Ears, ears, ears!

Yep, swimming is fine. My gremlins can't swim atm coz they have had so many chronic infections recently. At one point Mercedes was growing all 3 of the most common types of ear infection-causing bacteria in one ear .

But they're good now and if they stay that way they'll be able to swim over summer.

Good luck for Sam tomorrow Sterryn, hope everything goes well. Sam and I will be thinking of you.

I believe its about 10-14 days, Mum2Sam. Perhaps just use a moist flannel to wet her hair and comb through. Its pretty gross, but worth it in the end !

Woohoo, yay Sam and Tyrell! I tried to text you this morning Sterryn to see how it went but realised I don't have your number. I was so sure I did!

Sorry to hear it was so awful for you both But very glad to hear the awful part was over quickly and Sam is back to her usual self again. Awesome about the talking too, it's amazing the difference the grommets make.

Hope the staff at Gillies were as good to you and Tyrell as they always are to us Amy, the daystay ladies are lovely, one of them was saying this morning that they've pretty much seen the gremlins grow up coz Mercedes was less than a year old the first time she went in.

She was fine this morning as expected. She must have known what was going on tho coz she was really clingy when we arrived which is unlike her, yet Sienna, who normally is clingy wasn't.

When the anesthatist went to take her out, she was ready to trot off quite happily with him but Sienna burst into tears which started Mercedes off and she ended up going off with him screaming. Poor Sienna was very subdued the whole time Mercedes was gone, Renata took her for a ride to take Maya to school and when they got back Mercedes was out already, the looks on their faces were so sweet, they were so excited to see each other!

Home now, she seems to be in a bit of pain so I have given her some Nurofen to boost the pamol she had at the hospital and they're both asleep.

He ended up replacing both grommets, the one that was still there was apparently half out so he took it out and put the T tubes in instead. And her right ear looks perfectly healthy, her left (where the grommet was right out) had some fluid but no infection, he said it's the best he's ever seen her ears so yay!

Emma, I am so glad to hear that Mercedes' operation went well today. What a good girl she is.    Fingers crossed this grommet is problem free.
There was a little girl there at the same time that was a twin and she was very subdued without her sister. Maybe that is the trick

I have your phone number still I'm sure, so will text you mine Thanks for thinking of us though.

Sam had it done at the Southern Cross Hospital on the North Shore. The nurses were really lovely and Sam loved the teddy bear she was given

She is a very chatty girl it turns out. She has been non stop babbling all day today. It is so nice to hear. I can't wait for some words!

Still battling with Southern cross. I have now been told I have to provide all of Sam's GP records from birth, plunket clinic notes from birth and a letter from both the specialist and doctors confirming the information given. Ugh! I have threatened them with Fair go if this carrys on!

Edited by Mum2Sam

Sienna has another ear infection . Her ear started discharging this morning, so we're off to the good ole Starship on Thurs to get it suctioned . Poor wee thing. The most frustrating thing is that we were just about to start a sleep training programme with them but we can't do it unless they're both well

We saw the immunologist last week and she wants to do some tests to check their immune function as she's not happy with how many bugs/viruses/infections they pick up. They had the first lot of bloods last Wed (which was awful, a thousand times worse than the grommets coz they were asleep for the grommets!). She wants them to have an extra immunisation, Pneumovax, which vaccinates against 23 strands of pneumoccocal as opposed to the 7 strands that the Prevenar they've already had vaccinates for. Then they have to have more bloods 3-weeks post-vaccine to check how their immune systems respond to it. She's also going to check their immunity response to the other vaccines they've had (DTapHib, HepB etc.)

How are the other ear kids going?

I'm back this time it is Josh. He will be getting grommets at some stage early next year. He had 3 ear infections in 4 weeks including a burst ear drum. One of Andrew's grommets is out of his ear - but has healed very well. At the moment it is just sitting in his ear canal (DC saw something in his ear and paniced, I went down and saw the grommet so all was good) and our dr didn't want to take it out just yet.

I am not going to be very happy if Andrew needs them in again.

This is his second lot that has gone in. We will be able to tell better next winter if we need to get another set put in. Fingers crossed we don't need to go through it again.

Just lurking.
Spencer had an ear infection about 7 weeks ago, went to have a tympanogram (sp?) on Friday and the one ear that was infected came out wide and his other ear was totally flat. Nurse said that his hearing will definitely be affected as there was no movement at all in his right ear and the left wasn't all that flash either. He has a cold at the moment so she said that could be the cause, he did seem fine but after the test he started messing with his ear and was grumpy so it must be hurting.
Going back for another test at end of Feb unless we end up at docs before then.
How many infections or bad tympanograms do they tend to let them have before referring to a specialist?

Oh, I should add an update for us too

Sam has her follow up with the specialist tomorrow, but I would dare to say that things will be looking good. She hasn't touched her ears since the grommets went in, and over the last couple of days her speech is really picking up. Yesterday she said 'giraffe' as well as about 10 other new words.
Oh, and Southern cross have finally agreed to pay for the surgery - Woohoo