1 Mother 2 Another

Cora woke up Tuesday complaining of an
achy ear. She had no fever and didn’t act like a typical ear
infection, so I figured she’d slept on it funny and thought
no more of it.


Throughout the day, though, she’d mention it again, and I
finally got her to pinpoint the pain – all right towards the
outside of the ear. “Does it feel like an ear
infection” I asked. “Does it hurt anywhere inside,
where you can’t touch?”


“No, and no,” she said, obviously as flummoxed as I
was. So we simply kept going with her day.


But when she woke on Wednesday and her first words were,
“Mommy, it STILL hurts!” I gave the doctor a call.

The doctor confirmed a raging case of
swimmer’s ear, and was quite impressed with Cora’s
specificity, pointing out that swimmer’s ear is an infection
of the more superficial part of the ear and thus doesn’t feel
like a typical ear infection.


We’ve got drops now and will hopefully feel better today, but
the doctor warned that once a child gets swimmer’s ear
she’s much more likely to get it in the future. She
encouraged me to buy some “swimmer’s ear drops”
to use after pool time as a preventative, at least for the rest of
the summer, once the ear has healed.


The doctor must have seen a certain look on my face – the one
that said “I don’t do ‘extra’
medicine” – and remembered that I am more of the
granola side of the spectrum. So she then said, “Or you can
totally make your own preventative drops. Half white vinegar, half
rubbing alcohol, put a few drops in each ear and go on with your
life.”


And this? Is why I love my doctor. A medical pediatrician who is
happy to let me go my crunchy way.


So Cora’s banned from the pool (don’t bring it up
– very sore subject around our house) until Saturday, and
then we’ll be trying the homemade drops. And Cora knows how
much I love my home remedies: on the way home from the doctor, she
said, “Isn’t it great she gave us a recipe for a home
remedy? Now you can make me some good medicine, like you like to
do, and not have to use anything that might have extra stuff in it
I don’t want or need.”


She knows me so well.