This morning when I went into Ryan's room to get him ready for church, his right ear was full of blood. There was no fever and he seemed to be in a good mood. Since Dwight wasn't home and I was teaching Relief Society and helping one of the youth teach a Sunday School lesson, I needed to be at church. I've seen the blood from the ear before and it's been due to an ear infection. I thought I'd just keep him on motrin for the day and then take him to the pediatrician in the morning.
So we went to church and Ryan seemed to do alright until the very end of church. We came home and he slept for most of the afternoon. But, then when he woke up from his nap, he had another large discharge of blood from his ear again. I thought it was odd for a perforated ear drum to continue to bleed like that and so I called our Pediatrician's office and they told me he needed to be seen right away to get started on the right antibiotics.
Thus, we made an ER trip . It was a surprisingly quick trip. It was a little shocking though to have to sit down in the waiting room. We usually show up and get moved directly back to a room. I usually say, "Hi, this is Ryan Mann and he's been having seizures ..." and they look at him and they take us right back and start an assessment. I've never had to sit in the waiting room. Not this time. This time, Ryan was sitting up on my lap, talkative, and alert with good coloring. Thus, we waited in the waiting room for a little bit.
The Dr who examined him was so gentle. It was sweet. While he was examining Ryan's ears, I held Ryan's hands so that he wouldn't cause the Dr to push the instruments too far into his ears. Then I just continued to hold his hands for comfort. When the Dr started to examine his abdomen, Ryan insisted on letting go of my hands and took hold of the Dr's hand. The Dr stopped his examination and held Ryan's hand for a moment and just talked to Ryan. It was SO sweet. I appreciated his extra tenderness. Then when the Dr was leaving, Ryan wanted to sit up. So I sat him up and when the Dr said good bye, Ryan waved good bye to him. That always takes a minute, but the Dr waited and saw his little hand wave good bye. It was really precious.
