Home My 4 year is having nightmares.... and persistent ear infection

[innerkitten]

But the worst thing is she''s getting freaked about about them during the day and getting really anxious at times. She''s had an ear infection for seven weeks and had four rounds of antibiotics and both ear drums are still very inflamed and painful. She just went off her fourth round yesterday. She''s actually getting ear tubes Wednesday. I''m hoping when she feels better after she gets tubes this will all end. She hasn''t been herself for a while.
Anyone else dealt with this before? How long did it last?

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 3/30/2010 1:11:25 AM
Author:innerkitten
But the worst thing is she''s getting freaked about about them during the day and getting really anxious at times. She''s had an ear infection for seven weeks and had four rounds of antibiotics and both ear drums are still very inflamed and painful. She just went off her fourth round yesterday. She''s actually getting ear tubes Wednesday. I''m hoping when she feels better after she gets tubes this will all end. She hasn''t been herself for a while.
Anyone else dealt with this before? How long did it last?

My son suffered so with ear infections, he got tubes at 18 months old. I can''t address the nightmare problem. BUT can say, if she''s having a fever and not herself, suffering from an infection that could lead to nightmares... I am no Doc.

BUt will say, once the tubes were in place... It was heaven... No more infections, no more being up all night with him....


Your poor DD.. I can relate. I hope the tubes help.

Best of luck, and please let us know how it goes.
Will say a prayer for her on Wednesday...

And a hug to you innerkitten...
I know how it is to deal with all of this. As a Mom, you hate to see your child in pain...

 

[innerkitten]

Date: 3/30/2010 1:21:21 AM
Author: Kaleigh

Date: 3/30/2010 1:11:25 AM

Author:innerkitten

But the worst thing is she''s getting freaked about about them during the day and getting really anxious at times. She''s had an ear infection for seven weeks and had four rounds of antibiotics and both ear drums are still very inflamed and painful. She just went off her fourth round yesterday. She''s actually getting ear tubes Wednesday. I''m hoping when she feels better after she gets tubes this will all end. She hasn''t been herself for a while.

Anyone else dealt with this before? How long did it last?

My son suffered so with ear infections, he got tubes at 18 months old. I can''t address the nightmare problem. BUT can say, if she''s having a fever and not herself, suffering from an infection that could lead to nightmares... I am no Doc.


BUt will say, once the tubes were in place... It was heaven... No more infections, no more being up all night with him....



Your poor DD.. I can relate. I hope the tubes help.


Best of luck, and please let us know how it goes.

Will say a prayer for her on Wednesday...


And a hug to you innerkitten...

I know how it is to deal with all of this. As a Mom, you hate to see your child in pain...

Thank you so much Kaleigh!!

 

[redfaerythinker]

Don''t worry about the tubes. So many kids now-a-days have them I got them when I was young. I was probably 3 or 4 at the time so I remember it. Are you getting it done at a children''s hospital? What they did for me, granted this was 20 years ago, was they asked me what I wanted the gas to smell like. They gave me a choice of some chapstick smells, cherry and the like. Then they wheeled me back, put the mask over my face and that was it. I don''t remember being afraid... all I can remember was being indignant that the gas didn''t smell like cherries!

This procedure is almost par for the course for kids and the doctors are very good at it. For children, they do any iv''s after you''ve been knocked out so there''s no problem with that. I''m not sure if this has changed... but when I had mine, they fell out after a certain amount of time. However one of mine didn''t, and the doctor had to go in after it. But this is very rare... just something that they''ll probably keep an eye out for. Even with my complications, my ear infections went from four or so a month, to non existent. I think i''ve had maybe one or two since.

Another thing... if your child hasn''t been in the hospital before it might help to talk about it. I''m pretty sure there''s a Big Bird video about a hospital stay that my mom bought me. I remember thinking that it was super cool that I was having "surgery", so you probably won''t have a problem if you take that kind of perspective with her. I wish you lots of luck and will be keeping you in my thoughts!

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

I don''t have any useful advice, but I wanted to send a hug to you and your lovely girl.

Jen

 

[innerkitten]

Thanks It actually isn''t the first time for her in the hospital. She spent two nights in the hospital in October for a concussion. It was awful. But from what I keep hearing the tubes are a very simple surgery. I will let you all know how it goes tomorrow.


A couple of times she has started talking about her bad dreams today but I have found she is distractable. If I bring up another topic she stops talking about it. It''s happened twice today. The first time I said" I bet a poppy seed muffin will make it all better". And it did make it better at least for a couple of hours. The poor kid is so tired and in a lot of pain.

 

[packrat]

I''m not much help w/the ear infections-my kids have each had one and Ohhhh my word talk about miserable! I can not imagine having them for that length of time-poor little thing!! And poor mommy too-yikes!

The nightmares..London had them too. She still does, but not to the extent that she did a couple years ago-when she was about 4, like yours. She started wanting to sleep in our room. I told her when I''m scared to go to sleep, I think about happy things. We spent several weeks where every night at bedtime, I''d crawl in w/her and we''d take turns saying things that make us happy. I''d rub her cheek or her hair or back and we''d talk real quiet about taking Chicken for a walk, or going to Gramma''s house, or playing in the snow etc. Or if there was something fun going on to look forward to, we''d talk about that-like when my brother would be coming back on leave, we''d talk about how he''d take them out for ice cream and give them rides in his convertible. It was really relaxing for her.

 

[innerkitten]

Everthing went well. Tabetha kind of figured out that was about to happen might be a little bit scary right when she got in to the operating room and said " I''m done" and tried to leave. Then the poor thing fought having the mask put on her. She''s very strong willed. She woke up pretty upset from it but hasn''t stopped chatting since and can finally hear again. Poor kid had been saying " what did you say" or not answering questions for the last few weeks.
I sure hope we all get a good nights rest with no nightmares tonight.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Date: 3/31/2010 3:52:38 PM
Author: innerkitten
Everthing went well. Tabetha kind of figured out that was about to happen might be a little bit scary right when she got in to the operating room and said '' I''m done'' and tried to leave. Then the poor thing fought having the mask put on her. She''s very strong willed. She woke up pretty upset from it but hasn''t stopped chatting since and can finally hear again. Poor kid had been saying '' what did you say'' or not answering questions for the last few weeks.

I sure hope we all get a good nights rest with no nightmares tonight.

She will probably sleep well, but I have found that anesthesia can give you crazy dreams. But they probably did not give her very much because the procedure only takes 10 minutes.

I am glad everything went well.

 

[PumpkinPie]

I''m sorry to hear that your little girl is in so much pain lately

how stressful for all of you
I''m glad the procedure went well - fingers crossed that this will be the end of the problems for her!

 

[innerkitten]

Ugh! This seems never ending. Now she is having problems stomach problems due to all the antibiotics. We just had to send a stool sample off to the lab today. Her doctor said it might be some sort of bacterial infection from taking too many antibiotics. I don''t quite understand how that works.

 

[packrat]

Aw poor thing! Maybe they need to switch her antibiotic? There''s one that gives me really bad stomach cramps and diarrhea. How much longer does she need to take them?

 

[innerkitten]

She went off them last Sunday because of the negative side effects she was having ( and because they weren''t working) and had the tubes put in Wednesday. So right now she''s just on antibiotic ear drops and eye drops. But her stomach problems have gotten worse. I get her lab test later today. I hope they have a good plan. I just want poor Tabetha to feel 100% again.

 

[PumpkinPie]

innerkitten - how`s your little Tabetha doing now? I hope she`s finally feeling a bit better!

 

[innerkitten]

Hey Thanks for the kind words! It''s been exactly a week since she got tubes and aside from still having lots of nasal congestion and snot blowouts ( yuck, I know), she''s waaaay better than she was before the tubes. She can hear and she''s not complaining of pain. And no more nightmares! Yay! She has her follow up tomorrow.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 4/7/2010 11:47:48 PM
Author: innerkitten
Hey Thanks for the kind words! It''s been exactly a week since she got tubes and aside from still having lots of nasal congestion and snot blowouts ( yuck, I know), she''s waaaay better than she was before the tubes. She can hear and she''s not complaining of pain. And no more nightmares! Yay! She has her follow up tomorrow.

Glad she''s doing great!!! Thanks for the update!!