Bob had not been her usual self for a couple of days and she had a slight temperature. i thought that it was just a bug and turned to Calpol & ibuprofen for help.

Then, the other night when I was putting Bob to bed when she started grabbing the side of her head and screaming, ‘Ow! Ow! Ow!’ Michael had mentioned that she had bumped the side of her head early that day so I thought that it may be something to do with that. Bob was inconsolable and eventually I called Michael for back up.

Michael was surprised at how distraught Bob was as he said it was only a slight bump to the head. We managed to get some Calpol down her (although most of it was in her hair) and we took her back downstairs. After a while she fell asleep cuddling me. She was still very unsettled and every time I tried to move her she cried. I decided to take her to the doctors as this wasn’t like her at all!

The next morning she was fine. I was surprised but very glad! She looked like she had slept in a hedge as her hair was sticky and all over the place. We had a bath and then went out for the day.

When we returned home Bob was playing with her toys when she said, ‘Ow, my hair!’ I went to see what the problem was and I realised that there was lots of wax/gunk pouring out of her ear. The gunk was making Bob’s hair stick to her ear.

Although it was 3.30pm and I knew it was a long shot, I decided to try to get her a doctor’s appointment as I thought she might have an ear infection. Our surgery has recently started to use a triage system. I rang up and was told that a doctor would ring me back. He rang 5 minutes later and when I told him the problem he made an appointment for Bob at 4.30pm. I was very impressed!

I told the doctor how Bob had been distraught the night before but she had been fine all day. He looked in her ear and said she had an infection behind her ear drum. The pressure had built up until it was unbearable which explained why she had been inconsolable. The pressure had then caused a burst which explained the gunk. Once it had burst the pain would have gone. I wondered if the sticky hair that I thought was caused by Calpol was gunk too. He prescribed her some antibiotics and told us not to worry.

The idea of a perforated ear drum sounded horrendous but apparently it is quite common and as long it is treated with antibiotics everything will be fine.

Although this isn’t the most beautiful of blog posts I thought it was worth writing about as I wish I had known what was happening.

 Posted by Charlotte on February 27, 2014 Being a Mother  Add comments

  7 Responses to “A Perforated Ear Drum”

  1.  

    Ohhhh noooo bless your little sweetheart 🙁 hope she heals quickly, big hugs to both of you xoxo

  2.  

    Aww, I’m glad she got in to the dr. right away!! Ear aches are so hard on the little ones!!

  3.  

    I had a perforated eardrum as a child. Horrible.

  4.  

    I’ve had a burst eardrum twice and it is horrible. The relief when it bursts is amazing, but the goo that comes out is pretty vile! The first time it happened to me we were camping and when I woke in the middle of the night I was delighted the pain had gone, but couldn’t understand what was running down the side of my face and neck – it was pitch black, I had no mirror and I thought our campervan roof was leaking 😀

  5.  

    aw bless her, hope she’s making a good recovery now. Thankfully they bounce back don’t they. E had 3 days of vomiting this week from an ear infection. I now have it and am bedridden and much less chipper than he was! Crazy how our bodies work, good to hear there’s no lasting damage for Bob

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