Medical Mishaps Month

This is not a month I would care to repeat. I am not sure how you declare a month an official month for something, like the ones I found for January: "National Book Month," or "National Egg Month," or even "Prune Breakfast Month." (I mean, really, who declares that?!) But for us, this has been the official Medical Mishap Month. Not on purpose, by any means.
For Nicholas it began last summer, toward the end of July even, and has continued for the past six months with chronic illness and ear infections. The poor guy has been really miserable. Over the holidays while we were in Utah, the antibiotics that had been administered several times in the last months had stopped giving adequate healing for his little ears. The pediatrician needed six consecutive documented cases of infection before we could go to a specialist. And so when we returned from Utah, the very next day I took all three kids in to the doctor first thing. (Lexie had been very ill for a whole week, and Nicholas caught it and Gavin was starting...we suspected strep throat.) It turns out Lexie and Gavin were fine, just a virus that had to run its course. But the doctor seemed very concerned about the pekid condition of Nicholas' skin and the red rash he had all over his body. So they needed to draw blood to make sure his white blood cell count was okay. Poor Cole already hates the doctor's office, after that day he was terrified. (Three nurses held him down and tried to draw blood three different places for an whole hour, while he screamed the entire time.) After later running the tests, they found that his blood count was normal and we didn't have anything serious to worry about. (Whew!)
After incredibly freezing subzero weather had school cancelled for three days, Cole started up the telltale signs of ear infection: refusal to eat, general increased fussiness, trouble sleeping, and screaming constantly. I had made his 18-month well check for a week after his blood-draw incident. Unfortunately he wasn't well, and because he wasn't responding to the oral antibiotics, he received antibiotic injections 3 times that week. But at least we were able to get to the Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialists also that week (yes, four doctor's appointments that week. He was really becoming terrified of the doctor's office now.) And the decision was rendered that Cole was a good candidate for ear ventilation tubes. (The doctor explained that while the antibiotics could treat the infection, the fluid in his inner ear never went away. Not only was this uncomfortable and the cause of repeat infection, but it was "like walking around with your fingers in your ears. You could hear, but everything sounds muffled." It also might be why he had a hard time making out words and sounds correctly.)
Although I had wanted the ear tubes to relieve all this chronic pain for Cole, I was still a bit nervous about having my child undergo surgery. I am grateful to all the mothers I have talked with that have children who have had ear tubes and how much praise they had for the procedure. I was desperate for something to help our situation.
So we had one week where we didn't have to take Cole to the doctor's office. But that didn't keep us away! Lexie and Gavin were wrestling Sunday the 13th, and Gavin pushed Lexie backward and she fell on her neck onto a table edge. I hoped it wouldn't be anything major, and watched her to see. But for the next two days she complained about severe pain in her neck, and when I picked her up from school on Tuesday she was in a considerable amount of pain and the tears were flowing freely. So I packed all three kids and we spent three hours in the Children's Hospital emergency room to x-ray her neck and make sure she didn't fracture anything. The relief is that it was just swollen, but not broken.
Thinking, "well, now we just have Cole's surgery to worry about..." was a little preemptive. On Saturday the 23rd, Gavin and Lexie started swimming lessons. After Gavin's lesson, while Lexie was in the pool, he decided to hop around on the top bleacher. That didn't go very well, and he lost his footing and fell through the bleachers all the way to the bottom. He fell on his head and split it open. Head wounds bleed profusely, so I am really glad Danny was there for that one. Danny had to take him in the shower and rinse the blood off of everything. By the time they got home, the wound was still gaping a bit and the blood was still present, so Danny took him to urgent care to get it stitched. But instead of stitching, this is what they did:
Yeah, I am glad Danny was there for that, too. For some reason stitching seems less severe than putting staples in your head. That kind of freaked me out, but Gavin was super brave. He didn't even cry and just said "Ow." The staples stay in for one week and we go have them removed tomorrow. Gavin was also checked for a concussion, but declared fine. That was a relief!
Next up was the big surgery day for Cole on Tuesday. When we arrived at the hospital, he was very wary of the nurses taking his blood pressure, checking his vitals, and looking in his ears. Cole has been through so much lately, I feel so bad for him.
You can tell that the poor little soul didn't want to be there, so we made sure he had all his comfort devices: his binky, his blankie, and wolfie his stuffed wolf.
He enjoyed a couple of toys while we waited for the surgery. The whole time he was away from me was less than a half hour. The surgery took about one minute on each ear is all, most of the time was for the anesthesia. When he came back he definitely didn't feel good, and kept pulling at his ears and crying. But we bundled up and left and he was great on the drive home. As soon as we got home he was a new kid! I took off his coat and he ran across the room laughing. Since Tuesday, he must hear better, because he has been so much more responsive. He is also saying words much more clearly and has said several new words since having all that fluid suctioned out. Let's hope it is a permanent change for the better. He deserves to finally be healthy and feel well.
Just yesterday, I realized that while this month has been hard, we have been incredibly blessed. We have insurance coverage for all of these mishaps and Lexie and Gavin's incidents were not serious. Cole was in good hands and can now look forward to good hearing and no more pain. I know that while we have had many trials, we have also had the tender mercies of the Lord.