DS perforated ear drum

[elliejjtiny]

DS is 9. He has glue ear and wears hearing aids because of this. 2 weeks ago he had an ear infection. Had a phone appointment with the practice nurse who prescribed ear drops. Pain went away and DS is well and happy. Routine appointment with audiology on Friday and the audiologist took one look in his ear with the ear torch thingy and said he still had an ear infection and had perforated his ear drum. Said he needs amoxocillin and an urgent referral to ENT. So I get home, phone the GP surgery and speak to the battleaxe receptionist. She huffs and puffs about being very busy but manages to squeeze DS in for a phone appointment with the GP. Late that evening the GP phones and prescribes the amoxocillin but will only do a non urgent referral to ENT which means the waiting time is over 6 months. Argh. Will it harm DS to wait that long? I'm not sure what I can do. Please don't be offended if I don't reply. The app wont let me write stuff, only read it.

My middle son had numerous perforated ear drums as a baby and toddler. I was told by Gp that the infection is usually viral so antibiotic not needed. Had numerous ENT follow ups and hearing checks but hearing was fine. Im sure you are worried though.

Infection aside I’m intrigued why he has hearing aids for glue ear, are grommets not first line treatment for chronic glue ear?

DD had glue ear and numerous ear infections usually resulting in perf. The pain usually went as soon as the perf happened. She has some scarring on both ear drums (from infection and grommets) which hasn’t caused any issues.

I can't comment on the glue ear, bur DD has feeble ears, she once had three perforations in 3 months (twice in one ear, once in the other).

The pain was instant and severe, but passed very quickly. The discharge was... grim...

Touch wood, she hasn't had a bad ear infection for about 2 years. Though often gets liquid behind her drum which passes within a few days).

ENT when we finally saw them could see scarring, but nothing heinous.

I guess what I'm saying is that a perforated ear drum isn't always as severe as it sounds.

Thankyou everyone. The audiologist took it really seriously and the GP was quite casual about it so I wasn't sure who was right. Anyway yesterday we got a letter from the hospital to say that we have an ENT appointment in 2 weeks so someone somewhere in the system must have decided it was urgent after all. So it's all good.

@BabbleBee he's had 2 sets of grommets (when he was nearly 2 and when he was 6) and the first set were amazing and stayed in ages. But the 2nd set we had to wait forever to get them done, then they fell out in 6 months. Meanwhile covid happened and the waiting list for grommets was worse so audiology recommended we try hearing aids instead. Which have been really good.