Ogre Ear and the Ensuing Nightmare

JP. One week ago. Mother's Day JP woke up with a very swollen ear. So swollen it had changed shape and was protruding out and down. He looked totally lopsided. Thinking he probably got bit, I called his PCP and expected to have to give him some Bendryl or maybe an antibiotic. Fat chance.

The doc took one look at him. She left the room and came back with another PA. Never a good sign.

"Well, we think it's mastoiditis. But it's pretty rare, especially in a baby who has never even had an ear infection."

Knowing what your mastoid is (that curvy bone behind your ears) and that "itis" is just infammation I was thinking "No biggie".


"Well, it's tricky to treat it and to be honest in 15 years this is the second time I've ever heard of anyone getting it. You're going to have to take him for CT scans and then probably he'll need surgery."

"Huh?"

"Well, the infection that is in his mastoid bone can very easily and very quickly spread and then cause much more severe problems. But I'm really not an expert...."

I lost most of the rest. Surgery? My baby? My, as in mine? I just looked at the little guy and to be honest, at that moment I shut off all emotion. I went on auto pilot and even right now I think it's still flying.

After a long, so very long day in the ED at Mercy we were finally able to get the proper tests done. Tests that needed to happen to satisy the insurance company. You see, my network hospital doesn't treat infants. So... eventually he would have his surgery there and then have to be transferred to a hospital that does. I won't go into the details, but basically within 30 minutes of surgery we were packed into an ambulance and transferred to Baystate. We got there at 1AM. It was a fricken nightmare.

Basically what they did to poor JP was cut out part of the mastoid bone and then put a tube into his ear.

We stayed in the hospital until about 8:30PM tonight. Baystate's children's unit is first class. At least it looks like it is. To be honest, I was given all student nurses and rarely saw an RN. I had to remind them when his meds were due. I was never showed how to change his dressings, I was discharged and given some prescriptions and told to call the ENT specialist.

I was told that the ENT doc was coming today at 1PM to do his dressings and okay the discharge. Every 90 minutes I had to go to the nurses' station and find out where the hell this guy was. At 7:30PM I asked again. Only to find out that he wasn't coming. I don't know who screwed up what and I didn't give a shit. I am so pissed off at these idiots. They then told me to pack up our stuff and we'd be outta there.

Aaron put Seth in the car and all our things. Both boys are used to a 7PM bedtime, so they were pretty cranky. A nurse comes in and says that our paperwork should be done in 2 hours.

2. HOURS.

"Absolutely unacceptable." I was curt, but polite still. I explained how my day had gone. I asked if I could just stay the night.

"No, because your dishcarge is already started."

I made it clear that 2 hours to sign a couple forms was not something I was agreeing to. And I reminded her that his meds were due 20 minutes ago.

About 30 minutes later another nurse came in, handed me two forms to sign and 3 prescriptions. No meds. I would need to have everything filled ASAP... another thing to do before getting boys to bed.

So, here it is 11PM and I"m venting on this so I can go to sleep. It's probably horribly written but I really haven't slept in a couple days.

JP is fine. He needs to follow up with the ENT doc. I wonder if I show up 7 hours late he'll be happy to see me? You know, at 8PM, at his house.

I'll write more about the past couple days. I just need to sleep on it. I have some people who made a very scary experience a lot more bearable for us. God bless my family.