Over the past few months we have been determined to bring this to some conclusion. After having to switch otolaryngologists (ENT) two times over the past year, we finally settled on a fellow in our neighborhood. Each doctor first makes their attempt to resolve the condition via medication (which typically involved antihistamines and/or steroidal nasal spray).
After going through this again, in mid-November we set January 7th as the day to have him put tubes in her ears. For Amelia, those six or so weeks have turned out to be a most challenging period for her.
As it happened, she ended up getting strep throat right before thanksgiving, then having it reappear right before Christmas, evolving into a very painful earache shortly after that.
This — combined with her regular pediatrician being out a lot and needing to rely on a junior doctor who missed a few things — led to a barrage of medicines: 3 successive rounds of antibiotic (by mouth or by ear), nasal spray ongoing for her ear, and Motrin when she faced pain in her ears or her throat.
As we were winding down our holiday, I took the girls downstairs on the Friday before the procedure to play in our building's kids room while I went for a run in the gym across the hall. After a while Charlotte came in to ask me something, accompanied by Amelia. As I was talking to Charlotte, Amelia managed to inadvertently step on the treadmill I had just stepped off of taking her legs out from under her.
Amelia was really shook up, scared, and in pain. Charlotte and I took her out of the gym to comfort her, and to see how she was. She complained about pain in her wrist, but was able to move it. We brought her upstairs and Ewa wrapped her arm in ice. We debated bringing her to the ER, but opted against because it was already close to their bedtime and they hadn't had dinner. I bought a wrist support for her so she could have some protection, but we were pretty sure at this point that Amelia would need to get x-rays.
So when Saturday morning came and Amelia still complained of wrist pain, we took her to the hospital.
All four of us went since it was short notice and we didn't feel quite right about leaving Charlotte behind. The hospital was amazing, staff marvelous with the kids, which went a long way toward putting Ewa and I (and the girls!) at ease. We were very worried that she might need a cast, and me knowing what that is like I was very distressed about Amelia needing to deal with itching, bathing, clothing, etc.
After a painful set of X-Rays, it turned out that she had a Greenstick Fracture, a type of fracture common in children where the bone is not actually broken but rather it buckles.
Nevertheless it hurt massively and needed to be wrapped up to protect it for the month it would take to repair. Amelia had her choice of colors; naturally, she chose pink :-).
Subsequent to all of this, we were very nervous about imposing the procedure to add tubes to her ears. We arranged a follow-up appointment with her Ear, Nose, Throat doctor to discuss moving it. After a conversation however, he urged us to continue with the procedure, predicting that it would improve things for her dramatically. Going on his reassurance, we went ahead with the procedure, a mere three days after our visit to the ER for her arm.
