Tenuous

......thin.......fragile............wouldn't trust it to do its job..........

this is how Max's doctor described his ear today......

Max's 7th tube was laying in the ear, about to fall out.
I was prepared! My plan was to tell the doctor to pull it out and we would wait for the next infection. Max will be 11 this year. He has had 7 tubes. I am sure he has outgrown all of this hullabaloo and another surgery is not necessary!!

The doctor looks in the ear, sticks some sort of device in the ear and pulls out the tube. He looks in the ear again and makes a groaning noise.

"WAIT", I say.

"You need another tube, Max." says the doctor.

"NO, he doesn't!" I say.

My favorite doctor looks at me, amused....eyebrows raised....waiting to hear my professional opinion.

"We can wait and see how he does without a tube."

Dr. Muppet looks at me like a father would look at a pleading child and then turns back to Max's ear.

"Tenuous is the adjective I would use to describe this ear. We can't wait. It could cause damage. It is bad. We can't wait."

And then I start to ache all over like the flu as he starts to tell me how according to the note he received from the allergist, the history of Max, blah blah blah.......Max will need a CAT scan first, then possible Sinuplasty (this will be his 2nd) and he will check adenoids (this will be his 3rd) he will put in another right PT tube (this will be his 8th) and then he will do a culture on his "something or nothers" (which were explained to be like nose hairs that beat away bacteria and Max's may not be working) and send them off to some lab out west.........

I looked at Max as we walked to the car. I felt like crying or throwing up.
"How do you feel Max? scared? sad? mad?"

Max: "I am ok, I am used to it........."then he grinned and his eyes sparkled "I wonder what the Tube Fairy will bring me tonight!!"