ENT for Jarrah - Tues 10th Aug

What a lovely day for a train trip...raining! Fortunately we didn't get too wet, the rain held off for the 3 hours or so that we were in and en route to & from the city...

We haven't seen our ENT for just over 12 months now, which in ways is a good thing...he's a nice guy but we only go to see him when things aren't going well, so it's nothing personal but we'd prefer to see him as infrequently as possible, and 12 months between visits is a record for us! :-)

After looking over test results, hearing what's been going on these last 6 weeks and checking J's ears & throat, ENT says it seems J's picked up an upper respiratory tract bug (of which there seem to be a plethora this year!) which has inflamed the lining of his ears/nose/throat, hence the juicy cough, fluid behind right eardrum & discharge from left ear. We've had one round of antibiotics from the GP which seemed to help a little but didn't really knock it all off, so we've got the big guns this time - a stronger, dual action antibiotic, drops for the ear AND an inhaler for the cough! Mate, if this doesn't get rid of this bug, almost nothing will!

For now ENT is happy for the grommet to stay put, despite it having been there for 2yrs - it's still fulfilling its function by preventing the left middle ear from becoming blocked, so let's let it continue to do that. We have J's next Aus Hearing checkup in November, so the plan is to leave things as they are for now and see if the right ear has drained by then...

We then enjoyed morning tea at McDonald's (pancakes!) before the train ride home. Both boys were very good despite being cooped up in a train for 35mins each way on a rainy day...they loved looking out the window to see the other tracks, and watching other trains go past. Kaelen is much more aware of the wider world now than he was 12 months ago of course, so was just absorbing everything wherever we went.

Two exciting (?) things from Mummy's point of view about today's appointment & prescriptions: because we've passed our Medicare Safety Net threshold the ENT appt only cost us $8 (less than my return train ticket!), and, because J has a concession card for his hearing, the antibiotics only cost us $5 (that's less than the McDonald's pancakes & juice)! Sadly, the eardrops are a private prescriptions (not on PBS) so the concession card doesn't cover/affect them...but one out of two ain't bad!

Next appt: J's Aus Hearing checkup - Wed 10th November