A Trip to the ER

Never a dull moment when there is a child in your life that's for sure. Well, this was how our evening played out tonight. Randy had his usual basketball practice for his 6th grade boys from 7:00-8:30. Karenza was watching Cinderella III in her room and was being really good. I hadn't seen much of her tonight, as she was occupied in her room. She did come out to the living room where I was once and a while, and when she did come out she kept complaining of her ear hurting. I asked her if she wanted me to put some medicine in it, and she told me no. So I thought maybe it was just an itch or something so I let it be. I went to check on her in her room, and she complained about her ear hurting again, and I asked her which one. She pointed to her right ear. So I peeked in her ear and thought I saw something in there, but I wasn't quite sure so I made her come out to the living room and lay on the couch with her head on my lap so I could look closely under the lamp. It looked like something was in there. I saw something white. I looked in her left ear and there was nothing there. I thought maybe I could grab it with a tweezers, and she wouldn't even let me put it close to her ear. And I thought to myself "What am I doing? I could poke this further in her ear!" So I looked at the clock and it was 8:45 and I called Randy to see where he was. He was just around the corner and I told him we needed to take Karenza to the Emergency Room because I think she put something in her ear. So we grabbed her blanket and baby alive and and met daddy when he was pulling up. He jumped in the truck and off to the ER we went. I noticed they remodeled since we were at the ER last (probably about a year ago for me and what we thought was either kidney stones or gall stones - turned out to be neither!) we had to pick up a phone first and tell them what was wrong and then there was this buzz and the door opened. The receptionist did all our paper work, and a nurse came out and took us in this tiny room to get Karenza's vitals and weight (she weighs 34 lbs!) and asked us what was wrong. The nurse then calls someone on what looked like a cell phone and proceeded to tell them what was wrong and then said follow me, so out back to the receptionist we go and through the ER doors. Seems to me like there could be room for procedure here, but anyway. We went in this room that had what looked like a dentist chair and two chairs for Randy and me. Karenza sat in the "dentist chair" and asked Randy and me where her bed was? She was kind of confused. She tried laying down in the "dentist chair" but that wasn't working. So another nurse comes in and asks us again what was wrong, and we told her (again) and she asked me if she had a temp and what she weighed? I was like did the first nurse not wright any of this down? So I told her. Then she said the doctor would be in. It was only about 10 minutes before he came (the ER was packed!) and he looked in her left ear first and it was good. Then in her right ear and told me that there wasn't anything in there but wax built up! I was like, what? I just had given her a bath the night before and used a q-tip and it was clean! One of the things I am obsessed about is clean ears. Just ask my mom, dad, or sister. I am always cleaning my ears (and don't want anyone standing near me while I was doing for fear it would get lodged in my ear). He said that it was beyond what a qtip could reach. I think I recall when I was little having the same problem. Will have to ask my mom on that, but I think I have a little memory of that. So they move us to another room where there is a bed so that they can put some oil in her ear and lay flat with her left ear on the pillow so her right ear was facing the ceiling for 15 minutes! That is a long time to ask a 3 year old to lay still. She cried the whole time! Randy was asking her questions like where is daddy's nose? Does daddy have hair above his eyes? Do you remember what they are called? And it worked! Kudos to his fast thinking on keeping her mind off of it. So the doctor comes back in in 15 minutes and gets this "squirt gun" as he described it to Karenza. He let her squirt water in the garbage can first. She thought that was pretty cool. Not so much when it was the doctors turn to flush out her ear. One nurse was holding her head and I was holding her hand and rubbing her back. She was screaming bloody murder! The girl definitely has a set of lungs! The doctor went and got another nurse to help hold her down. So it took two nurses and the doctor to hold her head straight, and her legs. They said she was a tough little girl! Anyway, out came the wax that was in there. I felt so sorry for the little thing. That's my baby! It was about 10:20 when we left and she was thirsty so Randy stopped and did get her some juice. It was late to have some juice but I wasn't going to say no! When we were getting ready to leave the ER I asked her if she still wanted the Baby My Little Pony with the bottle and she told me that she just wanted to go home! She may still get it for being a big trooper! It's hard to see her screaming and crying at the top of her lungs and watching the doctor/nurses hold her down. Sure glad we brought our Bronco blankie along. At least it will feel better now. Didn't take her long to get to sleep. Hopefully she has a better day tomorrow!