My rock star

Paulo had a really nasty ear infection last month, it hit hard on Valentine's Day, and actually ruptured the following Tuesday. It was a doosy! We had our follow up today to make sure it's healing well and that there's no hole in his ear drum-fortunately there's not. He's healing nicely.

While we were there though we got on the subject of allergies. Paulo has been plagued by sore throats for as long as I can remember. They are particularly bad in the morning because he's a mouth breather. When he was three he had terrible snoring and apnea. After laying with him and watching him stop breathing and gasping in his next breath I took him to an ENT who did an MRI and told me his adenoids and tonsils had to come out. When he was laying on his back they completely obstructed his airway. That was rough. The surgery day. It was really hard to watch him be taken away-although I must admit he was HILARIOUS after they doped him up! Back to today....I asked his pediatrician about allergy tests since I don't want to just dose him with Claritin for the rest of his life if I can avoid it through diet or environmental changes. She was not initially game but decided WTH we're there already let's go for it. They required a blood draw for the tests. My little dude is a rock star. I explained to him what the nurse was going to do and that she'd be quick and it'll be done in a minute and he took a deep breath, grimaced, gritted his teeth and held perfectly still. I have a very distinct memory of being held DOWN for a shot when I was older than he is now, but my baby took it like a champ and did not fuss or fight. He was so proud of himself and I'm proud of him too. He hasn't cried with his annual shots in years. He's had blood work done before his surgery he did great then too but he was young enough that he didn't really understand what was going on prior to the poke. This time he knew. He knew what she was going to do. He knew it was going to hurt. But he was a rock star.

He handles things really well. I could learn a lot about going with the flow from that boy.

So now we wait. We wait to see if allergies are causing problems, well I know he has allergies, the question is to what exactly is he allergic. If he can't get relief from treating his allergies then we'll go back to the ENT. I was told today-and this was news to me-that adenoids can grow back. I sincerely hope that is not the case. I really don't want to put him through surgery again if I can avoid it. Of course, history tells me that Paulo will handle that set back much better than I will.