A real pain in the ear

Did everyone move and not tell me?  That would be my luck.  Pssst - let's ditch the old guy, start a hip, new blog and not tell him.  Well, since I still have a password and a place to write my posts, I'll keep coming here.  That is, until you stop visiting and reading and then what would be the point?

A while back - wow - was it really that long ago?  Man, we've been here for a while.  And I have the utmost respect for you, dear readers, for putting up with us, reading our drivel and coming back for more - masochists!  Every last one of ya.  Anyway, way back when, I wrote about my migraines and how I hope that I don't pass them along to Little Dub.  Well, I have something else I'd like to add to that "I hope it ends with me" list of traits.  Ear infections.  Yes, yes, I know they are very common and I know there's not a lot that can be done to avoid them.  I also know having tubes placed in ones ears is also a very common procedure -- something along the lines of 2 million tubes placed each year.  Oftentimes, ear infections run their course and the child is good to go - they essentially "grow out of it."  However, some children have recurring middle ear infections (yours truly) and require tubes to relieve the infection which does not respond to the anti-biotics.  Again, most experience relief after the first go round.  Yours truly?  Not so much.  Add an ear infection to a migraine and I was one miserable little son-of-a-bitch.

I was a frequent flyer having had the procedure twice.  The second also involved a T&A - get your minds out of the gutter, people.  Tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy.  Jeeez.  I was 8 for crissakes.  Anyway, the first trip was for the smaller tubes which remain in the ear for about six months and eventually fall out on their own.  At the time, it appeared to do the trick.  Yeah,  no.  Soon after, the infections flared up again with much gusto and I found myself under the knife again, having the larger tubes placed.  In addition to being larger, these also require that they be removed rather than fall out on their own.  But, did you know that tubes can also be a traumatic event in the life of a child?

For virtually an entire summer I was required to wear a bathing cap whenever I got into a pool.  And couldn't go under water.  Or get splashed.  And I had to stay in the shallow end.  Oh, the horror.  It was a grand ritual just to get some relief from the summer swelter.  Cotton balls had to be lubed up in Vaseline and crammed into the ear canal.  Then I had to don the rubber cap and gingerly enter the pool.  Humiliating on its face, but when you're stuck in three feet of water with the grandmothers and elderly aunts, no one wants to play Marco Polo with you.

Thankfully, I was given a clean bill of health around the middle of August and went about splashing in the pool with reckless abandon.  I never again experienced an infection.  And, no, I was not scarred for life, but as I stay at home with Little Dub as he battles an ear infection, I hope they never get as full-blown as mine once did.  I'm not sure I can look at a bathing cap without breaking out into a cold sweat.