Son's ear infection

"When it rains, it pours." Or as a famous late night comedienne would have said, when she played Rosanne Rosannadanna, "It's always somethin'."

Son started having an earache a few days ago. It developed into a wicked infection. We didn't really have anything here to alleviate the infection or the pain associated with it. It got so bad that the side of his face and his whole ear were swollen, and he was having unbearable pain, so we wound up going to the ER.

They diagnosed "otitis externa", or something like that. This is an infection of the ear canal. It was swollen shut, really, and the doctor said these are especially painful because the ear canal is so sensitive. It could have been caused by something as minor as a tiny scratch inside the canal, though they are often caused by swimming in dirty water.

He wrote a prescription for three meds - antibiotic tablets, pain medicine, and triple acting antibiotic/pain relieving ear drops. These scrips set me back about $56, and there will be the ER visit for Son to pay as well.

The meds seem to be helping some, but it's not over with yet. It will likely take 2 or 3 days to really see a significant improvement. In the meantime, Son can't close his mouth all the way and sits around with his head tilted away from the painful ear, like some kind of cardboard display that can't move. He's spent a lot of time sleeping, now that he's getting some relief.

He spent the night before the ER visit only having slept about 2 hours, and being exhausted for work that next day. Fortunately, he's got a couple of days off anyway, so maybe by the time he goes back, he'll feel better.

One of the meds is making him nauseous. I suspect that it's the strong pain tablets and suggested that he stop taking them, if he can.

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