her. Young people have a way about them. They grab life with gusto and sometimes gusto bites them. I doubt that there was anything EG could have done about it and still allowed her to enjoy herself. She will learn what agrees with her and what doesn't. A few more episodes may be in your future until she does.

Soz, has Sozlet ever been diagnosed with CVS? Has this possiiblity ever come up with her pediatrician? If that is what you are dealing with, there probably isn't much to do but wait it out. Episodes generally decrease as the child gets older and almost always disappear entirely by puberty. If I'm remembering right though, attention should be paid to really good oral hygiene as CVS seems to go hand in hand with tooth decay.

Update time...

First, the good news. We're coming up on Christmas break and sozlet has not missed one -- not ONE! -- day of school due to illness so far this year. That's huge for her.

But then the bad news. We had a scheduled check-up with the ENT yesterday. The day before that she'd spent some time at the pool, and that night (the night before the ENT appt.) she said that her right ear hurt a bit. Hmm. Thought it might be related to the pool, but was happy we happened to have the appt. set already.

At the appt., the doctor said she's in the early stages of an ear infection. Dammit. Not just the ambiguous "fluid in the ear" type of ear infection, but an actual infection, with some redness and some mucus.

So, started her on antibiotics. She can swallow pills now which makes the whole thing less of an ordeal. (She hates the syrup or chewable pills.) Except for the mention at bedtime night before last, she hasn't been experiencing pain or discomfort. No fever at any point. Was cleared to go to school today. So it's really not that big of a deal, but still... dammit.

After that was established (ear infection, details thereof, and need for antibiotics), the doctor asked if I had any other questions. I said that yes, the check-up was initially intended to see how her ears were doing but also her nose -- how was her nose? He said congested. I said yeah, it usually is (as in, what does that mean/ what are the implications?) He said he thought it was enlarged adenoids, and that we might need to do surgery to reduce the size of them.

Hmmm.

I didn't like this for two reasons. The first is the obvious -- surgery! General anesthesia, etc. Will certainly do it if necessary, though.

Second, I've brought that up before (the possibility of adenoids being the issue -- that first came up two or three years ago after she was tested extensively for allergies but came up clear -- that was the allergist's guess at what was up with her) and he didn't seem to think that was the case. The last time I talked to him, he said there wasn't really anything to be done, she just had a sensitive nose, and the possible fixes were extreme (like cauterization of her nasal passages). Now, adenoids.

I remembered from my previous research that they tend to atrophy at age 7 or 8 -- she's 8 now. He said sometimes it goes until adolescence before atrophying.

I relayed this to E.G. and he said yeah, I couldn't breathe through my nose until I was a teenager. What? (New and quite possibly pertinent information.) I knew he had a lot of allergies, but I didn't know that there was a specific nose issue that eased when he was a teenager.

So could well be adenoids, could well be inherited.

We're going back for a follow-up appt. in a month to make sure her ears are OK -- after that, we'll look into the adenoid thing further.

Yeah, from last June:



(This is why this thread is so useful...)

Having an ear infection after swimming in a public pool seems to be the norm
now. This happens to us every summer now, as summer camp involves daily
pool activities.

I hope sozlet is feeling better soon!

Thanks CJ!

I wasn't clear, thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify -- she has a middle ear infection (which is the kind that keeps causing problems), not an outer ear infection. So the pool was just a coincidence.

She's home from school and acting 100% normal, so this really isn't bad at all as these things go... just frustrating that she keeps getting the ear infections after we thought that problem was solved. (We had about a 2.5-year stretch of no ear infections, then last April or so she had a bad one [with perforations], and now this one. Ah well.)