Friday night Fun

Friday night about 6:30 I was T (2.4) and K (3.75) were playing in the play room. I could hear them talking. I was trying to figure out dinner... I was just about to go check on them, when suddenly T screamed. It was the kind of scream that means something is very wrong. I went running and was greeted by K and T. T was clutching a pick-up stick ... you know, sharp and pointy, and crying. She said, "My E...." She was clutching her eye. My heart stopped for a second. I asked her if she was poked by the pick-up stick. She said yes. I asked where. She moved her hand from her eye, pointed to her ear and said, "HERE." My heart started up again.

She'd stuck a pick-up stick in her ear. I did my best to look in her ear, but I couldn't see anything. She shrieked for about 2-5 minutes and then calmed a little. I called MWH and told him what had happened and then called the advice nurse. The advice nurse said we should probably go to the urgent care facility and have her ear examined.

We did. The doctor at the urgent care said it looked like she'd poked something in her ear as there was blood, but she thought it was the top part of the canal. She referred us to an Otolaryngologist. We went today. There, the specialist said, there was a big hematoma (collection of blood) around the tympannic membrane but she couldn't tell if there was a perforation or not.

She prescribed some drops to "soften up the hematoma and prevent infection." We go back in two weeks to check to see how it's doing. She said with the hematoma there, T wouldn't be hearing that well in that ear, but hopefully in two weeks it would look pretty good. She plans to do a a Tympanogram and make sure it all is well if the hematoma has resovled.

The really annoying thing is I had seen the pick-up sticks up on a shelf in the bathroom closet about a week before. I'd thought to myself that I should probably toss them, and then thought, nah, they are up high, no one will find them until we're ready for them. Hubris. Gets you every time. My new plan is to toss all the toys I don't think are good, or put them up REALLY high on the top shelf of my closet. (Yes, I have tossed the pick-up sticks.)