Ear News.

Yesterday was Ethan's follow up appointment for his ears.  Ryan went with me to the appt.  Ethan has been still randomly fussy at odd times and still tugging at his ears occasionally.  He just finished his 2nd round of antibiotics on Sunday and I was anxious to finally hear a bill of good health.  Didn't get that, however.  Doc said his left ear - the one that eardrum burst - is still very red and there is still a large amount of fluid behind it.  He said he's very concerned that it seems nothing will heal this infection.  He says that instead of considering this a 3rd ear infection, he'd consider it one big long infection that has not healed.... which, he says, is even worse.  He said that we do not want this to continue or Ethan's hearing could be greatly affected and his language too.  He said this is a crucial time for Ethan in his language development.  The worst part is that Ethan doesn't give us any REAL symptoms for ear infections... he doesn't have a fever, coughing etc... He wants us to see an ENT.  In the meantime, Ethan is on Zithromax - a 3rd antiobiotic, one he hasn't been on yet.  It's a 3 day treatment.  On Monday, we have our appt w/ the ENT.    On another note, there is a strong possibility Ethan is allergic to our cats.  They SAY we can't test him until he's 3 yrs old - but a little birdie told me that there is a possibility if we are willing to pay for it, we can get tested early if we pay for it... we're researching this because there is a CHANCE that ALL of his problems (reflux, allergic breakouts, lingering ear infection) could be stemmed from a bad cat allergy.  Obviously, we take this seriously because our cats are important to us and we've had them for 9 years.  We take that very seriously so we want to be 100% sure before we removed our cats.  More on this when we have updates.  Thanks for the prayers for baby ethan.  Poor little guy can't seem to catch a break, yet he's a sweet giggly happy baby.  If this is a hint of how tough he'll be when he's bigger, the world better watch out!!!