Poor Little Ears

So late last night, after the high fever for two days and the hacking cough and rattling chest congestion and constant crying, I took Silvia into the Acute Care Clinic. They were worried about pneumonia. She caught the virus that Anna had last week, but while Anna bounced back after a few days, Silvia has developed a sinus infection and another ear infection. She's got mucous dripping down into her lungs, and left untreated, would definitely develop pneumonia. In fact, if she's not improved by tomorrow night, we're supposed to take her in for a chest x-ray.

Now that she's on her 4th ear infection in less than a year, they want to do the surgery for ear-tubes. I really hate the idea of surgery on her, I hate it, hate it, hate it. I know it's minor, and I know that there's a very real danger of hear-loss if we don't act preventively, but... they have to put her under and cut her and put something plastic in her body... I just hate it, it freaks me out. I know that in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal and it's a minor procedure, etc, etc... but I still just hate it.

I also hate how much obvious pain she is in. You can just tell that the pressure in her ear and the pain and congestion are excruciating for her, she's so miserable. She hasn't slept in two nights, and there's just not much we can DO for her. And the surgery would be something we could DO, but it's not something I want.

I just wanted her to get better and stop getting all these infections. And there's the whole worry about her immune system, that she's so prone already to infection, what can we do to help her? I mean, I can't exactly keep her away from Anna and Anna's just a walking petrie dish most days, it seems. I'm just worried and reacting emotionally. And, oh yeah, I haven't slept in a week. There's that too, right?

And, of course, mom and Terry are both out of town this week, which means I'm on my own during the day, sleep-deprived or not. Times like these really make it stand out how much we completely depend on them and how wonderful it is to have family close to the kids. Nothing like a little absence to make the heart grow fonder... and desperate!

Coming home soon, ladies???