Swimmer's ear

Let's talk about parenting guilt.

Over a week ago Liam complained of ear pain, even woke up crying from it in the middle of the night.  Of course, this was in the middle of our vacation.  We considered taking him to the local small town ER where we were staying, but by the time he woke up in the morning he seemed fine.  I didn't think taking a very healthy looking, active, not currently in pain kid to the ER was a good way to use our fine Canadian medical system. So we ignored it.

Then the ear got better.  Then the pain switched ears.  Then it hurt again.  Sometimes the outer ear hurt to the touch, sometimes it was the inner ear.  Then it got better.  Then the pain switched ears.  Rinse and repeat for a week.  The guilt inducing part was the fact that with all the switcheroos going on, I didn't really 100% believe him.

Last night the pain was at it's worse, so we decided to head to the walk in clinic today, no matter how it felt by morning.  It's a beautiful day out and the clinic is only a 20 minute walk from home.  Or a 60 minute walk if you get most of the way there and realize that Liam's health card is in Hilary's purse at home.

Turns out the he has an infection, commonly referred to as Swimmer's Ear.  His ear is so full of goop (technical turn used by the doctor) that he couldn't even see his ear drum to tell if it's perforated or burst from the plane rides or driving up and down the mountains.  Having never had swimmer's ear myself, I didn't realize that the pain comes and goes and can be felt more on the outer physical ear then the inner ear. Way to go Mama.

He has ear drops to use for the next 7 days and needs to keep his ears dry for the week too.  He's very excited to have a legitimate reason to avoid hair washing!  Of course he starts going to a day camp tomorrow that has swimming as part of their schedule.  Luckily he's fine with sitting it out for the week.  He started a Dr Who novel while we were on vacation so he can take that to camp to read during swim time.

Note to self:  If the kid is complaining about something, believe him!