Poor Baby Micah

Well, since February, Micah has been having LOTS of problems with his ears. Basically, he has had one long ear infection. He has taken 3 different antibiotics, and all three have failed. Now his right eardrum is scabbed (according to his doctor), and his left ear is starting to look really bad. Although his right ear is not currently infected, it is still filled with fluid. Micah has had reflux his whole little life, and all the ear infections are a secondary problem to that. When he refluxes, the liquid goes into his eustacian tubes (in the back of his throat) up into his ear. Typically it should drain out... but at this point, his ears have been so infected that those eustacian tubes are swollen shut and the fluid just sits there. He lets us know this by banging on his head with his hand, yanking on his ears, and when they are infected, he fuses ALL THE TIME! His doctor is starting to worry about hearing loss. According to his doctor, Micah hears things as if he's under water. Soooo...

We are taking Micah to the ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor next week to get his hearing checked and get him evaluated for "tubes". This is where they put a small plastic tube through the ear drum to let the fluid empty into the ear canal. They stay in for a few months. He will go under general anesthesia to have it done. We don't know for sure yet if he will get them, but his primary doctor thinks the ENT will choose to do it. At this point we're hoping the ENT agrees that he needs them because it has not been fun watching him live with all these infections! Well keep you updated!

Here is a link where there are still pictures of Chronic Otits Media (the condition Micah has). The top left picture is what Micah's ear looks like now with all the fluid behind the ear drum, and the one next to it shows a metal tube placed to drain the fluid. For those of you with stronger stomachs, here is an actual video (really short) of a tube being placed into an ear with Chronic Otitis Media.