Pre-op for Ear Tubes

My parents took me to Dr. Camilon's house today. He is a very nice doctor and he lives at CHOC hospital. He let me play with his otoscope and his stethoscope before he looked into my ears and listened to my heart.

Dr. Camilon is the best doctor. Mom called him on Valentines Day because I was really sad and I was holding my ears in pain. The pressure was so intense that I had to hold my head up. I was crying trying to get mommy to understand what was wrong. She called Dr. Camilon at 6pm and spoke to his nurse on call. The nurse paged Dr. Camilon and in 10 minutes he was on the phone. Mommy explained that I had a 103 fever, swelling behind the right ear and I was in a lot of pain. Dr. Camilon said to meet him at CHOC Emergency asap - so Mom hurried me to the car and we were off.

Dr. Camilon met us there and prepped the ER for surgery because he thought I had Mastoiditis, which is basically an infection of mastoid process, the portion of the temporal bone of the skull that is behind the ear which contains open, air containing spaces. It is usually caused by untreated acute otitis media (middle ear infection). When acute otitis media is untreated, the infection can spread to surrounding structures, including the brain, causing serious complications.

BUT - I didn't have Mastoiditis, I just had acute otitis media. I was given heavy anti-biotics (shots) and Oral Cipro and I got to go home. Dr. Camilon explained the pain was from middle ear filling up with fluid and infection. The pressure was causing my eardrums to bulge and it was happening in both my ears. Dr. Camilon gave me pain medicine for my ears which made them numb so I didn't feel the pain anymore. It looked like earwax. Mom and I got home at 12:30am - it was a quite eventfully Valentines Day. The ER nurse give me a white teddybear holding a red heart - I named my teddybear Hugga.

The next morning I was a new girl. I felt so much better. I had no pain in my ears anymore. Mom was glad too. Until... Mom was brushing my hair and she noticed fluid coming out of my ears. The infection had worsened and caused my eardrums to rupture. The pain was gone because the pressure was gone. Mommy was really nervous because this was the second time my eardrums have ruptured due to infection and the last time was on Halloween Oct 31st. They healed quickly (24-48 hours) but during the healing process the eardrum build up scar tissue and become thick. Thickened eardrums eventually cause hearing loss.

Nervous Mom and I went back to see Dr. Camilon today and he scheduled me for surgery tomorrow at 6:20am. The procedure is called myringotomy, a small incision in the tympanic membrane (eardrum) and the insertion of a tympanostomy tube into the eardrum. The insertion of tympanostomy tubes is one of the most common surgical procedures performed on children. My cousin Zack had this same surgery 7 months ago... I am going to feel so much better after I have tubes in my ears - I can't wait. Here are some pictures of me today at my pre-op appointment with my nervous smile. Wish me luck tomorrow and say some prayers please!