One Week of Wellness

Spring could not have come at a better time. This has been a bad winter for us. We have not had a complete week of clear health for everybody, since October. Until, that is, this last week.

Our biggest trouble has been recurring ear infections. Over and over. Which I guess is the definition of recurring. The sad thing is that I had no idea that they had an ear infection the first couple times. No pulling at the ears, no complaining. Just a thick runny nose that would not go away.

So we started an on-again, off-again relationship with antibiotics. Two days after we would finish a series, the nose would start running again, and the infection would be back. There had to be another way. But there are not many options for ear infections. We tried the waiting it out, and waiting and waiting which made me worry about all the side effects of not being able to hear. We tried the antibiotics, but those worked as well as waiting it out. We wanted to avoid tubes in the ear, so there seemed to be only one other option.

Chiropractic care.

When I mention that we took our two year old to a chiropractor, I get such funny reactions. Most of them revolving around the idea that I really must be crazy. I don't know why chiropractors have gotten such a bad rap, because I have only heard good things from people who actually go.

We went on a Friday morning, and right away the Doctor was able to feel where he was out of alignment in his neck. The muscles were all tight there, too, trying to overcompensate for the pulling. In less than a minute he was able to realign, and massage the muscle a bit to provide relief. And he said that we should see results almost immediately.

We have not seen a runny nose since. We went back Monday and again on Friday to make sure things had not returned. My sons neck muscles had relaxed, and his ears were not infected.

We are definitely going to try this again next time. I am hoping that there will not be a next time, but only one kid got the chiropractic care, and I have two more kids, which equals four more ears that may need help.

We did have to pay $25 out of pocket for each visit, which we may get reimbursed at 50% from work. But I think considering the potential cost of the doctor's appointment plus the pharmacy cost of $15 for the antibiotics that I didn't think would work, I figure we got a good deal.

We are however going to have to adjust our budget this year to cover the additional cost of medical expenses that we have already incurred. We have already burned through the money we carried over from 2008. Some of that was for treatment in '08 that was not paid until '09. We also had some of that reimbursed, so I will have to do some figuring to know how much we are over in our budget.