Ali, the ear, and the bean A TRUE STORY

sweet "bean" sleeping peacefully after the surgery.. she was this way from 4 am until 2 pm and then after her release, when we got home, she went straight back to sleep again.

Ali trying to stick her tongue out for a picture to her Dad

The culprit.. a bean.. that had begun to sprout on the side that was in the drum

During the surgery, this is just the beginning of it all

Ali just after being sedated

Ali before being sedated

Our first visit to the Emergency Room in a while was for my baby doll Ali, she had decided during nap time at school, when her teacher had left the room ( and let me just say for those who know my little "Tinkerbell" thinking that she is taking any type of a nap is a form of stupidity in and of itself, but leaving her in a room with scissors, glue, coloring and painting devices, staplers, pins...etc is simply asking for something to happen...) that her friend Morgan's little white bean that had been sitting on Morgan's desk all by it's lonesome, was somehow in danger of no longer being Morgans, so being the great friend that she is, Ali decided that to keep it safe the best place to hide this bean for Morgan later was to put in into her (meaning Ali's) ear. Now she figured that she would simply be able to remove it after nap time when it was time to do the project that the teacher was planning with these little white beans.. when pushing her finger into her ear to retrieve the bean did not work, Ali decided that her teachers punishment for not staying on her mat during nap time of missing 1 recess was too much to bear, so she ignored this little problem for over... 1 month. On Ali's last day of school she awoke to a fever, and her tummy not feeling well at all.. she came and woke Mom up to inform me of the tummy pains. She and I were cuddling and watching cartoons that afternoon, in one of my attempts to keep my ill baby doll laying down somehow, and I noticed that she would rub just in front of her ear every few min, and that it was looking a little red. When I asked if her ear was hurting her, she a little too quickly responded that it was just fine, sat upright and covered her little ear with her hand. So in trade for a cookie, I was able to convince her to allow me to just peek inside her ear to see if it was red. Well.. as I used both of my hands to open her little ear enough to peer down the ear canal, while biting tightly on to the end of a flashlight since I just could not see a thing the first couple of tries... well there nestled snug into her ear drum was this bean, which at the time looked to me as if it was a white mechanical pencil eraser. Around this intruder in her ear was blood and a nasty amount of puss, and a putrid sent assaulted my nose the closer I got to see what it was. After just a few seconds of holding her ear open she began to shriek, and jerked her head violently away, her sweet, although not sweet scented, ear was so sensitive from the infection that had formed that a soft touch was too much for her to handle. As a result of her jerking away, the flashlight that was I was trying ever so hard to keep gripped tightly in my mouth, and at this time had me drooling very profusely due to how wide my mouth had to stay open in order to keep the dang thing in there, slipped from my teeth's grip and hit my sweetheart right in the head... which gave her a bruise on her forehead. I felt so terrible at the time, however, I knew I needed to try to look one more time so that I could find out what was going on to know how to respond from there. I began to bribe Ali so that I could once again look into this oh so smelly canal... and after the pain from the heavy flashlight, and from how tender her bean filled little ear was to start with she was anything but cooperative. When I finally asked her what I could give her in trade for her allowing me to look in her ear again she responded by saying "you owe me $17.00 if you want to look in my ear, and I get to pinch that zit on your chin that you said hurts." I have to admit, I was taken back by her request, and asked if 17 cents would work because that was all the cash I had on me, she agreed. I looked again, and I decided this was a bit above something that Dr. Mom was able to handle on my own. I called Daddy Vic to inform him that we needed to take her into the hospital when he got off of work due to the foreign object that was in Ali's ear. Prior to the call I had asked Ali if she had stuck anything in her ear, and she was very adamant that she had done nothing of the sort! When I was on the phone with Vic, he asked to talk to Ali to see how she was and if she felt she could wait until he got off work, or if he needed to contact his boss at another job site to see if he could get off... As soon as she heard Vic's voice, my sweet babe broke down in to tears and informed him that she had indeed stuck something white and oval shaped into her ear at school for Morgan.. and please don't tell the teacher or mom, cause mom will write a note to the teacher to not leave the room, and teacher will take away recess... Well, I guess mom's notes to teachers are much scarier than I had any idea. She rested and did not eat much the rest of the day as she waited for Daddy Vic to get home from work. When he did arrive home we ate dinner and rested a bit to see if there was a chance that I could get Ali tired enough to be able to have her asleep possibly when the doctor needed to look into her ear, since even something as simple as a trip to the dentist with her results in some very mean mud slinging of words at the dentist and mom getting bit multiple times, just for him brushing her teeth with a tooth brush... she doesn't take well to those that she does not know. I headed to the local Emergency Room, and as an added blessing I had a friend who met me there and helped out since I had hurt my left wrist 2 months prior and was still unable to use my thumb, as well as I am still breast feeding my 5 month old baby girl Ame. Annie, my friend was a blessed help. Ali was very tired as we arrived to the ER and wanted to fall asleep pretty much as soon as she laid down on the bed in the room that we were assigned to. Unfortunately as soon as the man in the white coat, our doctor walked in and mentioned looking at her ears, pulling out the instrument that they use for that, she freaked... once again I relied on Bribery to see how far that would get us..once again Ali wanted that $17.00 I'm still not sure what the attraction to that specific number is for. Either was the bribe worked just enough to allow the doctor to look into her ear. Upon getting everything aligned to see in her waxy canal.. the doctor let out "what the hell is that" my response was "my thoughts exactly" The doctor let me know that he would try what he could to get it out, but that there was a very good chance that we would have to refer her to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat specialist) and to book an OR (operating room) to remove the object because of how swollen and inflamed the eardrum was looking from what he could see. At hearing this Ali flipped out. The doctor looked again, and decided that our best route was to sedate her, and do a small procedure there in the er to see what they could do. While we waited for a respiratory specialist to monitor Ali's breathing during the procedure, Annie and I talked and tried to let Ali rest, in the hopes that she would be sleeping when they came to give her the shot to sedate her, They gave us the option of a IV line, they said it wouldn't put her out as long, however Ali during her last stay at the hospital was notorious for ripping the IVs from her arms and hands, so we decided a shot, even though it lasted longer would be a safer route to go. Unfortunately she did not go to sleep, just the mention of the word shot had her sitting on the edge of her seat. So When the nurse, respiratory therapist, doctor, and CNA came in to start the procedure, I laid down to hold her, I wrapped my arms around her arms, and my legs criss cross over her legs while they prepped her thigh for the itty bitty shot, she began doing her normal thrash and freak out at the sight of the shot, and it ended up taking everyone except the nurse who was giving the shot to hold her down, and the nurse still ended up being punched by Ali twice, which for her is a a VERY small amount of times. Thank heavens the sedative reacted very quickly and she began to settle down fast. Oddly, the sedative that they chose to give Ali is much better for little kids, it is one that helps them so the event is not so traumatic, they won't remember a thing with the use of this drug, however most children's response is to tighten their muscles especially the ones in the neck and shoulders, she looked all tense and scrunched, and it also forces the eyes WIDE open and they do not blink during the drug's effects. It was very different to see Ali with open eyes lying so still.. I can honestly say that was a momentous occasion Ali holding still...
As the doctor began to work on our mystery item at this time, he found it much more difficult to remove, but due to the amount of infection and trauma to the ear drum, he was very motivated to get it out. He called for extra instruments... They were freaky I must admit. There was a scalpel, a very long metal needle that could be attached to a saline flush and one also that could be attached to a vacuum there in the room. He tried to blow air in the area of the object which did not work at all, Then he put long metal things in her ear canal to further force it open, and inserted the scalpel and the first metal needle that was honestly longer than my hand and wrist together.. into the puncture in the bulging ear drum, and filled the cavity with an entire saline flush, which again did nothing to loosen the object, it was very secure in there with all the blood and puss that had surrounded it. Then he used the 2nd needle that had a wider end and used the vacuum after allowing the saline to settle in the ear for a bit and after a few tries he was able to pull the object from her ear... and yup there was our little white bean. I couldn't believe that all of that had been over a dang bean. What a fun night!!! Well it has almost been a week now.. and she is doing well on her recovery. We will take her in here in a week to see a doctor to see how the ear is recovering from the surgery. It is still draining puss, and she is having difficulty with hearing from that ear for now... but the doctor said this is to be expected during her recovery. She did not handle the sedation side effects to great, she had a very upset tummy, and cried alot. However She thought she was in outer space when she did start to come to, and said that I had 17 eyes (there is that number again) 36 fingers, 2 mouths and alot of noses.

She fell asleep peacefully until 2pm the next day, and after she was released slept even more.

Ali has said that she will not be sticking anything in her ear, nose, or belly button anymore, things only go in her mouth... however we have had to go over the fact that we do not put gum from any surface that is not in a wrapper in our mouth.. which also bit us in the behind when she found a chewed piece of gum in a wrapper on a garbage can lid up at the base this past weekend and she proceeded to enjoy that...man no rest for the weary with that baby doll.. but i wouldn't trade it for anything else!! Ahh, the life of a Mom....