Life... as we know it: Swimmers ear

This morning I awoke to my little Nugget standing next to my bed, armed with her teddy bear in one arm and her lovey in the other. As I leaned over to kiss her good morning, she raised her hand to her ear with a scowl on her face; and it was obvious that her ear was hurting her. As I reached over to swoop her hair out of her eyes, I realized her hair was stuck to her face and seemed to be coated in what I thought felt like dried apple sauce... ( I was still somewhat disoriented from just waking up but knew she had had a bath the night before and hadn't eaten yet this am... hmmm). Once I realized it was not applesauce, I began to investigate the source only to find that her left ear was draining pretty significantly (cloudy, reddish discharge is not a good sign). It had drained enough to coat the side of her face, her hair and all around her ear... poor kiddo.
Needless to say, come 8am, I was on the phone with her pediatrician, scheduling the first available appointment. . . 8:45 we were sitting in the Dr.s office waiting for the Dr. to see her. Come to find out, Suri has a pretty advanced case of swimmers ear and the physician was pretty impressed at how calm Suri was throughout her exam despite all the puss and inflammation that was in her ear. All Suri said was "ouch" but remained calm and still ( not sure if this phenomenal behavior is due to the therapeutic listening or not, but I'll take it!). The Dr. wrote us a script for NO SWIMMING for 1 week as well as for some antibiotic ear drops that should help to clear it up. The Dr. also mentioned that Suri's tube in her right ear looks like it has moved and may be on it's way out. She could not see anything in her left ear due to the inflammation and puss but she said the left tube may have already fallen out and this infection could be the result. I hope and pray we are not going to revisit the chronic ear infections again. Suri's tubes will have been in almost 1 year and we have been lucky to have remained ear infection free. I hope this swimmers ear clears up and that it will not be a condition that frequents her as she enjoys swimming so much.

While waiting for the prescription to be filled, Suri and I went to the park near our house. It was a fairly overcast morning and Suri was excited to be able to swing on a swing that wasn't scorching hot. She was armed with her Elmo and enjoyed spending some time outside.