My visit to the ENT on Monday yielded another angle in attempting to treat this. We're trying out reflux as a diagnosis, so I have stomach acid neutralising medicine. I'm also trying not to eat for a couple of hours before bed and last night I slept with a couple of extra pillows under my upper body to try to minimise any errant acid slipping up my oesophagus and irritating my throat.
Apparently, if I'd seen an gastroenterologist, he'd have been able to use a camera to make a more definitive diagnosis. But, we'll wait and see how this works for now. I really hope it is just a short-term thing because I much rather sleeping flat on my wonderful mattress and pillow at the same level as my darling husband.
Ear infection saga
Our youngest son has been complaining of an ear ache on and off over the last few weeks. David took him to the doctor on August 20 and they found nothing. Then I took him last Saturday (29th) and he was given ear drops. Then Monday evening his ear was hurting more and more and yesterday morning at 2.30 he woke in pretty bad pain, he probably had a fever too, but I forgot to measure it before we gave him pain medicine.
When I took him to the doctor yesterday morning he was still pretty healthy looking, though in pain. He was given oral antibiotics to treat an infection that had spread from his ear canal to the surrounding tissue (probably called mastoiditis in English). He went back to school at lunch-time but ended up not being able to do much because he was in too much pain.
By 5.30 last night his temperature was going up despite the medicine and he was looking ill, so I took him back to the doctor just before they closed for the night. Thankfully this doctor is a walk-in clinic and therefore functioned like an ER last night for us. He ended up being given a 30 minute IV and then we went home. We go back for another IV this afternoon. Hopefully he'll start to feel better soon. Right now he's finishing off a good book in bed.
We're very thankful for good medical care that was easily accessed. This was a situation that could have gone bad very quickly. I felt quite stressed by it all (which I'm sure doesn't help my own health).
Other health issues?
Last night my sister, shocked at all this, asked if everyone else was well in our house. David and our middle son is, though our eldest has had an infected sore on his foot and a persistent, but not bad cough. I don't understand the cough because he's managing to do cross-country training for a couple of hours after school everyday. I guess in the midst of everything else I'm hoping the cough will go away, but if it persists, I suppose we'll have another trip to the doctor coming up for him too.
This amount of illness is uncommon for our family these days. We're usually a healthy lot (I'm the one who has all the niggly things). Perhaps the stress of returning to Japan has caught up with us?
Update: he was admitted to hospital this evening. Diagnosis is cellulitis. He'll probably be an inpatient for three or four days. We value your prayers!
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