Not as good as I had hoped.

Apparently looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to ears. I mean seriously, what was I thinking? We've only been at this ear infection for three weeks and gone through three rounds of antibiotics, do I really feel we have enough fun?!?!

Good news is Chase passed his hearing test with flying colors (and he knows all of his body parts just in case you are interested). Bad news it we are having to go on to round four of antibiotics. I can't remember what the particular bacteria is called and the paper is out in the Tahoe (as in downstairs and outside, where I have no intentions of going this evening) so I'll have to wing it from what I remember. Whatever the name is, it used to be really scary whenever the name came up. Now it's not *as* scary, just a little scary.... hey, I didn't make this up, this was the conversation I had earlier today at the ENT. Basically this particular bacteria attaches itself to things and it's very difficult to clear up. To make it harder, in children it can only be treated via IV or drops because children can not take oral cipro. Chase is a good ear drop taker, so I'm cool with that part but man think of all the money we wasted on oral antibiotics! The fear is that it has attached itself to his tube and although it looks good, may still be there. So what that means is one minute it could look great and then 24 hours later we could have a ragin' ear infection on our hands.... sound familiar?

Our other problem is that although Chase's tube was draining like it should just a mere week ago, this infection has caused it to rotate. Chances are that due to this rotation it will no longer drain like it should. That's bad, in fact, that's really bad since the tubes were put in to help with the draining in the first place. Rats. He also has what is left of his ear infection sitting right in front of his ear drum and to drain it would require a much more in depth procedure than last time. Not to mention the pressure that it's putting on his ear drum is probably going to be painful... did I say rats already? My poor Doodlebug.

We've decided to start round four of antibiotics and he will go back on May 6th for another check. If we notice signs of an ear infection between now and then (or even after then) we are to get him to his pedi or the ENT that day. If we go to the pedi, we have to have a culture ran stat. If it comes back as the same bacteria, we will schedule to have his tube removed and replaced as soon as possible.

Who wants to make bets on if we'll have to hit five rounds of antibiotics before this is over???