1st ENT appt. What should I expect

Sorry to hear about your little guy’s ear problems. It definitely sounds like he could benefit from tubes. My son had tubes placed a little over three months ago and they have really helped him infection wise and hearing wise. The only other option I know of for recurrent ear infections is a prophylactic antibiotics which is where you take a small dose of antibiotics over a long period of time to try and prevent any infections. I think I would definitely push for the tubes though. It’s such a simple procedure and most people get such good results. Oh, as for what to expect at the appointment, when we went the ENT just looked in Bryce’s ears, obviously and then asked questions about his health history and for us he asked about his syndrome. Pretty simple appointment. From there, he recommended the tube surgery and we scheduled the appointment for that. Good luck whatever you decide to do. I hope the ENT can help you.

Our appointment sounded similar to Kim’s experience. At the time he looked in her ears the doctor said she was “days away” from another infection. He recommended tubes right away and we had her surgery within two weeks after that! We also had a hearing test done in the office. I was SHOCKED to find out that Sarah had a mild hearing loss in her left ear b/c of her ear problems. I NEVER would have guessed. At her 6 week post-surgery check up her ears were clear and back to normal hearing range. Tubes have been a life saver for us!

OH, we went to a new ped. yesterday and he looked in her ears. I told him we had tubes and he said “let’s see what color they are”. Turns out Sarah has titanium/platinum…something fancy type of tube. The ped. was impressed that she got such a “high quality” tube for her first set. He said generally an ENT will place the titanium tubes once they’ve already had a set that has fallen out. That might be something you might want to talk to the ENT about. I never knew there were different “kinds”. Or that certain types were more prone to falling out sooner. GOOD LUCK!

Wow. It sounds like it was a good thing you went with your instincts and saw the ENT. Good luck with the surgery. I hope when it’s all done with he’ll be feeling much better.