It was a rough road for Steph having so many ear infections. Doctor visits and antibiotics were never ending. She built up an immunity to the drugs so that nothing was helping her. We traveled three hundred miles to a teaching hospital in Gainesville, Florida where she underwent surgery in both ears. The left ear was sewn shut to prevent any further infections and her right ear was cleaned and a tube was placed inside.
The champion that she is, the surgery went well. It was a rough recovery for her but she kept strong and dealt with the ear muffs(what I called them) for as long as she could. (Pictures below)
After several weeks of traveling back and forth to Gainesville we were told that her good ear was doing as expected. She had lost ten percent of her hearing in that ear due to the surgery, so she was left with only seventy percent hearing. The infection was gone but the incision in her left ear was taking longer to heal. The antibiotics didn't seem to be working... again. She had lost so much weight she was down to ninety pounds. Not Good!
I was not to happy with her outcome but the doctors were working hard to keep the infections at bay but they kept returning. Both ears continued to be infected.
Feeling frustrated I decided to relieve some of my stress and try acupuncture. I had heard a doctor on the radio show at my husbands station talking about acupuncture and the different uses. David agreed to let me give it a try. So off I went, of course I had to take Steph. She would stay with me in the room as the doctor would do the treatments and we would rest together. I began to talk to Dr. Phan about Steph and asked him if he would be able to treat her for the ear infections. He talked to Steph and she jumped at the idea. I mean she jumped on the table and laid down just like I would do and said "I got it Joanne". She was willing to let him place the healers into her body. After about a month of going twice a week for her treatments with Dr. Phan she started to show signs of improvement. We had a follow up appointment with her doctor in Gainesville about two months into the treatments. Upon our arrival to the clinic in Gainesville a student had checked her ears first and remarked that he saw no signs of infection. When the ENT/Surgeon entered the room he rechecked Steph and said she was doing great, asked me what I had been doing that her ear had cleared so nicely. I just smiled and told him that she was having acupuncture. He took a seat and I immediately thought he was going to lecture me, but he asked me if I had the doctors card, as he would like to refer a few more clients to him. He said he had heard good things about acupuncture but never tried it and if it could clear Stephanies ear from infection then it was worth looking into. He remarked that for the year he had been treating her the ear never once look as good as it did then. He even thought she looked healthier.
Steph continued her treatments with Dr. Phan on a weekly basis, and David and I joined in the treatments. I have never felt better, and I will say that during the flu season we all stayed healthy.
Steph is still enjoying being free of any infections to this day.
