Thompson Family: Beware: Infected Household!

It was been an interesting few weeks and there have been a few ups and downs. Amelia was so happy to get her cast off! I think she thought that she was just going to have that thing stuck on her leg forever; however, as soon as they sawed it off, she wanted down to try and walk around. She walks a bit like Frankenstein, but every day she’s improving.

The rough part of the last two weeks is that Noah caught some nasty flu virus and passed it on to both Amelia and me. This in and of itself wouldn’t have been so bad if Amelia hadn’t gotten her fifth ear infection in five months. Yesterday morning she woke up with a really high fever and was pulling on her ear. I took her to her pediatrician and, sure enough, it was another infection. They said that it was time to go to an ENT specialist and discuss the possibility of putting tubes in her ears. When I was leaving the doctor’s office, I got a phone call from Noah’s school nurse saying that he was in a lot of pain and that it looked like HE had an ear infection! So, I left straight from the doctor’s office to get Noah and then right back to have his ears looked at; he, too, was diagnosed with an ear infection (his first ever). I knew he was in a lot of pain, because he’s usually not one to complain . . . but he couldn’t stop crying since it hurt so badly. They prescribed antibiotics, so I headed to our usual pharmacy to fill them. Upon arriving, I discovered (after waiting in line for 20 minutes with two crying kids) that my prescription card had expired. So I went home, found the new card, and headed back to an even LONGER line at the pharmacy to find out that they had no record of us under the new plan! After about two hours of waiting and calling, we FINALLY got the medicine and, boy, did my two kids need it!

I have gotten a lot of feedback from friends and family about how great tubes worked for their kids, so I was okay with hearing the ENT specialist say that Amelia needed tubes. I didn’t realize it was considered a surgical procedure and she would need to be put under general anesthesia. Thankfully, the surgery is scheduled for a week from Friday, so Mike will be able to come with us. They said that right now she has mild hearing loss but that it should improve once the fluid in her ears is cleared. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the surgery, anesthesia and hospital stay are all 100% covered by the insurance we get through McKinsey & Co -- what a drastic change to the insurance we had while Mike was in graduate school!

I haven’t really been worried about her hearing, since every day she is saying more and more words. One of my favorites scenes: she has learned how to open the pantry door and will get one of her bowls, a box of cereal and then come up to me and say “Mommy, give more cereal, peezz!” Another big step she made is that she has started feeding herself! It really came out of the blue . . . one day she just grabbed the spoon and said “ME!”

On another note, my brother Jason, his wife Emilie and their adorable two little boys (Parker and Preston) stopped by our house for lunch on their way home from Houston. It was great to see them, even if it was only for a little bit. I think it is wonderful that all the cousins are so close in age!