I haven't updated this is a while, which is almost entirely due to superstition, but I just found some info here that I'd been trying to remember (never know what might end up being important) and it reminded me I should bring things up to date...
Good news is, she's been pretty much fine. (Knock on wood, salt over shoulder, etc.) She still has a stuffy nose, and her hearing still is not great, but not to the point where it's negatively impacting her in general. Just something we notice now and then.
We had the ENT appointment November 17th, and it went really well! The doc said that the perforations had healed but that there was still fluid in the middle ear, causing the hearing loss. He talked with her a while (no problem) and asked me how she was doing in general -- I said fine. He said he wouldn't suggest tubes in that case, as the only real reason to do it is to improve her functioning, and she seems to be functioning just fine. I brought up my concern about repeated perforations and he pointed out that if we put in tubes, that would pretty much be the mother of all perforations -- much larger than a naturally-occurring one, and a perforation that would STAY for a long time rather than healing right up.
He thinks that, obviously, if we could avoid perforations in the first place, that would be preferable, but that tubes are not necessarily the way to go at this point. His emphasis has been on immunity system boosting, which is what I've been focusing on this year, and it seems to be helping. A selection of the stuff I've been doing this year, one or two of which may be the key, or all of them cumulatively, or none of them:
- Trader Joes Gummi Vites: Immunity boosters (echinachea and Vitamin C). She takes these every day.
- A lot of attention to diet, making sure she gets enough fresh fruits and vegetables, protein, etc. (Have paid attention throughout, but ramped it up a notch.)
- A lot of attention to making sure she gets enough sleep. (Same as above.)
- A lot of attention to making sure she gets enough fresh air/ exercise. (Same as above.)
- Making sure she gets plenty of water. (Same as above.)
- A lot of attention to hand-washing -- same as above, but she's also better able to remember when I'm not around.
- Sleeping in a semi-upright position. She sleeps on a futon and I propped up one end (underneath) with throw pillows. She often eschews sleeping on a pillow -- starting out on one, but ending up on bare mattress -- and that seems to keep her head more upright. (Good for drainage.) One other thing I noticed is that her room actually slants on that side (old house) and so if she's on a bare mattress that hasn't been propped, her head is actually lower than the rest of her. Possible that was part of the problems last year (in terms of why the problems started when we moved here).
She's also taking Triaminic and getting a squirt of Nasonex every day, that's not different from last year though. (Nasonex is the same, used a different decongestant, forget what.)
I'm also about to make a saline solution from a recipe the ENT gave me to help clear her out (and keep mucous membranes moist).
Other elements that are probably helping:
- She's very, very good at effectively blowing her nose (started to be able to last year, much much better now).
- She's better able to handle postnasal drip, and just cough if something is in her throat rather than gag. The single biggest problem last year was the barf attack cycles, and so far she has had only that one, fairly brief one.
Still lots of room for things to go wrong -- last night we were at a party with a couple of other families and one of the kids was clearly coming down with something (headache, tired, uncomfortable) -- but I'm cautiously optimistic.
The tubes situation is not necessarily resolved -- we have a follow-up appointment January 5th to see how things are then. If there is still fluid, there will probably be a follow-up to the follow-up like we had last year until it is gone (which was, like AUGUST last year...!) but I'm perfectly happy to have her checked out on a regular basis so long as we're with this very reasonable ENT.
hi , sozebe : good to hear that the sozlet is feeling better and is active (hope you agree with the latter part, heh, heh ...).
i'd suggest you keep an eye on her echinachea intake . there seem to be conflicting stories , particularly concerning long-term use. i can't tolerate echinachea , but i also am allergic to rosehip and other herbal teas (regular black and green tea don't cause me any problems) .
anyway , i'm sure you are glad that you found a good ENT specilist - hang on to her/him - they are hard to get hold of .
(do you have any snow yet in your neck of the woods ? have had a few inches of snow during the last two weeks here ; supposed to get cold later this week, followed by warming trend - up, down, up down ... )
all the best . hbg
Hi hamburger,
Thanks for the echinachea note. Yeah, I've read conflicting stuff, too.
And yes, I'm really happy with this ENT (and try to make sure he knows it!)
We had one fairly good snowfall just before thanksgiving -- enough to make a tiny snowman -- then only dustings since. It's been plenty cold, though!
hi, sozebe : good to hear from you . i'm sure the sozlet is looking for some snow for christmas . i'll see if i can arrange to send some your way (you are welcome) . hbg
See, I wouldn't be so superstitious if stuff like this didn't happen so often:
Kid woke up nauseous, we're back on the barf train. No apparent reason. Could be purely psychological -- when I was trying to figure out WHAT was going on/ piece things together, she insisted that she barfed right when she first woke up, all over the bed. Only problem was -- there was NO barf on the bed, anywhere! We searched quite thoroughly. I think it was a dream.
Slightly good news is that I've been hesitant to do the saline thing because it's just the kind of thing that sets off barfiness, figured there was nothing to lose and went for it and got a ton of stuff out. (Sorry for all-around graphic nature and yuckiness.) Maybe that'll make a difference.
We'll see.
Sigh.
Sorry to hear about your yucky morning, soz. I hope the sozlet recovers quickly from this round.
I hope the dream theory turns out to be right.
Just realized it wasn't clear if she ever did barf -- she did, several times. (Up to 8 or something, I've lost track -- just tried but there was nothing left, snuggling/ half-sleeping on my lap now.)
That said, yep, I hope that if it had to happen it was about a dream (and not something with her ears for example.)
<sends gentle hug to sozlet>
<sends another one to soz>
Keep workin' the saline, soz. <noooo, I don't mean over and over today - just make it part of the routine as well as you can>
Preventing that guck from getting into her tummy should help her quite a bit.
Not nice waking up to that yucky, gucky, gaggy feeling.
Yep.
(She likes the santa hats on your avatar -- a point and a big smile...)
Remember, children are always sick for holidays.
If you had a second child, the Sozelet could share the Invalid Honors.
No let-up all day, just put her to bed.
If she can make it through the night without barfing I'm optimistic about tomorrow -- if not... well, I'm gonna do everything I can to help make it more likely that she'll make it through the night without barfing.
Is she propped up nicely?
I was wondering if she'd had anything phlegm-producing in the last coupla days <like echinacea for me and hamburger, or milk, or cheese, or honey, or ... > which combined with a slide down the bed - could had led to the gagging feeling starting while she was sleeping.
Nothing new. She'd had several close calls -- coughing, recovering before actually gagging -- before this happened. (See bullet point two in the second section of my long update post, about "She's better able to handle postnasal drip, and just cough if something is in her throat rather than gag.") Last year it was a frequent cause and effect.
Last night she only made it about 45 minutes after falling asleep before barfing again, got really worried about dehydration, called doc, she sent us to the ER. IV fluids there, took a couple of hours, perked her up considerably (though administering the IV, especially the first, failed attempt, was extremely unpleasant), home at 3:30 A.M. (Arrived at 10:PM -- a lot of waiting.)
Since then, better. We'll see.
Oh my god, soz. I'm so sorry to hear about the continuing problems, and especially the ER visit. You must all be exhausted.
This does not appear to be the time for a "barf train" joke, so I'll save it for another day.
Hope the -let gets well soon....
I dunno, I could use some cheering up. ;-) (Thanks, mac.)
In the silver lining department -- ER doc checked out her ears and said that they looked really good. NO fluid in one, just a bit in the other. Dunno if it was part of the general dehydration or if they were already on their way to getting better.
Last year there were some hearing problems even without fluid due to pressure issues, and she does still seem to be having some problems hearing, not completely clear.
She's resting now?
Hope you're getting some rest too, soz.
