update...

Alright. Well, Saturday night we made another trip to the E.R. After our visit on Saturday morning, he still had severe pain even with the vicodin he was taking. The swelling in his face seemed to get worse, also. Also his face was starting to feel numb. We called his brother-in-law who is a physician in Utah and told him about it all. After reading the warning labels on the medications, it did say that swelling and numbness could be an allergic reaction. So, on his release forms from the hospital, it said to call if we had any questions. Of course, we called. Their response, "we are not allowed to give any medical advice over the phone. You should either contact your PCP, or come back to the E.R." Well, we all know that you can easily reach your PCP at 10:30 at night, so of course, we headed back. The third doctors opinion -- he had both a middle and an outer ear infection. He thought Jeff should still be on antibiotics (unlike the second doctor), so he prescribed Jeff three new medications. Drops for his ear, percocet for the pain and omnicef as the antibiotic. This doctor didn't think he was having an allergic reaction - he explained that there is a gland right in front of your ear on your face, and the jaw muscle was probably having swelling because of everything that was going on. As for the numbness, he said that with all of the swelling it was probably pushin on some nerves in Jeff's face and that is what was causing the swelling. However, Jeff was actually able to sleep that night for the first time since Thursday. He didn't get up once. (Yay, percocet!) So, Sunday afternoon the pain meds are starting to wear off and his face is still swelling (off and on). The next day he actually had a follow-up appointment with his ENT (ears, nose and throat) doctor for his surgery on his nose he had last July. We decided that was great, because he could take a look at Jeff's ear as well. This morning we get up and go to the ENT. He looked in Jeff's ear and said, "oh yeah. you have severe otitis in that ear." I'm sure Jeff was thinking, "no duh!" So, he got out this long tube thing and put a sharp metal object on the end of it. This was also used after Jeff's surgery to suck out all of the dried blood and gunk - so I figured he was going to suck crap out of his ear. You could hears stuff going through this tube (kinda like when your are vacuuming) anyway, then I see him jab at Jeff's ear a few times. Jeff's face went all crazy and I could tell it hurt. Come to find out, he punched two or three holes into Jeff's ear to relieve some of the pressure. I asked Jeff later if it hurt and he said it did but not any worse than the pain he has been dealing with the last four days. I guess it takes about a week and the eardrum should repair itself. Anyway, this doctor explained that the swelling was actually because the infection had spread. But, with Jeff taking the antibiotics he said he should be ok. We hope so! So, a lot has gone on these last few days. Poor Jeff, though. He missed school tonight because he still can't hear anything out of that ear. Once in a while it will "pop" and he can hear for a few seconds, but mostly it just sounds like static. He's afraid he'll get called on in class and not even know it. He said, he'll probably miss school tomorrow, too and head back on Wednesday. I feel so bad for him. Okay, well, that was our weekend in a nutshell. (Happy Father's Day, Jeff!) Well, I am off to bed. G'nite.

This is all of the medication Jeff has been on from Thursday to Saturday. Seriously, if anyone walked into our apartment right now and saw all of these on the counter, they would think "there are some serious addicts in this household!" Especially, since three of the seven of these drugs are for pain. Oh yeah, and on top of these (he is currently only taking 3) he has to take his allegra-D and ibuprofen to keep the swelling down.

Haha! I have to tell you this funny story, now. Braxton has been watching Aladdin (one of his new favorite shows. That and The fox and the hound) while I've been typing this and he gets so excited everytime he sees the palace. So, just now he said, "Mommy, come look. I see the palace." After about 10 times of him saying that I get up and go see the palace otherwise he will just continue on and on. So, I get there, I tell him, "wow, there is the palace." and he says, "I love you, Mommy." So, I said, "I love you, too, Brax. Can I give you a hug because you are such a good boy?" He puts his arms out and I sit by him and hug him. Then he adds, "I missed you." So I say, "I missed you, too." Without skipping one beat he says, "Okay, you can move now." So, I laugh and get up and then he adds "thanks for moving, Mom." So, I guess if he is going to be a little rude - atleast he is rude in a polite way.