Immediate action=yay! No answers=boo…

    First things first, I really want to thank everyone for the support, prayers, and well wishes we’ve received. Simon wants to thank you too, according to these pics I took of him on my phone during our waiting time at the appointment today:

     Here’s the quick update for those who just want a status report but not the details: Simon is too young, small, and his ears are currently too irritated and full of goop to really get any idea of the integrity of his ear, what is causing such extreme recurring issues, and if there has been any long-term damage done to his ear drums. I really wanted answers today, but there are no answers to be had in Simon’s case given his age and his turbulent ear history. The only thing that is for sure is that he needs tubes ASAP, and they will call us tomorrow to let us know if it will happen on Thursday or on Monday; but it will happen within the next week for sure. It will be done by the pediatric ENT team at Swedish Hospital in downtown Seattle.
    For those who don’t know about tubes, it is a quick, routine procedure usually only done for babies seven months or older. It gives poorly-routed ears a chance to drain externally when they’re infected rather than the mucus building up inside the ear until the ear drum ruptures. Simon is exceptionally young for the procedure, but it isn’t some kind of high risk scenario. He is a more worrisome case than others because anesthesia for a 3 month old is usually avoided if at all possible and can only be administered by special, high-ranked anesthesiologists. Additionally, dinking around in such small, new, vulnerable ears is usually not advisable, but the alternative is to wait until he is older and risk permanent damage to his ears in the downtime. Given those options, we chose tubes! 
    The whole scoop is here, for those who want the details. We've gone through a lot in the last few days!