Perforated ear drum!

My poor boy has a perforated ear drum!

On Monday night before bed he came to give me a hug and as he did he screamed in pain. He said his ear was hurting. So I gave him some painkillers and tried to settle him.

Not much luck was had and he ended up sleeping on the sofa with me. I am still sleeping downstairs as I can't get comfortable in bed as I am still getting over my pluracy.
Sleep was in bits that night.

The next morning off to the doctors we went. He was crying so much whenever his ear popped. At the doctors we found out he has a perforated ear drum and infections in both of his ears.
When the doctor asked him if his right ear hurt he said no, even though the doctor told me that the infection had been going on for at least a week.  We were given antibiotics and painkillers, then off we went home.

A few hours later there was lots of screaming and blood pouring from his ear. I didn't know what to do so I ended up calling the doctors again. So for the second time in one day back we went. Luckily the bleeding stopped after about an hour.  The doctor had another look in his ear but could not get a very good look at his ear drum as the ear was full on puss and blood.

Now we have to go back in a week to see if the antibiotics have worked and if the doctor can then see the extent of the perforation.  Lets hope that the doctor can see that it is healing up nicely. If not we could be in for surgery to get the hole fixed.

Pleurisy

Well this is what I currently have!

It is bloody painful I can tell you. I am on my second lot of antibiotics and I seem to be getting worse. 

I have been told to rest but with two kids and having to walk to and from school six times a day is not helping. I almost called and ambulance today as I was in so much pain and having palpitations :( my pacemaker has been going off loads too.

I just hope it gets better as if it doesn't I might need to go into hospital to have the fluid drained from the lungs :(

This will not be good as husband will have to take time off work to look after the kids.

But I did have a good moment today as when husband came home he had a bunch of flowers for me and a lemon tart.

New years resolutions

So it's the new year and the traditional thing to do is list some resolutions. I don't normally do them but this year I think I should.

1) Loose more weight and get to a size 10. Currently down at a 12.

2) Sort out all my health problems.

3) Write a children's book

4) Find a job after son starts full time school.

5) Try to keep my house clutter free
I think five is a good start. Lets see if I can achieve them.

Wish me luck.

Bye bye 2013

Well it is the last day of 2013.

I think I can say this has been a year of ups and downs.

Husband had his first book published so most of the beginning of the year was devoted to getting it finished and off to the publisher.  Then getting it back for approval and finally it goes into the shops.
I am very proud of him for getting it all done.

We have lost two members of my family.  First my grandfather then his brother a week or so after.

My daughter started full time school and my son started nursery. They are both getting so big and so grown up. My son is loving school and goes on about his friends and what he has been learning.  It is just a shame we found out he can't hear. (See earlier post) My daughter also likes school and has three boyfriends lol. We did have a few issues with her, at home, behaviour at the start of the term. Think this was down to being tired after a full day at school. Her behaviour at school was expemporary. She has has a couple of certificates praising her behaviour.

We also had the bead incident (see earlier post)

I have had my pacemaker for over a year now and I can say that I have not collapsed since I had it implanted. We have found out that the pacemaker will last another 7 years not the 10 it should be. This is down to it being on rate response rater than being constantly on. But 7 years is better than collapsing any day.

Christmas was lovely we stayed at home for the frist time. I did the cooking and I think it came out ok.

Hoping for a good year for 2014.

Knee

For the last few weeks I have had a bad knee. I don't know what I have done but it came up in a massive bruise.

Now let me explain...

I have previously had an operation, called a lateral release,  on this knee in 2005. This was performed because my knee cap was miss tracking causing pain and dislocation.

I thought that that was that all fixed, well for 8 years all fixed. But then this bruise came up.

Now I have pain, clicking and grinding noises coming from my knee every time I walk.

I made an appointment with the GP who said that I needed to rest for two weeks and it should go away!
How am I supposed to do this when I have two kids who I have to walk to school and back three times a day. This trip is three miles every day. Good for my weight loss not good for my knee.

Dam Doctors

Well after pushing for my son to get a hearing test. We have found out that he has glue ear in both ears. He has hearing loss -50 in this right and -40 something in his left. He also had a pressure test, this test sees how well your ear drum is working, which came back as a flat line on both sides. Normally it will go up and then come down.

So what do you think the doctor is going to do about it...

...NOTHING for three months.

This has been going on for almost a year. I know all about glue ear which is why I waited 9 months before seeing my GP about his hearing. Then it took three months to get an appointment to see the docs at ENT.

The doctor did say he would need gromits and most likely a hearing aid! So why make me wait!!! He should be on the waiting list for the operation.

Well I can tell you I was not happy so I made an appointment with my GP. After seeing the GP we now have to wait for another two weeks as there is nothing she can do until the letter from the hospital comes through to them. If the letter says that we have to wait my GP will call the consultant in charge and tell them I am not happy to have my son wait.

This is affecting his balance and he keeps falling over. Currently my son is sporting a nice black eye from the latest fall.

I am now going to start writing a list of how meny times he is falling over and if it has resulted in an injury.  Then present it to the doctor and see what they say then!

Will blog again when something happens.

How much trouble can beads be...

Well very in our case.

On Friday at 4.30 while I was washing up and just about to start dinner. It was a bit too quite in the living room. Upon going from the kitchen to the living room which is only a case of going through a door. I find my son saying to me 'mummy I have a bead up my nose'! After telling him off and looking up his nose I can see a blue/green bead stuck up there. So off I go to get my daughter, who was no where to be seen, telling son not to try and get the bead out.

So up the stairs I go and half way up is my daughter covered in blood! She had put a bead up her nose too but instead of telling me she had gone upstairs to the bathroom to try and get it out herself.
This consisted of sticking all of her fingers up her nose which pushed the bead past the point of no return.

Not sure what to do I got them both to put their coats on while I called our GP, as I thought they could help and I would not have to end up in A&E but if they couldn't help I would need to catch a bus to A&E which I can pick up from near the doctors.

So being on hold to speak to the GP we walked down our road and by the time I got to speak to someone we were only a few minutes away from the GP practice.
But the procedure is that a doctor would call me back and then they would decided what to do. But at this point I was so close to them that I decided I would wait in their waiting room for the phone call.

This came about 10 mins after we arrived. So explaining to the doctor what had happened and that I was in the waiting room she came to get us. Once we were in the room she said there was something we could try and explained that if she held my sons unblocked nostril closed and I breathed as hard as I could in his mouth the bead should come out.
So with a ping the bead flew across the room and I was covered in my sons snot!

We then tried it on my daughter but aftet 4 attempts nothing.  The doctor said she could not see the bead and it was time for a trip to A&E. Just what I had wanted to avoid as my husband was picking up my sister as she was coming to stay for the weekend.

After a long bus ride to A&E we were booked into the children's A&E department and were told it could be a long wait.
An hour and a half later we were finally seen. By this time my husband and sister had arrived. The doctor looked up her nose but couldn't see anything and said we might be off to another hospital which had an out of hours ENT department but luckily for us there was an on call ENT doctor at our hospital.  After a little wait he saw us and looked up my daughter's nose and said he could possibly see something but he was not sure. So to be on the safe side he would book her in for an emergency operation in the morning and we were to come back at 8am to The Blue Bell ward for the operation.

So on Saturday off to hospital we went and we got to The Blue Bell ward quite early and were told to sit in a play room. Then at some point just before 9 am we where taken to my daughter's small room. It was quite nice and had a telly and an outside patio area but it was raining so we never went out there.

My daughter was admitted to the ward and received her customary wrist band with her name, hospital number and date of birth. She had the magic cream put on her hands and we were told the doctor would be along shortly to see us. So here we were and in for the long hall.

The doctor came around about an hour later and he had a look up her nose but couldn't see anything.  So he said there are two options, one was to leave it and the other was to operate. I decided that the operation was the best option as if the bead had gone down into her tummy the operation would confirm that and if it was still there the doctors would be able to get it out.

We waited and waited and waited lunch came and went. Which disappointed my little girl as she had picked the buger for her lunch. Then meny dvds down we got told that it was time to go down for the operation. My girl was laying on her bed the whole time.  The anaesthetist came and explained what she was going to do and asked a few questions about her medical history.  Then we were taken to the anaesthetic room. The anaesthetist got the catheter in but my daughter got so upset she pulled it out before they could stick it down. Then she started to fight even though I was holding her. The anaesthetist then gave me a mask which was pumping out laughing gas. As she would not let the doctors put the mask on her but I just tried to force it onto her face and tickle her with my other hand so she would breath in the gas. Once she had fallen asleep I was taken out of the room by the nurse who had come down with us.

I went off to go buy my little girl something nice to wake up to.  Then I was called back to the recovery room. The operation only took 10 mins.  When I got to the room she was fast asleep on her bed with a mask and wires measuring her heart rate.  Then she suddenly woke up bolt up right and ripped all the wires and the mask off. She also tried to get the new catheter out. But we got her to stop by asking if she wanted a drink. Lucky enough she was so thirsty that it look her mind off pulling the catheter out.

After a sort while we were taken back to her room on the children's ward. She finally got some food and then fell asleep.  It was getting late by this time so I asked when we would be aloud to leave as it was nearly 7pm. The nurse said that we could go as soon as our ride got to the hospital.  The catheter was taken out and we got to leave. Once we got home my girl was a bit teary and very tired. She went to sleep in just a few minutes.

Now I have a small little specimen jar with the bead that was removed from her nose.