This morning began like any other. We got out of bed, had breakfast (and coffee for me, of course). My son, GG, wanted to watch Dino Dan, I typically don’t let him watch television so early in the day. I gave in so that I could finish crocheting a blanket for a fellow HITC/photographer friend’s baby boy. I took a minute to run to the restroom, a few seconds later GG comes into the bathroom, and this my dear readers is when my day took a turn from normal….
“The styrofoam is gone.” His head was tilted and something about the way he said this caused an icy fist to form around my stomach and pull it down. I think I already knew how this was going to play out.
“GG, what do you mean? Where is it?”
“In my ear.” He says this as he starts to place a finger in his ear.
“DON’T. Don’t touch.” I say on the verge of flipping out. I finished washing my hands and told myself that I wouldn’t panic. It couldn’t be that bad. I mean, it had only been a few seconds… I check his ear with my phone flashlight. Sure enough, almost halfway down is a piece of styrofoam blocking his entire ear canal. So many things are going through my mind. I called my mother-in-law and my husband while trying to keep GG from raming his finger in his ear – without much success. I threw on my jeans and we were out the door. After putting it in his car seat I checked it ear again… that nice, round little piece of styrofoam had made it past the halfway mark of his ear canal.
They got us back fairly fast at the ER, but we had to wait a bit to be seen once in our room. I got a semi decent picture with my phone of his ear canal. The black you see under the styrofoam isn’t space between it and the canal wall, it’s shadows in front due to it being so far back.
Me: You gonna let them get the styrofoam out?
GG: Uh-huh
Me: Does it hurt?
GG: Yeah
Me: Can you hear with that ear?
GG: No.
The doctor was great. He came in singing Mikey’s Club House and danced around, GG thought he was hilarious. Then crap got real. We had GG’s head on my lap but he fought too much. He tried to fight so two nurses, a male and female, had to come in. At this point I had to move out of the way. I watched as my son screamed to the tip-top of his lungs.
I’m not going to lie – I almost passed out twice when he kept saying it hurt as he screamed. It took the doctor 4 tries to get it because it was lodged so far back. When he finally pulled that stupid piece of styrofoam out the back side was soaked with blood. Afterwards they had to hold him down again to make sure his tube was in place and his eardrum wasn’t damaged. Thankfully all was good aside from some scratching. I held him and talked to him and gave him lots of kisses to help him calm down. I also cried with him a little. The doctor was nice enough to bring him a popsicle to life his spirits quicker.
There are times in this parenting journey that I feel like I’m going through the worst of it. The terrible twos. The sensory meltdowns. The sassy back talking at three. The real tough times are when your child is hurting and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to take that pain away. This is the real tough stuff. Unfortunately I think this road is just beginning with my wild child.
This evening I got my camera out and we talked about his experience. He says he’s not ever putting things in his ear again… here’s hoping!! Oh, and heads up moms, the styrofoam came from his bean bag chair!
