Up the Ear Canal Without a Paddle

Well one my nightmares has come true: my son has ear problems.

I spent much of my infancy and childhood with non-stop ear issues. I had tubes put in twice and my tonsils and adenoids removed at age four. Even with this, I have battled ear infections for the past 28 years of my life. Adults do not tend to get ear infections because their ear canals grow and shape themselves appropriately. My left ear canal must of missed the memo on the forming normally part because it always gives me problems that led up to a full ear drum blow out, hearing loss, and inner ear reconstruction.

My little William had two ear infections and ruptured ear drums within a week and a half of each other. He already had an ear infection last August. So this makes three in his young nine months of life. The pediatrician said she usually likes to wait until infection number five before referring to an ENT, but with my history of ear catastrophes I should get Will to an ENT right away. Even though most infants have ear infections because their ear canals are still growing and shaping themselves, sometimes infants inherit their parents' flatter ear canals (which of course is more likely in this case). Naturally, I started crying and the doctor was kind enough to give me a hug. Now my baby will probably need tubes in his little ears. I know this is common for babies, but it only led to bigger and worse problems for me. The good news is that the ENT they recommended ended up being my ENT. So when I go for my hearing test next Tuesday, I will just take my son with me.

As soon as I got home, I fell apart again for handing down my cursed ears. My sweet husband endured my complaining about Will probably never being able to enjoying swimming in the summer, hating to fly, and dreading  sinus infections that inevitably affect the ears. I continued to go on about how awful I felt about giving Will my ill-functioning ear canals when Chris said, "But I bet they are beautiful ear canals."

I love my husband.