ben has been "off" a bit this past week.. slightly elevated temp in the evenings (99.5-99.9).. cranky.. trouble sleeping.. fingers in the ears. wait.. fingers in the ears? that hasn't happened since before... oh damn!

yep.. that was my train of thought crashing into the station on the island of sodor (thomas "fans" will get the reference)..

we brought the big guy in to the pedi last night after work and found out that both of his ear tubes have popped out. they are meant to pop out on their own.. but usually they will hold for between 6 mos and 2 years. the pedi on call asked how long he had his in and for some reason i rattled off "9 mos". I have no clue where that came from.. he's had them in for almost exactly 4 months. they were both in at his 18 month checkup, less than a month ago.

the good news is that he doesn't have an ear infection. he's probably digging at his ears because the tubes are still in the canals right near his ear drum, which is sensitive (not sure why they can't go in with tweezers and pull them out). she suggested having him do the back float in the tub to get some water in his ears which may help flush them out. his temp/crankiness is most likely a virus that has been going around.. but the good news is that he looks like he's nearing the end of it and we got through the low grade temps with no seizures.. another good sign. the longer he goes without a seizure at this point, the greater the chance that he's out grown them. *cross fingers*

the pedi on call's take was that it would probably be best to just leave him and watch to see how he does without the tubes and whether the infections start up again. that's fine by me, but i want to get the official word from his ENT. ironically, we have an appointment with his audiologist on friday to get new ear plugs (he out grew the old ones).. so now we probably don't need those, but need someone to confirm that and to confirm that the perforations have healed (which is what the pedi said looked like had happened..which is good). We have to watch out for infections given that he has (or hopefully had) a crack in the bone that separates his middle ear from his brain, which they think was causing his neuro issues. god.. that feels like years ago.. i guess that's why i said 9 months..

anywho.. he's doing fine today and slept through the night last night (of course.. as soon as you go to the doc to be told "it's a virus".. they suddenly get better).. this morning both shiela and i took him to school and while he cried at first, it was very interesting and moving to watch his daycare provider calm him down. she had him in his high chair for breakfast and he was screaming and she knelt down and started talking to him in a sing-songy voice while stroking his chin. he did the cutest thing. he quieted down and made a few cute faces and squinted his eyes a few times and calmed right down. shiela and i ducked out of the room while he had his eyes closed and was listening to her. two seconds later as we were signing him in, he was laughing.