Reaching out you all here since ENT specialists in my city are all unavailable for another 6+ weeks..plus i dont trust them anymore really
4 year old who had ear tubes when she was younger and dont know if both fell out or not
Went to swimming park a few weeks ago
Now she has occasional drainage that is bloody and waxy looking. Every few days we have to clean her ear. No pain complaints, no fever, no appetite issues. No head trauma that we know of.
Anyone have any advice? We did amoxicillin and ear cleaning with peroxide and otc oil cleaner for ears...really frustrating as its been a few weeks now.
Thanks to anyone in advance.
EDIT: THANK YOU SO MUCH for the incredible advice all of you! You guys are incredible and I got all the help I needed. Thank you Thank you!
This is some solid advice thank you. Can you recommend me an otoscope to get please?
https://smile.amazon.com/Otoscope-Teslong-Microscope-Inspection-Adjustable/dp/B07PHLG4C2/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_sspa?crid=12YGTVE1ZNWG5&keywords=otoscope&qid=1654789742&sprefix=otoscop%2Caps%2C320&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFUQVRJTzQxR1JUWU8mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwODAyOTVHOUdJUk5DOTA1SyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzE5MjA5MVFHTEtQNjVFT0dGTCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
Something like this is better because you can capture images rather than directly looking in like a traditional type otoscope. Helps a lot for documentation especially in telehealth.
The difficulty is a 4 year old may have pretty small ear canal. Not sure about the wax removing tools.
I was in health care and we were exploring using these devices and I was impressed with the images. Of course officially medically approved devices cost way more but image quality similar. To be honest if you called any doctor or went to urgent care you should be able to get the prescription because a history of tubes and swimming and drainage will often be enough to prescribe drops.
Is there pain or discomfort? If so any doc in the box or nurse practitioner can get things started.
Thank you for the recommendation!
no pain no discomfort... ill have the scope tomorrow. According to my wife they looked in her ear at the urgent care. I guess the first diagnosis would be ear infection even if they looked inside? Thats the part where I feel more trained than a PA around here.
The swimming at a public part was a first time for her. The drainage is all new for her (shes never had problems with tubes) The drainage started a few days after the 3 day public pool excursion(Great Wolf Lodge) and has been ongoing for a few weeks now maybe once every few days and just in the morning. It seemed like a waxy bloody combination to me.
If you type “granulation tissue ear canal ear tube” and scroll images you can see what you are looking for. It could be as simple as too much wax trapping water with ear infection but usually that painful.
Thank you so much for all of your help it has really eased me today.
One other thing I thought about asking.. Is this an urgent situation? Its a 5-6 week wait right now for ENT(wonder why) and then will they be able to remove it on site or will I have to follow up you think? Is this something I could try to remove here at home or is it usually too embedded?
Good to hear no pain. Ear infections are usually painful. 2 varieties external and middle ear. Basically in front or behind drum. The middle ear infections are commonly called inner ear infections.
Both can have pain. No pain means more likely retained tube. Some ear tubes never move from original site but others are partially pushed out by drum (think sliver in finger) Tube is foreign material usually silicon or plastic. Meant to stay in for 1 -2 years. Most ENTs will recommend removal after 2 but certainly 3 years
Retained tube sounds like it to me to be honest. I will let you know tomorrow what I see if you dont mind. Also passing all of this information to my wife who is very grateful to you.