Ed's Ear Injury

The front of the ear.

The back. His ear stuck out funny for an entire week...then slowly went back to normal.

Healing up: This was while school shoe shopping. It was discolored for awhile, and tender, but it healed up on its own.

So Ed was cleaning out our train water tender car and as he lowered himself in, he banged his head on the side of the car. It dang near took his ear off, and he was so fighting the tears. I know when it hurts Ed because he has a super high pain threshold. He was doing the whole, "Ouch! It hurts, it hurts, oh wow, my ear hurts so bad!" An hour later when he got out of the tank, I finally saw what happened and I flipped out. It was so disgusting looking. I put some ice on that thing. I texted my Aunt the nurse. "Does this need treatment?" (No.) After another two hours it doubled in size again, and the all knowing internet cautioned against developing cauliflower ear. I don't a kid deformed at the young age of 8 if a simple procedure can fix it...so I took him to Urgent Care. They gave him antibiotics, and sent us to an ENT. Jessie's ENT was on vacation, but there was one downtown that could get us in the next day.

He looked at it, and said it didn't need to be drained (the swelling had already gone down from the previous day) and sent us on our way. Whew! That was one of those "Better safe than sorry" calls on my part. We live so far away from medical care, and his ear was right on that edge of, "Is it just swollen, or does that bruising indicate a hematoma that needs to be drained to prevent cauliflower ear?" Note: cauliflower ear is common in wrestlers and rugby players, but it can form when the skin of the ear is pulled away from the cartilage. A hematoma will fill the space between skin and cartilage and then the skin will turn funky. 

Live and learn!