Say What???

Okay, first...I must address this now infamous comment by the ultrasound lady. When she said it...she said it to me and she said it meaning "boy". That is why when I looked at her for clarification on what the frick she was talking about she said, "I mean if it's another boy and I don't know if it is or not".

I can see why some of you took it to mean girl upon her first comment or not knowing who she was talking to...but we were there. She meant boy. Now whether she saw parts or not, I don't know. Sometimes it can happen that fast. When I had my very last ultrasound with Easton a day or two before he ended up being born, the doctor (who never went looking for gender) slipped (in hindsight) and she said, "Once he...or she...blah blah blah..." She tried to cover her blunder quickly and we told ourselves we still couldn't be sure. But looking back, quite the mistake. Like this other ultrasound tech has made? I guess we'll know in a few months.

Now onto my real post.

I can't hear out of my ear infected ear. Well, maybe I can a little bit but the other night I was sleeping with my good ear on the pillow and I couldn't hear Easton screaming for me in the night until I'd rolled over and he was in full fit mode, tears soaking his shirt from a long time spent crying. :( So, I called my primary care doctor's office to see what to do or who to follow up with. The pain from my ear infection is long gone. My last pain pill was that Vicodin that made me puke Monday morning, a little more than 24 hours after the pain started. But even though the pain was gone I still have this "plugged up" feeling in my ear and then there's the very diminished hearing.

Well, they said they wanted to see me. So the boys and I went up there yesterday afternoon and from the looks of things I had something I'd never heard of before: bullous myringitis. One of the characteristics is a severe sudden onset of pain for 24-48 hours. (Makes me feel much better about going to the E.R. for an ear infection as I had already decided there was no way Dalton was in the amount of pain I was during his ear infection last month.) Apparently a blister (or blisters) can develop on the tympanic membrane (ear drum) causing the severe pain and then they pop...which relieves some of the pain. But bullous myringitis is most definitely associated with some continued hearing loss--for 10-14 days or so--as well as the "congested ear" feeling I'm having. And when she looked in my ear she said she saw blood spots, like maybe where some blisters had been and had popped.

Interesting.

So, wouldn't the ER doctor have seen these blisters/vesicles? Maybe, maybe not. She said sometimes they're hard to see and that not everyone may know about bullous myringitis. Google seems to agree with that last part. But also it sounds like it can go along with a regular ol' ear infection and maybe the doctor was just seeing that part?

Even though it sounds like an STD of the ear, it could be bacterial or viral or mycoplasmal--which I think is parasites, eeeeeeek!!!

Apparently we're just going to wait on this hearing loss to hopefully resolve in the next two weeks but if not she'll send me to an ENT. About the "plugged up" bit she also advised me not to do Sudafed. I didn't ask about other decongestants but both the ER doc and now this family practice doc (who also delivers babies) have advised my pregnant self to stay away from the Sudafed. I'm considering asking my OB about taking something, just because it's soooooooo annoying to have my ear feeling like it needs to pop for the last week or so. Also because I'm far enough along in my pregnancy where basically everything is formed by now (and lookin good on ultrasound!) so it's a little less risky of a move to take certain things. We'll see though.

Anyway, that the scoop. Maybe my medically minded pals (Kelli and Kyla, especially) will have learned a little something new with this. :) And the rest of you might go, "Oh, maybe she's not such a wimp after all for not wanting to wait 4 hours for urgent care". :)

The end.