tubes

 Have I mentioned that Julianna's an active child? She is much like her sister in that department. She's busy and doesn't have time for sitting in waiting rooms. This lack of patience was a problem this morning. She had an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, Dr. Epp, this morning at 9:15 and we were in the waiting room for over 45 minutes. Drew, on the other hand, is pretty laid back, calm and generally easy in the waiting room. Except for when he is with one of his sisters. He tends to feed on their activity. It's like, if he were a more rebellious child, he would have already tried all the shenanigans that his sisters get into in public...but, he's not that brave. However, when he witnesses the shenanigans, he thinks to himself that maybe climbing on the back of that chair, running around in circles, climbing all over Mom, throwing magazines on the floor and talking louder than necessary might be fun. So, he joins right in. Awesome. Really, really awesome.

The above paragraph is not the point of the post. I did need to get it out though. The waiting room experience with a toddler is not an activity for the faint of heart.

The reason I'm actually posting is to update you on Julianna. I have told you that she has been having some trouble with her ears. It turns out that she's actually having enough trouble with ear infections to warrant having tubes put in her ears. I wasn't surprised. I knew that's what they would say.

When Dr. Epp (who, by the way, is the doctor that preformed Drew's lure removal surgery.) came in to see us, he immediately began explaining how they decide to put tubes in a child's ears. He said that if the child has had more than four ear infections in a year, then it's a recommended procedure. He wasn't specific on how many infections Julianna has had, but he said that she's well over four. Without even looking in her ears, he started explaining the surgery he will be preforming to place the tubes in Julianna's ears.

Then, he looks in her ears and nose. He notices that she's pretty congested. He asks if she's always this congested. I said that I wasn't sure, she had been getting over her most recent sinus infection for so long that I could remember the last time she didn't have a runny nose.

He then tells me that we may be looking at possibly removing her adenoids, as well. He said that there are three things that look for when deciding about removing the adenoids. They look for chronic ear infections coupled with either snoring or chronic sinus infections. I told him that I didn't know how many sinus infections she'd had, but I did know that this wasn't her first one. He said he would go check her chart and see.

Turns out the girl has had about eight sinus infections. I'd say that that's chronic. So, obviously she's going to have two procedures done. Dr. Epp said that it is likely that she might avoid the doctor's office this winter.
Julianna is now scheduled for surgery for next Friday to put tubes in her ears and remove her adenoids. I'm hoping that this will limit our visits to the doctor's office this winter. I'd ideally like to avoid the waiting room with the children completely. We'll see about that...