Friday, June 20, 2008

Ear Pain Lessened

Still haven't filled the prescription. (See the last ear post.)

The last post was on Monday; it's now Friday.
I got her back on her regular supplements, which include some yeast fighters, although I didn't double up on anything. We ran out of ThreeLac and I've not yet received the new, so she hasn't had that since Tuesday.

Although we have not seen any discharge, her pain continued Tues and Wed. I gave her acetominophen for the pain, every 4-6 hrs or so as she complained vehemently about her ear. The pain woke her up at night Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, I swabbed an antifungal cream into her ear. Something similar to Lotrimin. I swabbed it again Wednesday evening. Wednesday evening, she slept through the night without pain. No pain meds on Thursday. I swabbed again Thurday night. She slept well again Thursday night, with no pain since late Wednesday.

I'll continue the antifungal swabs for another several days to make sure it's gone. Not sure if it was the supplements or the antifungal cream which got it under control. I have used NO ANTIBIOTICS, so it wasn't swimmer's ear as diagnosed by the dr's office.

The last time I used an antifungal cream, we only did it once. The infection seemed to subside immediately, but I didn't believe that was the solution because we only did it ONCE. Yet, this time, the pain seemed to subside relatively quickly once the cream was introduced.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Bilateral Otoplasty

Another event which has gone unreported was Demi's bilateral otoplasty. Back in April, she underwent a day surgery to have her ears pinned back and rotated slightly.


Before the operation, her ears were significantly cupped (see the darling picture at left). So much so that her hearing aids would not stay on without special straps to keep them in place. There was simply no "behind the ear" there. Without the straps, the hearing aid flapped in the breeze, attached only by the earmold.












Here are some "in between" pictures. After the surgery, they wrapped her head with layers of gauze like a helmet. She had to keep that on for three days. After three days, we got a headband to wear over her ears for protection and keep them flattened. I ended up making my own headband, because the pictured option was not the best. She wore the headband 24/7 for two weeks, then just at night for another two weeks. (In reality, she wasn't wearing it after the first two weeks, because it inevitably came off during the night.)






Here are the AFTER pictures.
Do they look normal, unremarkable? Yea!!

These two pictures were taken just last week and today.
We "lost" a little bit on the left ear - it's not quite as tightly pinned as the right. But they still look great compared to what they were before. (Take a look back at the BEFORE picture if you don't think so!) We're now 12 weeks post-surgery so they're totally healed with no complications.








The reveal:



Another Ear Infection

Way too long between posts, especially with all the stuff going on.

The latest has to do with those darned slimy ears. This time, we haven't reached the slime stage yet. Demi started complaining yesterday that her ear hurt - RED FLAG. Early this morning, she said it hurt "a little". Later, it was back to "It really hurts!" so I took her in.

Again, they diagnosed an outer ear infection - the standard Swimmer's Ear to be treated with antibiotics. I asked specifically about the fungal infection, but was told it was "unlikely" because she felt pain to the touch, which wasn't characteristic of the fungal infection. He gave me a prescription which contained both an antibiotic and an antifungal in order to cover both possibilities.

Instead of filling the prescription, I'm upping her yeast protocol to see how it works. Because of a trip to the grandparents, a camping trip, and sheer laziness for 4 days, she's been without her ThreeLac for two weeks now. She had been without most of her supplements for four days last week. After everything going smoothly for a while, I start to forget how important certain pieces of the puzzle are.

After the doctor, I immediately gave her two sachets of ThreeLac. She had already gotten SaccB this morning. She complained again that her ear still hurt and went to take a nap. Got up after an hour; it still hurt a lot. Back down after just 5 mins. After another hour, she got up again and said that her ear didn't hurt as much.

If it continues to hurt her, gets worse, starts draining, etc., I'll likely go get the prescription filled before it gets out of hand. If it stops bothering her, I'll continue with the extra ThreeLac and her normal yeast fighters. Hopefully it'll clear up just by getting her back on all of her regular supps.