Every morning, before school, Munchkin participates in Run for Life. This is for twenty minutes prior to the bell and is out on the large asphalt lot that has the play structures and other things for recess and P.E. (this is done outside). You can walk, jog or run laps around the lot. Each lap is 1/6th of a mile.
During the end May we are called to pick up Munchkin on a Friday. He had fallen and hit his head. We learn that he did not eat his lunch and had signs of hypoglycemia, which probably caused the fall. We are asked to follow up with his doctor.
During the appointment Munchkin complains of his ear hurting, so that gets checked as well. It appears that he has an earwax blockage. An irrigation attempt is made by a nurse, breaking up some wax. We are given drops for his ear and told to follow up in a week to ten days. For his eating, we are told to not have him go more than a normal amount of time (around four hours) between meals, that we are to pack his lunches on Fridays, as they are known to not be eaten well or at all.
We follow up six days later, this time because Munchkin's ear is red and he is sent home from school because it hurt so bad. Since his ear is blocked, they irrigate it again. Again, a small amount of wax is removed, what appears to be the large hard wax is moved forward. He is given antibiotic drops and told to come back in another week to ten days. We are told to keep using the other drops along with the new ones.
We follow up nine days later. They irrigate again. Still no luck, other than the tiny bits of wax removed and seeing the blockage closer to the exit of the ear canal. By the way, all of this causes more pain and discomfort for Munchkin. We are told again to keep using the first drops. They refer Munchkin to the ENT.
We call the ENT two days later to make sure the referral went through. They inform us that it'll be mid July, but to call back next week to actually schedule the appointment. They call back the end of the next day (a Friday) and tell us to come at 9 on Tuesday morning.
Munchkin is really nervous, because all the irrigating and such just made his ear hurt a lot. We get to the ENT and when we are called back Munchkin has to lay down so the doctor can use the light to see in his ear, he also has a special scraper tool to clean out his ear. The ENT assistant and Hubby have to both help hold Munchkin still so the ENT can do his job. With his first look he states that he doesn't think its just ear wax. With his first attempt to remove the blockage he states it must be a bead or bean. It takes three attempts to dislodge the object. It was a bean! Upon seeing the bean we all realize that the drops and irrigation just caused the bean to swell, further lodging it in the ear canal and also causing more pain for Munchkin.
It took several hours of gentle prodding to find out when and how a bean got in Munchkin's ear. We remembered that sometime during the end of April, Munchkin's class did a project with beans. (They glued ten beans to each popsicle stick, to make a hundred. They were learning to count by tens.) We learn that Munchkin "was curious" and had seen a friend put a small rock in her ear (and was able to remove it) a few days before this bean project. When Munchkin could not dislodge the bean he was afraid to tell anyone.
We took these pictures the next day:
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