Those pesky tubes.

Last night when we were putting Chase to bed he told me his mouth hurt. I really thought nothing more of it because he never mentioned it again. Then at about 2:00 this morning I heard him moving around and making that, "I don't feel so hot" moaning sound. Never good, especially at 2:00 a.m. After about an hour of this Jeff brought him in to our room and he immediately told me again that his mouth hurt before starting to cry.

Now anyone who knows Chase knows that he is about as happy as they come and he never complains. He inherited my pain tolerance and not to brag, but it's about as high of a tolerance as you could get. We gave him Motrim and eventually got him back to sleep, only to have him wake up about 30 minutes later crying and complaining. I noticed that when he fell asleep he was holding his left ear... another not so good sign. I asked if his ear hurt and he said yes, he also told Jeff that his throat/neck area hurt when Jeff touched it. After only getting about 2 hours of sleep and having a very sad, crying toddler begging me, "not to weave him" we decided a Dr's visit was definitely in order. Since getting ready for a sub is like an act of God, Jeff took off to take him.

A week and a half ago we went in for his three year checkup and his ears/tubes checked out great so needless to say, I was taken a little off guard with his appointment. It turns out that Chase's left tube has come out and is basically stuck in his ear canal. The tube is too far in and there is wax around it, so there is no getting it out. This side has always had a blood scab (I know, gross) over it since he got his tubes last April and I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with what we're experiencing now. Until now the only problem we'd had is it causing him to fail his hearing test because vibrations were not bouncing off it - so it was not a true result. His right ear also had fluid in it, but the tube is there and doing it's job.

So what happens now you ask? Well, for those that remember, Chase didn't get tubes because he was a chronic ear infection baby, he got them because we have a VERY difficult time clearing his infections up. He's had two before now. The first took five weeks and three antibiotics to clear up and the second took nine weeks and six antibiotics before he started experiencing hearing loss and we got the tubes. In 10 days I will take him back in and have his ears checked. Hopefully the tube will have come out and the infection cleared up. If it hasn't or if the infection goes away and the comes back, we are looking at getting tubes put back in. Oh those pesky tubes.... how dare they do this to MY baby! Send us a prayer for good news at his recheck, we could use them!