Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Well, it's finally over. Number One Son's ear battles are behind him. About a month ago he had ear surgery for the second time to repair a hole in his eardrum. Last week was his final check up to see if the drum was healed. The doctor said yes. So now N1S can swim until he grows gills.

The poor kid has been on a 'two summer slump'. Last summer, he and his bike went over a four foot retaining wall and he broke both arms just above the wrists. He wore a cast on one of his arms until August. For most of the summer he had to settle for floating on the water with a duct taped bread bag around his cast.

This summer, he started out with a second attempt to fix his ear which required his ear to stay dry until healed. Once again, he settled for floating, but without the bread bag.

At his last check up, he still had some of the packing in his ear. Ethan was pretty nervous about the doctor going into his ear again. He really does not like people around his ears. He was quite brave to let the doctor use his metal loop to pull the remnants of the packing out.

When all was done, N1S got some gum from the doctor and called me at work from the doctor's office. He was excited to tell me about his gum and about how brave he was. After all that he has been through, I was extremely relieved to hear that his ear was now healed. I did not want him to go through another surgery. I also liked hearing the pride in his voice when he told me how brave he was. It may not seem like a big thing, but to Ethan, it was a big thing. We've seen how sensitive his ears are to him. It couldn't have been easy for him.

So now he can enjoy anything wet that the summer can offer. He can swim, dive, slip and slide. Maybe tomorrow I'll set up a bucket of water balloons....then run.