Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!!
Right now I am resting, which is exactly where I want to be after the last 10 days of working, cooking, cleaning and celebrating. I was not able to complete the gifts for my poor children and as a last minute decision, Poppa braved the Christmas shopping world and got presents for them, bought all the ingredients to make our celebration meals and cleaned the whole house. This Christmas and New Years were very different from our usual traditions and I guess that was OK.
Here is where I should share why it was so different and little about what has happened to me in the past 10 days. On the 22nd, I was working in my very cold sewing room/garage on a dozen half finished presents for my children, god children and family, when I started to feel an ear ache coming on. I went up to my bedroom and layed down with Poppa holding a hot rice pack to my ear hoping the pain would go away soon so I could get back to work on all of the presents that I left for last minute (as usual). The pain did not go away but got worse and worse. At around midnight, I was desperate enough to call my poor doctor who told me to go to the emergency room since he was closed until the New Year.
I spent that night with lots of tissues held up to my ear full of bloody water (sorry for the unpleasantries) and gurgling noises in my ear. By the morning I had so much pain I could not even think. Not wanting to take Matthew to a germy hospital, I went to an Urgent Care place instead. The doctor said he had no idea how I was able to drive myself there because of the double infection I had. He prescribed antibiotics and I was on my way home. I cannot take anything other than Advil for the pain because feeding my baby comes first so I have been dealing with it as I can. A visit to my regular doctor confirmed the first diagnosis as well as two ruptured ear drums and a hematoma in one of my ear drums. He said he had never seen anything so bad in an adult. I am now scheduled for ear surgery on Thursday morning to make repairs.
I have had ear ringing (tinitis) and very little ability to hear since the 23rd. The presents/projects are still where I left them on the 22nd and it has been a good lesson on letting go of perfection and remembering the true meaning of Christmas. I am now shooting for Epiphany.
As I have written in Christmas pasts, we do not decorate for Christmas until Advent is over. Christmas Eve is always a flurry of cooking, cleaning and the excitement of decorating the tree and house. This year, I had my little brother over with his kids and together we all got this house ready to celebrate. I did what I could but it was mostly directing from the sidelines. Alex and Lewis spent the day with us, wrapping all the presents and helping with projects. We ate our Chistmas Eve meal including the most delicious salmon ever (thank you Poppa) and then headed out to midnight mass. The pain was mostly gone enough for me to attend midnight mass (though I heard nothing, not even the bells ringing). Christmas day was spent napping after the excitement of opening all the Christmas presents and cooking the prime rib for our Christmas day celebration. This is my favorite meal of the year. We have had five get togethers here at home (one lasting New Years Eve until 4 AM) and one get together party with lots of old and new friends…fun!!
Poppa and the kids have had quite a fun time saying off the wall things to me in the hopes that I will hear something even funnier and I now have a new respect for those with hearing impediments. Not being able to hear is a big deal. I wake in the morning and feel as though I am all alone because the house is so silent (though in reality it is quite the opposite). I discovered that the baby will sleep through the night when I am not grabbing him at every little noise he makes at night. Luckily, if he would have woken up, Poppa would have heard him but he has now slept through the night for 9 nights, going to bed at midnight and not waking until 8 AM.
So all and all, Christmas still happened and in the end what mattered was that we were all together and I remind myself that Christmas lasts until February 2, so all those handmade goodies will still get to their recipients and all will be fine.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)
Oh my goodness! I am so sorry! What a terrible thing to have happen. I never got ear infections till I was an adult, which I thought was odd. At the time I lived in a bit of a polluted area of Germany though, so that kind of made sense. Hope you will recover soon and will have lots of help. God bless and get better soon.
I am so sorry to hear about your illness! I've had kiddos with double ear infections, and I had one that ruptured an ear drum. I will pray for your healing. I also wanted to pass along that you could use homeopathy for pain relief. I don't know which remedy you would need, probably a consult with a professional homeopath would be suited here. Many people do not know how homeopathy works. They *think* they know, but they do not. It is *totally* non-toxic, so you will have NO worries of taking a homeopathic remedy while nursing. Homeopathy can also heal up your ear as well. It can also help with post surgical pain. We use a homeopath that is amazing! Since homeopathy is based on symptoms, our homeopathic practitioner does phone consultations. This means you don't have to leave your home, he's just a phone call away. Not exactly cheap, BUT you can have total peace of mind knowing your babe won't be affected, AND you can get pain control, and get help in healing your ear. You can email me for our homeopath's number if you would like. My email:kjpechin at yahoo dot comBlessings to you and your family!!Kerri
Oh WOW! I'm sorry you were so under the weather. I hope you have a speedy recovery. For what it's worth, your kids look like they still had a great time.
Praying for you! I had 2 ruptured ear drums from a double infection left untreated when I was a teen. I lost some hearing for a while but did get it all back. Praise God!