Road Trip on Heavy Drugs

Road trip time! I am at home packing and cleaning the house (and obviously sneeking a post in there somewhere). We are heading East..to the Missouri state capital (which is....you can do it). On the agenda: visiting family, eating lots of good food and bringing a load of storage stuff. See we are trying to move out there for various reasons (none being the charm and mystic of the city)...so each time we visit we pack a trailer full of misc items we rarely use (so why keep them you may ask) most of which has come from the basement storage vault. Anyhoo...we are aiming to leave shortly after lunch. This way Grant can take his nice long nap while in transit (fingers crossed).

So yesterday I took Grant to see what I thought was a Pediatric ENT (ear nose and throat) Doctor for his double ear infection and ruptured ear drum which has not healed in over a month now. Turns out he is just a regular ENT who treat lots of kids (still irritates me that they did not clarify that when I asked if he was indeed a Pediatric ENT while making the appointment grrrrr). Now I know to ask specifically if the doctor sees only kids. Live and learn right.

I was impressed by the waiting room complete with a lesson on germ sharing and a sink in which to wash hands. Loved that! The patient room was also very clean. Another perk. The Doctor introduced himself(kudos!) and was very friendly. I was also intrigued because he basically agreed with me on everything from the negative consequences of the overuse of antibiotics, being skeptical of doctors in general, the possible connection between allergies and ear infections & not giving a lot of credibility to allergy tests especially in babies.




He asked me to hold Grant for the probing...but I said that Grant was a great patient so he had him hop on the big chair. Sure enough Grant just allowed him to look deep within his ears, nose and throat (duuhhhhh). From the sound of it that doc had never had a 19 month old behave in such a way. Such a proud mama I was! So...the diagnosis...severe sinus infection, double ear infection both with bulging puss filled ear drums and enlarged adenoids. I could have told him that..but I was here for solutions. He gave me 3 options...a)do nothing, although the infection could get into his inner ear and possibly cause deafness or get into his brain and cause meningitis, b)start a round of heavy and serious antibiotics to which he had one that Grant had not tried and was not related to those he is allergic to, with the hopes that it will leave grant free of infection or c)go right to ear tubes. If the antibiotics do not work, he will recommend the ear tubes at that point.

I decided to go ahead with the antibiotics. The name is Clindaymin. Its another very old drug that is not common anymore. It is only given for serious bacterial infections because it can cause colitis and other strange blood problems. GREAT! However I really feel that I must try it because Grant is not getting better on his own and he is V miserable. The Doc said that if you or I had what he has...we would be in bed moaning. Kids tolerate pain much better...especially when they are like Grant and have extremely high pain threshold due to the amount of pain he has had to deal with in only 19 months! So I said a prayer of thanks and gratitude and am having faith that Grant will handle the drug perfectly and heal quickly.

The med is giving 3 times a day for 14 days! Whew! Its no fun. Thank GOD Grant is taking it very sweetly thus far (even though the doc said it tasted as bad as it smells). Dad and I tasted it and didnt find it offensive...strange. Oh well at least its better than expected!

So say a prayer for little Grant and know that he is healing. We are definitely pushing the probiotics and breastmilk during this time. I will also take extra acidophilus with the hopes that it passes to him from my milk.

OK off to vacuum and change over the laundry. Have a wonderful weekend and tell me all about it.