This past week has been nothing short of excruciating. A week ago Friday, Eva was preparing for an evening of storms by putting in her AirPods. One wouldn’t fit in, so she shoved it in a little harder than normal and scratched her ear. We ended up in the Pittsburg ER Saturday because the “trauma” to her ear was causing pain and starting an infection. We were given blood, platelets, a round of IV antibiotics and ear drops. By Tuesday, she was feeling a bit better, but her counts were extremely low again, so we headed to Children’s Mercy for a platelet transfusion on Wednesday. Her ear as still bothering her, but we thought it was in the mend. Thursday she stayed with my mom, so I could try to go to work and the ear started draining more than any ear I have ever seen. We contacted the team and they recommended taking her to a walk-in or her PCP. Our PCP had no openings, so mom brought her up to the Lions Clinic and we had her checked out. The ear had so much fluid, that they felt it had traveled into an inner ear infection and gave us oral antibiotics, along with a culture to send off. Eva continues to have massive draining and pain, but we held on until her oncology appointment yesterday. By the time we got to the hospital for her appointment she had an extremely swollen face and was completely over the entire experience. Keep in mind, the two of us have had extremely little sleep since the entire episode started. Dr. Thompson was out sick and so was our normal nurse practitioner, so a different nurse practitioner we had never had came in and looked in the ear and said that she felt the ear drum had burst and we should add a different drop. Eva did not make counts again because she had no platelets, so we settled in to get blood and platelets and move all of our chemo back a week. Praise Jesus for our nursing staff besties, because they realized quickly that Eva was not okay and her face was continuing to swell. They got the nurse practitioner around two in the afternoon and after another consultation we were sent for an emergency CT scan of Eva’s face. The infection has spread across her face an created an abscess behind her ear. They called in an ENT specialist and he came to see us with lots of concern. He told us that antibiotics would not be enough, we needed to place tubes, but her ear is too swollen to surgically put tubes in. So we were admitted last night for IV antibiotics and he put a wick in her ear. We are supposed to meet back up this morning for decisions concerning whether the canal of her ear has healed enough and reduced in swelling enough to place tubes or if we need to keep on the path we are going.
The original plan was for mom and I to take Eva up and if she was admitted, Will was going to switch us out. With surgery looming and everything so up in the air, I felt like I couldn’t leave, so we hastily found a hotel room across town, grabbed some clothes from Walmart and have spent the night. We plan to head to the hospital in a few minutes and figure out the plan for the day. We need prayers more than anything. I don’t know what today will bring, but I do know this. The ENT says that this definitely started with the AirPod. He says that he hates them and they are not good for kiddos, especially imunocompromised kiddos. I know they were expensive, but throw them out. This is beyond horrible and no one should be where I am now. Pray hard, I will update when I can.
#evastrong