can you hear what i hear???

Over the weekend, Einstein was complaining that he couldn't hear in one ear. Correction: he woke up at 3am Saturday morning, upset in tears SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER that he couldn't hear out of his left ear.

woah. This kid has slept through the night since he was 6 months old. Something was definitely up!

Like any good momma, I thought it was maybe earwax or water (we've been swimming a LOT) stuck in his ear canal. So I got a q-tip and cleaned out his ear, which came back squeaky clean. I was too tired at 3am to do anything more. Sorry kids, mom's working hours are from sun-up to sun-down. I quite enjoy my night hours without kids, thankyouveryMUCH! :) So, I proceeded to tell him that we would see a doctor later that day, and they would flush his ear out. I explained what it was, that it would tickle lots, but he would be able to hear very well afterwards. And you know what? He was actually excited!

But don't you know it? Kids always end up having a mini emergency in one form or another on the weekends. Or maybe it's just my kids? I LOATHE weekend emergency room visits! It's worse than a Saturday afternoon shopping trip at walmart! So he and I both agreed that we would wait until Monday to do the ear flush, as he had no fever and his ear didn't hurt. He just couldn't hear very well, that's it (I say sarcastically). But poor Einstein didn't let me get off that easily. He reminded me almost every hour of every day that we would be getting an ear flush for him on Monday. Like I could forget!

So Monday came! I called first thing in the morning, and thankfully for us we live in supercloseproximity to our pediatrician's office. Like, I could throw a rock and hit their parking lot. Well, maybe a bouncy ball! I was able to get an appointment for him in the next 30 minutes! Yay! And off we went...

The actual procedure of checking his ears was pretty standard, I suppose. I'd never encountered a plugged up orifice before. He got to use the hearing test machine and practice his hearing test for kindergarten next year (and believe me, I hyperventilate when I think of the idea that my little guy will start school in the coming year!). Judging on it's condition, I'm sure it was the same machine that I used to go to kindergarten myself. It was a relic!

Moving on... we went back to one of the rooms and played with the chalkboard, I blew up a glove to make a balloon, and the doc came in. He checked his ears, and what did he find???

A BEAD!!! In his ear! what? and it was white. so in an ear canal, that would be impossible to see unless you had one of those ear-scope light up thingies. Good thing we went to a doctor who had one :)

The first thing he tried to do is pop it out with a little plastic tool, but it was a no-go. This little 'bead' was just the perfect size for his ear hole. The doctor couldn't get behind it to gain leverage and pop it out. At this point I was getting a bit worried, since the pediatrician mentioned having to go to a specialist if he couldn't get it out. So we did in fact, try to flush it out.

The nurse came in with some absorbency papers, a diaper, a syringe with a special ear flushing tip, and a warm water peroxide mix. She had me sit on the papers and hold Einstein. Then she taped the diaper around his neck so it would catch whatever was in his ear. (I thought that was pretty funny and genius at the same time. Diapers... the latest earwax catcher!) And it took just 30 ml's of water to flush the offending "bead" out of his ear! Hooray!

Turns out the pesky little bead was an airsoft gun pellet. And why he chose the white colored pellet to stick in his ear is beyond me. I would have much preferred the neon orange one; then I would have seen it right away for what it was!

Einstein was such a good boy throughout the whole thing. He was so brave! He didn't squirm AT ALL, and as long as he knew what was going on, he was cool with everything that was happening. On another note, his brother Curly was extra good! He wasn't clingy, he didn't get in the way, and he was content with just playing with the chalkboard and getting chalk dust all over his clothes. Which I didn't mind at all!

For a reward, they got to spend almost 2 full hours on their scooters, riding with daddy. All in all, it was a pretty good ending to a crazy beginning.

Sorry the picture is super tiny. But that little speck in the middle of my hand is the airsoft pellet. Slightly covered in ear wax. Kinda gross, but pretty amazing that his ears are so on top of things, lol

Moral of the story: the pellet is out. We are happy! Life goes on without crabby, non-hearing kids. AND DON'T STICK THINGS IN YOUR EARS!!!