Mastoid-WHAT-is??

Malachi's little life in the womb continues to show me astounding things about God's grace. Let me explain...

I have been "under the weather" for about two months now. It started with Pink Eye (working in an elementary school will do that to you), morphed into a sinus infection that never went away, and took residence in an infection in my left ear. ("It" is the name for the bacteria gremlin who won't leave me alone.) I was on weeks of antibiotics, including a round of steroids to kick things into overdrive--so Malachi will be born with a six pack!

I thought relief was finally coming three weeks ago when I got in to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist (one of the best around here, I might add). Dr. Morgan is his name and unfortunately, it seems that causing me pain is his game! (I joke because I can...no really, he is an amazing doctor that I certainly trust!) Three weeks ago, he did a myringotomy (meer-in-got-o-mee) on my left ear. It's where he goes in with a tiny scalpal and cuts open my ear drum and sticks a vacuum thing inside to suck out the fluid that got built up. Well, that was three weeks ago.

I was supposed to go in for my three-week follow up on Wednesday this week, but over the past week, I knew something wasn't right with that side of my head. There is a horrible pain if anything even thinks about touching the area around my ear, the bone behind my ear (the mastoid bone), and the pain runs down the back of my skull and my neck. I thought I was just sore from the surgery he did...but it had been three weeks. After the five days of nausea, a little fever, and the pain, I called his office yesterday morning and they were gracious enough to see me that morning.

After some extensive hearing tests to confirm that I'm not crazy but there is hearing loss in my left ear, it was time to see Dr. Morgan. He came right in, shook my hand, asked a few questions and got right to work. He knew exactly what questions to ask and (unfortunately) where to touch my head to make me cringe--to help confirm his diagnosis. He said that my inner ear was infected again and he was going to have to repeat the surgery he did three weeks ago and this time go ahead and put in a tube. No big deal, right? WRONG!! I thought I learned last time why they usually sedate people for this surgery, but this one was far more of a learning experience on the power of anesthesia (or lack thereof). As he is about to cut my ear drum (again), he explains that because of the scar tissue from last time, THE NUMBING DROPS WON'T WORK!! What?! I was lying there thinking, "At least lie to me...tell me I won't feel that much!!!" Immediately after he cut it open, there was a release of pressure that I didn't know was in there. He said it was full of puss and blood (which he sucked out). If that wasn't painful enough, it was then time to insert the tube. With the numbing drops that were no more than just water to me, this was the worst pain I have felt to date. I am not a wuss and have a pretty high treshhold of pain, but I cried like a baby. To make matters worse, with all my hormones going crazy anyways, once I start crying it is impossible to stop AND you have to hold completely still while there is a scalpal in your ear drum! AHH! After about 15-20 minutes, he was done and I was a pool of sweat and tears on the table. Like I said, I am usually a trooper, but that thing HURT!

Let's throw one more unfortunately in the mix...after Dr. Morgan had a closer examination of my mastoid bone (bone behind the ear), he said that he was afraid I had Mastoiditis. Mastoid-WHAT-is?! I had never heard of it before. Evidently, Mastoiditis is a pretty serious infection that seeps into the honeycomb-like mastoid bone. If not treated properly, it can spread throughout your body and in the worst cases into your brain. Because of modern medicine, the chances of someone getting this infection is..get this...0.004%!!!! And of that, the majority affected are babies ages 6-13 months old!!!! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!

So I have this rare bone infection. What now?

Good question. Dr. Morgan immediately sent me upstairs to an Infusion Clinic to get my IV antibiotics started. I have a nifty IV (a.k.a. HOSE) sticking out of my wrist at the moment so that between my mom and Steve, I can get a big dose of IV antibiotics once a day at home. The modern technology is pretty cool. They taught me and my mom how to hook up the IV to the antibiotics, how to clean it, and how to administer the stuff. I also have to flush the IV with saline every eight hours so it doesn't clot. I taught Steve how to do that last night. Good times. To give you a better idea, here's a nice picture of what my wrist looks like right now...

Isn't it pretty?!

I got to see my OB yesterday too which is always reassuring. She has been in close communication with Dr. Morgan to make sure myself and my Malachi are doing the best we can through all of this. The really amazing thing is, here's where God's grace is astounding...

Through all of this happening to me and my body, God is sparing Malachi any consequences. His heartbeat, position, size, and overall well-being was perfect at yesterday's visit! It is absolutely amazing to me that so much can be going on in my body but that Malachi remains unaffected. My OB called him "oblivious"....haha.

The big decision of the day is whether or not I will get a PICC line put in instead of my IV. A PICC line is inserted into your arm and threaded up through your arm into your subclavian vein. This sounds drastic, but unlike an IV, a PICC line can stay in the entire time I'm on these injections. Which, by the way, could be anywhere from 10-20 days. With an IV, I have to go the Infusion place and get a new IV started every 2-3 days because your little arm veins just can't handle more than a couple days. With a PICC, it could stay in for the duration, can't get pulled out (they stitch it in place), and has less chance of infection than an IV. However, with a PICC they would probably have to put me on Heprin which is a blood thinner. My OB said she was fine with a PICC (and would prefer it) if it wasn't for the Heprin. Just on the sheer chance anything were to happen like a car wreck or early labor or something, I could bleed out if I was on blood thinners. So, the nurse from the Infusion place called me last night to check on me and said there is actually a way to do a PICC without using Heprin. I see Dr. Morgan this morning at 10:30 so I will just have to wait and see what he and my OB (Dr. Levin) decided to do.

If getting poked and prodded every few days is safer for my little man inside, then that is a small cross to bear to keep him safe.

Please, if you will, don't take this post as a pity party in any way. I just wanted to keep you all in the loop of what is happening with Malachi (and his incubator). Please pray that God continues to show off in this situation. It is my understanding that as long as I have an active IV, I can't work (which cuts into not only my small paycheck but also the time I can take for maternity). It is also my understanding that this infection is hard to treat because it is so far deep into the bone and takes a long-term course of antibiotics. Some cases require surgery, but we will cross that bridge if it comes (preferably after February 6th!). God has something amazing up His sleeve through all of this and I am glad I have a front-row seat to see what happens. Please pray for His continued healing as I deal with the pain and discomfort as well as His incredible hands to remain around Malachi.

I will update you after the doctor today. Thank you for joining us on this roller coaster.

Unworthy,
Molly