Tubes, Glorious Tubes!

Since January, Declan has had many ear infections, involving at least nine trips to the doctor's office where one or both ears were diagnosed as infected. For reasons no one can figure out, some kids (often boys) have recurrent ear infections, or as in Declan's case, ear infections that never quite go away before they surge back to life. After many pediatrician visits, one ER visit, two naturopath visits, and two ENT visits, Declan underwent minor surgery on June 5 to have ear tubes implanted. He was right as rain 20 minutes later, and he's been blissfully infection-free ever since. He still can get ear infections, but they should be less severe and more easily treated with antibiotic drops.

In addition to the many ear infections, he's had the following:

• January 10: stomach flu
• January 21: his first bilateral infection plus RSV (respiratory infection)
• March 11: virus with fever
• April 29: virus with fever
• May 31: another virus, this time with a strange name, a coxsackievirus, which causes herpangia, or mouth blisters, also with fever. The strange name comes from Coxsackie, New York, south of Albany on the Hudson, where this kind of virus was first discovered.
  

As you can see, the first six months of 2009 were no picnic for poor baby Declan. But we're hopeful that he's gotten all this sickness out of his system for a long time. Here's our happy, healthy boy now:

—posted by T