ENT Follow-Up

Well, for the past couple of months, Owen has been having ear issues again...more specifically right ear issues.  First it was swimmers ear, then an ear infection, then they thought he had eczema in his ear canal...which all finally lead to another appointment with the ENT. All of this was brought on because he is constantly itching at his right ear...and I don't mean a casual rub, he digs his finger in as far as it can go.  When you ask, most of the time he says it itches or that there is something in there that he needs to get out.  To be honest, I was getting a little frustrated with the whole thing.  We went through 2 different ear drops and 1 oral antibiotic to try to help him.  The Nurse Practitioner at the pediatricians office also dug ear wax out of his ear a couple of times during this whole process as well...nothing seemed to help more than a couple of weeks, then he was back to digging in his ear again.

So, about a month ago we had another visit to the ENT.  The PA there (don't get me started on how we haven't seen the actual doctor since he put the tubes in his ears....) looked in both ears and said things looked fine.  They sent us for a tympanogram to check the pressure in his ears-that came back fine, and then they tried to check his hearing-which was an epic fail!  So, he suggested that we try zyrtec and nasonex (two allergy meds) for a month to see if the itching was allergy related.  Well....needless to say when we went back for our follow-up appointment today, he was digging in his ear again!  They sent us back for another tympanogram-which was again fine, and didn't even try to test his hearing again.....the only thing he saw was that there was again wax in his right ear canal.  He said it was dried and hard, so that is probably what has been causing him to dig so much.  So....now we are going to put baby oil in his ear 2-3 times a week to help with the wax build up.  We have another follow-up with that office in 6 months to see if things are still good.  If they are, then we will be released again.

Needless to say, I am happy that he did not have to get another set of tubes put in.  Tony and I were convinced that this was the route we were headed, so it was a bit of a relief when he said that Owen didn't need them.  But...I really hope this baby oil thing helps because it really bothers me to see him digging so bad in his ear!