A first for all of us

Ok, I want to start by apologizing to all the parents who's children have ever had ear infections and I thought under my breath "how hard could it be?" I'm so sorry, so sorry that your baby/toddler/school age child had to go through anything like that, hurting and not being able to tell you where they are hurting or if they do tell you, you still can't do anything about it. I'm just so sorry. My children have never had an ear infection. I know now that I've been extremely blessed by this. I can now no longer say "never" for this statement. My sweet Ryan got an ear infection right after school started in August. She came home from school, played, ate dinner and had a bath. We got ready for bed, we had prayer and I sent the girls to their room for the first time that evening. Not more than 30 minutes later, Ryan was screaming uncontrollably like a mad woman. I went in her room and screamed back at her to stay quiet, we live in an apartment, we have neighbors, etc. Basically, she was yelling and so was I. I went through the obligatory questions about pain, nausea, vomitting, etc. She denied all the symptoms I brought up. She'd quit for a few minutes then start up again, louder than before. After this went on for about 30 mins, I called Urgent Care, they returned my call but sadly it was too late, they were closing and all "urgent" needs would have to wait till the next day. By 9:30, I couldn't take it anymore so I called Joe to come home from work so I could take her to the ER or at the very least further away from her siblings for the night so they could get some rest. I don't know how, but both Britt and Hunt were very sleeping soundly and I didn't wanna rock that boat. When Joe finally got home, I was able to take Ryan to the new children friendly TMH ER and that's where they told us that her right ear was "terribly inflamed." I was shocked but I was also relieved that we have a diagnosis and she would be able to get better, which she did. It must have been festering since our beach trips this past summer, was the only reason I could think of. I just know I don't ever wanna see my baby scream like that again.


**MSL**