I’ve officially reached the chest pains, shaking, having trouble breathing level of panic right now. After Dr. Vallance was concerned about the appearance of Susie’s ear yesterday, we got in today to see Dr. Tseng, her ENT. Despite finishing a course of antibiotics two days ago and Dr. Vallance seeing no pus yesterday, her ear was filled with pus for him today. He cleaned out the wax from her good ear and then spent several minutes suctioning out the pus from her bad ear. He wants us to see Dr. Luxford, pronto. It seems that the eardrum (which is already unusual because it was a skin graft–Dr. Luxford had to remove the original ear drum as well as the two bones the tumor had eaten through three years ago) is acting constantly infected. We need to be using the $150 ear drops constantly. Complex hearing test, CT scans, and/or surgery may be necessary, especially as Dr. Tseng says it’s likely the cholesteatoma is back and causing this constant irritation. I literally froze in panic for a few seconds. I called the House Clinic the moment we got back into the van. Dr. Luxford is well over 65 and not coming back in to work until after 4th of July due to covid, but we were able to slide in to a cancellation with one of his associates next Thursday. Hopefully if that doctor feels surgery is necessary, we’ll be able to schedule surgery with Dr. Luxford again before we leave mid to late July. But if we don’t, Dr. Tseng says that Iowa is actually one of the top ear hospitals in the country, so we will be in good hands there.
Susie likes Dr. Tseng and is not feeling scared. We listened to all of Ephesians and Philippians in the car on the way to and from the doctor’s office, so we’re trying to keep ourselves grounded. But I am a basket case.
Praying that Janie’s follow up with the urgent care doctor on her stitches will go better this afternoon!