She’s walked around the house whimpering and clutching her ear.  She hasn’t slept a full night in four days nor has she eaten much of anything.

This is the child who never says no to sleep and food.  Ever.

More than once when she was younger, she would vomit in the middle of the night and go right back to sleep in it and we wouldn’t know she was sick until the next morning when the house smelled like death.  Hope you’re not reading this while drinking your coffee.

So we knew something was wrong.  The Walgreen’s Walk In clinic nurse lady said Swimmer’s Ear.  It was a best guess since she couldn’t see past the impacted wax in Tia’s teeny tiny ear canals.  So off we went with drops and an Icee, because Tia didn’t scream bloody murder when the nurse lady looked in her ears.

But…

She spiked a fever and her ear hurt so bad she couldn’t even eat a Wendy’s Frosty for lunch. This was bad.  So we made a phone call to a local ENT and I bribed her a second time in three days.

“Be brave and I’ll get you a little treat,” I promised.  Because in the past it’s taken me and two nurses to hold her down for an ear exam.  Bribery is my only defense.

“That is a nasty looking little ear,” the doctor said as he peeked inside.  Her eyes were squeezed shut and she took big deep breaths to keep herself calm.  “Most adults wouldn’t be able to function under the type of pain she is probably experiencing.”

Her ear canal has swollen shut, a negative reaction to the medicated drops.  Does she have an inner ear infection in addition to the outer ear infection?  No one can say because she has so much wax in her ears and it’s packed in tight like cement.

“I’m surprised she can hear anything at all,” he said.  I told him we repeat things a lot.

So Friday morning, we are headed into a local surgery center to have her sedated and have her ears roto-rooter’ed (Yes, that’s a word…it’s a verb).  From there we will better be able to determine exactly what’s going on inside her ears and hopefully relieve her of this nasty, ugly pain.

Until then, it’s lots of Tylenol and hugs and probably a few more sleepless nights.  The little radiator climbs in bed with us around 1:30 when her current dose of medication wears off and sleeps on top of me the rest of the night.  The good news is that last night, for the first time in several days, she hasn’t cried throughout the night.  And she’s still asleep this morning.

Probably because it’s raining and dark outside.

Look at that, I somehow managed to tie that random title into this post after all.  Go me…

How is your week going?