A big dose of Dorchester Days

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been kind of crabby lately. Not just in my columns, but in real life, too. It’s just been one of those months. It’s been one frustration after another lately: Jacob being sick, Nate being sick, trying to save money for the Las Vegas trip, and fighting a terrible case of cabin fever on these beautiful days. But I feel much better after this weekend. I guess I just needed a good, healthy dose of Dorchester Days.

There’s something about that little village I’ve always liked since I moved here. The first summer Nate and I were dating, he took me to the park for one of his softball games. That park is such a gem in the community. So after a couple long weeks, it was nice to get outside and spend some time in the sun among people.

Jacob and I went down Friday night to check out the carnival, car show and other happenings on the ground. Even though he’s too little for the rides, he sure likes watching them. He also liked all the shiny old cars, and even got a kick out of the lawn mower pulls. Since he just got his hearing back, we left the pulls as the mini-rodders started to rev up. After snapping some more photos of the carnival, we met up with Nate before his 11 p.m. game. It was a nice surprise to find other friends there, including Jacob’s godfather and two other friends who babysit him a few times a month.

It wasn’t a very exciting softball game. Nate’s team really got steamrolled, and by about the fourth inning, Jacob fell asleep for the night. Saturday was more of the same: softball and photos. Thank you to the nice people at the gate who let Nate and Jacob sneak in to the tractor pulls with me for a little while so I could snap a few pictures.

After I’d had my fill of tractors for the day, we headed back to the park for softball. This game ended much better. Nate and the Greg’s Towing boys were pretty far ahead when Jacob started to get restless. We made a lap around the park, then tested out the swings and wooden train. By the time we finished our walk, the guys had won. After an intermission from the park to milk cows, we came back later that night so the guys could win another game.

The win meant a fourth game, but it was against the team they already lost to because of the way the brackets played out. So Sunday afternoon, we plodded back to the park for the final game. Although Nate’s team kept pace until about the fifth inning, the other team rallied and put the game out of reach. After some deep fried happiness from the Dorchester Days food stand to cheer us up, we ran into some college friends at the nearby beer garden. Then it was time to head home and end the relaxing weekend.

Re-energized, I got quite a bit done around the house that evening: repotting plants, laundry and rounding up toys scattered through the house. I later drifted off into a peaceful slumber only for an abrupt awakening at 3:30 a.m. A little boy was throwing up on the clean sheets I put on his bed that evening.

I guess it was too good to last.

I want to move!

Thanks to some good fortune and medical intervention, Jacob’s now on his way to recovery with the latest ear drama. We arrived bright and early Monday morning for the procedure. After a bit of waiting, Jacob was in and out of surgery. The actual procedure took only about 10 minutes, barely enough time to get a good start on our reading materials.

The good news is everything went well. The bad news is they found a large pocket of infection (about the size of a strawberry) in his ear canal. But back to the good news, they got it all out and the newly placed tubes should allow it to heal.

These past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind of medical drama. First the ear infection, then stomach flu, then ear tubes. At least the ear infections weren’t catching. The stomach flu got passed around enough, although I happily skipped that part.

About the same time, the odometer on my car added an extra zero. Now 100,000 miles new, the not so old girl has really been racking up a lot of miles lately.

All this gives me more reason to seethe about not being able to move to the farm on a timely basis. It sure would have come in handy these past few weeks when Nate had to be at the farm and I had to take care of a sick child barred from daycare.

Instead, the house that was supposed to be undergoing renovation so we could move in by August has been at a standstill for several weeks now. The owner is the type of person where it doesn’t pay to argue. Nate worked with him when they built the freestall barn a few years ago and pushing him does nothing. In fact, it seems make him go even slower.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t be mad and frustrated quietly. We do have other options. We could put a mobile home in for now, but we’d still have to install a septic system and drill a well. And I’d really like something more permanent. Another option would be to build new. We’d spend a lot more money that way, but at least we’d be set for awhile. Nate says he only wants to move twice more in his life: to the farm and to the nursing home.

A third option, and probably the most logical, would be to buy the house as is and finish it ourselves. It would be a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. I’ve been itching for some good hands-on labor for a while now. So much so that while home at my parents for the weekend I mowed their lawn and helped seal the deck. But that option would only work if he agreed to sell it to us now, which is doubtful.

It’s just not a good situation to be in. My patience is wearing thinner every time I drive past and see the bare walls void of siding and soffit-less roof. The knee-high grass he allowed to grow around it almost pushed me to my breaking point recently until he chopped through it last week. But as I drove past yesterday once more I had a breakthrough idea. Maybe that electric cattle prod hanging on the wall inside the barn would do him some good.

Tympanostomy tubes relieve otitis media

Ever heard of a tympanostomy tube? Don’t feel bad; I didn’t know what it was until today either. It’s the technical term for ear tubes, which we just found out Jacob needs after months of running back and forth to the clinic and several courses of antibiotics.

With Jacob and Nate (not to mention his dad and brother as well) finally getting over last week’s nasty case of stomach flu, this means I’ll have to burn a few more sick days. Jacob is an unusually happy baby, which makes it hard to know when he’s sick. He’s had five ear infections, but the only way we’ve known is because it drains or the doctor finds them at his check-ups. At his nine month visit a few weeks ago we found out he had yet another infection. When his doctor referred him to an ear, nose and throat specialist, I had a feeling the tubes were coming.

After an audiologist’s test determined his ears were still full of fluid even through he just finished another round of antibiotics, the specialist suggested ear tubes. He said Jacob had chronic otitis media, or middle ear infection. The only things I’d heard about ear tubes before made me a little leery of the whole process. Tubes in his cute little ears just made me uneasy.

The specialist showed me the tiny blue cylinder that will go in and explained the procedure. Basically, Jacob goes to sleep and he makes a tiny hole in the ear drum to drain the fluid. The little tube then goes in to keep the hole open so whatever fluid collects will drain out. The tubes should fall out on their own when Jacob’s around 18 months old. As I was thinking of a crud dripping from his ears, the doctor explained the ear only produces a few drops of fluid a day which normally drains down through the nose. However, Jacob’s plugged tubes caused his small ear canals to fill up with fluid instead. The stagnant fluid becomes a breeding ground for infection. Antibiotics were taming the infections, but not getting to the source of the problem: fluid collection.

The alternative to tubes was to wait and see if he grows out of it, but that would mean more frequent trips to the doctor to screen for infection. Plus, Jacob’s hearing may temporarily be affected and speech could be delayed. I quickly weighed my options and decided tubes now would save a lot of trouble in the future. The surgery is scheduled for bright and early Monday morning in Wausau.

Being a curious person, I did some research to learn more about his condition. Approximately two million tympanostomy tubes are placed in children in the United States each year to help chronic middle ear infections. That makes the surgical procedure for placing tubes in the ears one of the most commonly performed operations of any kind. Also, I found out in the northern hemisphere ear infections are most common in November through March. Hopefully that means once he gets over this hump, Jacob can be healthy and doctor-free for a few months.