going tubing, yet again

I picked up Britton early from daycare today for her ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor appointment. She was in the middle of snacktime, so we brought her chocolate chip cookies with her, as evidenced by her chocolaty mouth...



Don't worry about the straps - I tightened them! Then we were off to Fort Worth. See, I work in Fort Worth, but I live about 20-30 minutes away. So today I left work, got Britton, went back to the medical building not more than 3 blocks from where I work, then drove back home afterwards. Ugh.

Britton did well during her hearing test, even letting the "needs to learn bedside manner" non-personality audiologist put plugs into her ears. We went upstairs to the doctor's office to wait and can I just tell you there was the weirdest assortment of people in there. One woman was wrangling three kids while yelling at her doctor's office on the phone about not faxing over a referral. Another woman and her husband were screaming into their phones for someone at home to pick up (as I eavesdropped I learned that they did not have their new insurance card with them), all while corralling a young autistic girl. Britton just wandered from person to person, checking them out and eating an apple.

We finally got called back and the ENT came in. He checked Britton's ears and reviewed her hearing test and took a deep breath. See, we've been on the "wait and see" program, trying to not redo the tubes if we don't have to. But Britton now has fluid behind both eardrums, a significant drop in hearing function, and her right tube has jumped shipped along with her left one. As he put it, "there's a problem with her plumbing," meaning her eustachian tubes, and she needs long-term tubes. We could continue to fight the infections with antibiotics, adjust to her hearing loss, or we can go ahead and fix the underlying issue causing the problems. So we're scheduled for tubes January 28th.

I hope it works this time. I hope Britton will no longer have to tolerate ear pain, infection after infection, all while acting like it doesn't bother her. But I know her armor is cracking. After we got home, after dinner was eaten and toys pulled out for play, Britton gathered her glo-worm, doll, Winnie, and blankie and climbed into my lap. While I rocked her back and forth she continuously played her glo-worm's lullabies, and snuggled close. For those who don't know, Britton isn't a big snuggler. She's sweet, yes, but she would rather run and jump and play than be held down by a hug for too long. But tonight, I think she just got tired of it hurting. And I'm glad she gave me that 15 minutes to rock her, to hug her so tightly, and to tell her that it's all going to be ok.