4th of July musings - ears, ears, more ears

It was pretty good 4th in the grand scheme of things. We had a little BBQ (with a slight mishap halfway through - thank god for the broiler to finish the cooking process). S and T made their way to fireworks later in the evening while Francesca and I laid low. Francesca was understandly beat - she had a rough time of it early yesterday due to antibiotics - she basically purged the entire content of her stomach in her car seat and on my lap yesterday a.m. as we were leaving the grocery store (it was DISSSGUISTING - try driving home in puke-soaked shorts - not a pretty sight). I've been beating myself up about the whole ear infection thing. It doesn't help that the ENT is really good at serving up a healthy dose of guilt with every recommendation she doles out. She honestly said to me during our initial visit "you could give her one more round of antibiotics, but after that you' d pretty much be considered a bad mommy', and then this gem (after then pushing the proverbial 'last round of antibiotics before I become a bad mommy' on me) "boy if it were my baby and she were hurting i'd want to get her on antibiotics right away". ARGGH! I caved and scheduled tube surgery for early August, and even accepted the prescription for antibiotics - but after yesterday's puking incident and her terrible diaper rash I stopped giving it to her. I remain hopeful that we can find a way out of this earache nightmare without the tubes, but it sure is hard keeping the faith in the alternative treatments. I've basically imposed a one month deadline on the whole affair - if the infection doesn't resolve in the next month and the fluid doesn't drain we're going in for tubes. I have so many mixed emotions about the whole thing and I don't know why I'm so skeptical of conventional medicine - and then equally skeptical of alternative medicine. Maybe I just need to accept the fact that she need tubes and move on. But what if there were a way to solve this naturally? Without hocus pocus? Like acupuncture and dietary change? Fingers crossed.

Francesca monster, acupuncture, et al.

Right, so the blogging thing really worked out well for me. Let's see, one post in eight months - I'm headed for a Pulitzer for sure!
Regardless of that little hiccup I'm determined to give it a go. S and F are trolling about town this morning with their sitter. Funny little monkeys. S said we should take the 'blue path' this morning to avoid the 'Francesca monster'. Where in the world does he get this things? (It's disturbing once you realize that your child's brain has been addled and programmed by overexposure to Dora the Explorer!)

Just back from baby's first ever acupuncture session. Yes - you read that correctly - acupuncture. I know, I know, sticking my 1 year old with needles seems cruel but I'm really hoping that it will help her raging ear infections. After months of being on the pediatrician carousel (on and off of antibiotics, in and out of the MD's office, round and round so quickly my head was spinning), I decided to jump off and delve into the previously unbeknownst to me world of alternative medicine. I talked to a lot of people in the natural/holistic medicine world - some quackier that others - all willing to meet with me and discuss their secret solution. I have finally found my way to a great acupuncturist - who bridges the gap between Eastern and Western medicine in a common sense, non-threatening approach. Meanwhile the ENT is in a hurry to get Francesca under the knife - we met yesterday (Monday) and she said 'I could put tubes in her ears this Friday' - yikes! uh uh - let's not rush into anything that involves general anesthesia and a knife. So, I'm letting Francesca get stuck with needles and hoping desperately it works. Fingers crossed.

On the way home I let the monkeys eat apricots in the car - note to self for future reference - smushed apricot between babytoes and all over the car seat is disssgusting. Sebastien was highly amused - Francesca kept trying to suck her toes to get more fruit.