A Real Pain in the Ears

For the first 9 months of Camille's life, I listened with sympathy to friends whose babies were struggling with ear infections, all the while grateful we'd been spared the problem. I'd heard that babies often either get chronic ear infections, or hardly get them ever, and I felt we were qualifying for the latter, fortunate category.

I'd taken her to the doctor a couple of times when she'd had a set of fussy days to be sure her ears weren't infected. I paid lots of co-pays to be told, "Nope, her ears looks fine."

Then in April, I heard the dreaded, "Uh-oh," while the doctor was peering into her little ears. "Yep, this one's infected. So is this one."

We got our prescription for antibiotic, her first ever, and I waited for her to get better. She improved some, but never really seemed completely comfortable. We took her back, and she still had lots of fluid in her ears. A couple of weeks later, they were infected again. More, different antibiotic.

We finished that antibiotic Monday, but Tuesday she just didn't seem like herself. So I took her back to the doctor, and sure enough, they were still infected. The antibiotics hadn't worked, so they had to bring out the big guns in the form of an antibiotic shot.

I hate shots. I loathe shots. I am terrified of shots and especially don't like it when she has to get one. So it didn't help that everyone we encountered said, "Oh, poor thing. This shot really hurts." And it wasn't just one, she had to have three shots - one a day for three days in a row.

It was terrible having to get up every morning, knowing I was about to take her back there to hold her down while they injected the medicine. But she is such a great little trooper. She cried during the shot (which can't be done very quickly because the medicine is thick), but as soon as I picked her up she quited. She even let the nurse hold her afterward. I think Camille took the whole thing better than I did.

The good news is that the doctor looked in her ears yesterday just before the third shot and said she already saw marked improvement. I hope this does the trick, because otherwise we may be in for a visit with a specialist to talk about more invasive solutions. Thinking back over the last 2 months, I feel very fortunate to have such a good-natured little girl who is still happy and fun despite lingering ear infections. Sure, she had her moments, but a majority of the time she has been charming and sweet. Lucky mama.