The Enigma Known as Zack

A couple days ago Zack mentioned that his right ear was plugged up and he couldn't hear well out of it.  It didn't seem to bother him too much so I just thought maybe it was fluid and told him to take some Benadryl before bed and hoped he would wake up the next day and be better...but he wasn't.

The next day (Thursday) he mentioned it a couple more times but other wise seemed okay so, again, I chalked it up to fluid and was hoping it would be something that would just go away on its own.

Then - yesterday!  He woke up in a mood!!!  He was over it!  He wanted it gone and he wanted it gone yesterday! We had plans to meet C.J. and spend the day watching Breaking Bad, go to dinner, and then do our Universal Evening.  I was finally able to get him out the door and he settled down for the afternoon but did not want to go to Universal.  

On our way home, I stopped at the Dollar Tree and picked up some hydrogen peroxide.  When we got home, I put some in his ear and then jumped in the shower while he waited the 5 or 6 minutes it took to stop fizzing.  When I got out, he said that it had helped "a little".  I thought great.  We waited about an hour and did it again. 

THEN...out of Zack's mouth on loop

"Nope...it didn't help at all" and "I can't take this anymore"

He was clearly very miserable but I wanted to prepare him in case there wasn't anything that could be done for him medically.  Because visiting the Emergency Room is right up there with getting a root canal on my "fun scale," I tried very hard to convince him to wait until the next day when I could get him to a doctor but he was not having it!  

Finally, at 8:50, I caved and we walked out the door on our way to the ER department of Doctor Phillips Hospital.  

I just want to take a second and say how impressed I was with their service.  When we walked in, we were instructed to go to a section called, "rapid diagnosis" because our complaint was simple.  We were seen, diagnosed, treated and were discharged in less than an hour!   I've never seen hospitals separate patients based on the ease of diagnosis and treatment before and it was pure genius.  

Anyway, the doctor looked into his ear and diagnosed him with an outer ear infection - also known as swimmer's ear.  Antibiotics and ear drops should clear it up.  

But the surprise came when he looked in his throat...

The conversation went something like this:

Doctor: "Hmmm...your throat doesn't hurt?"

Zack:"No"

Doctor:"Are you serious?"  

Then he calls a nurse over

Doctor" "Look at this...and his throat doesn't hurt."

Nurse: "Oh my God"

Then he said the antibiotic will also cover whatever the heck was going on in his throat, which he guessed was most likely strep but did not do a test because he was getting an antibiotic for his ear anyway...

and now I am thinking I may have to take him to the doctor and get an opinion on removing his tonsils.  It seems every time we see a doctor, they comment on his throat.  But then, we are usually seeing a doctor because he is sick so the icky looking throat didn't seem unusual.  Now I am thinking his throat might look like that all the time and he just doesn't feel it....I am confused.