1st ENT appt. What should I expect

[Anonymous]

Hello,

My 2 year old son has been battleing ear infections for about 6 months now. He has had 9 in that time perioed and several of them required multiple rounds of antibiotics. I took him to his ped today for another one and asked for a referral to an ENT, he refused and wanted me to start giving my son Childrens Clariten to see if that would help. I disagree with this so I made the appt my self. Luckfully since he has had so many the ENT will see him without the referal. I was just wondering what to expect? Should I consider tubes? What other options are there? Any suggestion would be great.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Tubes have been a life saver for Alex. She had her surgery in June. She’s had no ear infections since then, despite having three colds that turned into sinus infections.

The first ENT appointment was pretty easy. He did a medical history, looked in her ears, and then we had a hearing test with the audiologist in the same office. Then we went back to the doctor and he said that she was the “classic” candidate for tubes and we scheduled the surgery.

[Anonymous]

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!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your replies. His ENT appt was yesterday and he is having suregery on the 27th. Tubes are a definate as well as some work on his nose since he has alot of reaccurnt bleeding. The ENT may remove his tonsils and adenoids as well. I just hope this makes my little guy feel better.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I hope that the surgery goes well!

[Author]

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