But then, when you’ve got L keep going and going and going, and then saying, “yes, we do try with Amoxicillin first”. You know, and I say, it’s never worked for him. So then you get prescribed Amoxicillin and then you’re back within so many days because he’s still got a high temperature, his temperature has not come down, obviously that’s not working lets try a different one. You know, in L’s five years he has had about five different oral antibiotics to try for an ear infection – five different products. There has only ever been one GP who has ever took us seriously and said, “right, I think we need a referral to ENT”, and we got referred to ENT and that was back in last year. And yeah, that was last year and what she said was, “what we need to do is take a swab of the bacteria in there to see what we are dealing with. They did do that when he was younger, when he was a baby, as well to see what that was doing. But yeah, sometimes I’ve been to the out of hours service in recent years when I know exactly what happens with him. I know the symptoms, I know what’s gonna happen, I know if he’s not treated properly, he’s not gonna get better. And, you know, to be sat there and be told, “oh yeah, we’ll go for go to medication is Amoxicillin” and for me to sit there and say, you know, as a professional I don’t want to trust your judgement, however, he’s had that many, we know it doesn’t work and that we always have to take swabs and then to be told, “well if we did a swab, by the time it comes back the antibiotic will probably be working anyway”, and it didn’t, and 48 hours he’s got a raised temperature, we’re back at the GP. The GP who saw us this one time said “I don’t understand why they didn’t just swab it to see what we’re dealing with” at the time. Yeah.

D: It’s just, it’s really, really awful, you know. I’m trying to explain to them the history of his ear infections and that, you know, I’m his mother, I know what will happen if it’s not treated properly. I know how many days it will go on for and rather just getting the right medication from day one, we end up trailing three or four different things. At one appointment, we were actually told, one GP wasn’t actually gonna give me anything, she said “oh its very common in children and if it’s only just started in the last day or so we don’t like to give antibiotics straight away, we like to see how it plans out”. And I refused to leave the doctors surgery because I said you need to have a look at his history and you need to see that this will not go on its own. He’s got a problem with recurring ear infections, we’re waiting on an ENT referral, he needs something.

And then you’ve got the other side of it where you’re changing medications and it’s whether your child will take to that medication, you know. He’s quite good is L to take antibiotics, I’m quite lucky. But there has been some that he’s been prescribed that he’s just really, really not liked.
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Interviewer: can you tell me more about any treatments that you were given for the leaky ears? So, about the tablets, sorry can you tell me that history.

D: He’s always been prescribed oral antibiotics. Now, we’ve been prescribed oral Amoxicillin, another one would be erythromycin, clarithromycin, co-amoxiclav.

Interviewer: Right, yeah.

D: And then there’s another one, it was a pinky colour, flucloxacillin or something, is that the word. Yeah, that one as well. And then in recent, with ENT now, we have been given, its now on system at the doctor’s on the system, but since in May, we were last there and we got our letter from the ENT to say the recommendations regarding what he needs going forward. He’s had one ear infection since May, and that was in July, and I walked into the doctors surgery she started going from the system and everything and it’s a good job I had my letter in my hand, because it wasn’t on the system. This is like two months later, still wasn’t on the system.

D: I said well we’ve been seen by ENT and this is what they recommend, it’s antibiotic ear drops straight into the ear canal.

Interviewer: Yeah.

D: And he’s had one set of those in July. Is it called ciprofloxacin or something like that?

Interviewer: It sounds familiar, I’m not, I can’t remember all the names of them either but that sounds.

D: Yeah, ciprofloxacin or something like that. It’s basically an antibiotic ear drop into the ear canal. Which is, when we first went to ENT in April there was still some active ear infection there. One had started in February, we had some antibiotics, two courses of antibiotics, and we went in April to ENT to our first appointment and there was still some active infection in there and he had to have some ear drops for it.

Interviewer: Right. So, since the ear drops in July, what’s happened since?

D: He’s not had one since. Which is good.

Interviewer: Okay, can you tell me all about your experience of being treated for the leaky ears from when it first started up until now. Just what you can remember, I know it’s been quite a long process, long time.

B: He was always having antibiotics for it, like ear drops but then they just didn’t take effect.

Interviewer: So, did you say he had eardrops, drops that you put into his ears, is that right.

B: Yeah.

Interviewer: And they didn’t have any effect.

B: Not after a while no because he’s had them so long.

Interviewer: Right, he’s had them so many times.

B: Yeah, it just stopped working.

Interviewer:: Did he have any other types of antibiotics or treatments?

B: Just the eardrops.

Interviewer: Just the eardrops, okay. Did you use any other ways to treat the leaky ears.

B: No, just gentle cleaning.

G: Yeah. So, I took her to the doctors, suspected ear infection, they gave her a course of, I think it was amoxicillin. Anyway, didn’t work.

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G: So, we’ve had two lots of ear drops. One set didn’t even touch the sides at all. He has suctioned her ears quite a few times because he can’t, he can’t see what’s in there. He’s swabbed her ears and the swab has come back with no bacteria and in her ears. So, the ear drops have obviously got rid of that, the bad bacteria. But it’s now, we have no idea what it is. Her ears are still leaking. As I said, we’re just having to pay for very expensive ear drops which aren’t necessarily working or may have got rid of the bad bacteria. But yeah, he turned round and said stop using the ear drops for five days, see if they stopped leaking, and they continued. We’re now back on the ear drops. I’ve now got another appointment with the ENT Doctor next week to try and see what the next steps are. But I’m getting to the point where I’m just going to turn round and say do you know what it is? If you don’t, do you think you can tell me who might? Because this isn’t normal. But yeah, that’s where I am with it.

Interviewer: So, you’ve had series of ear drops, so you had two sets of is it two sets of ear drops that you’ve had?

G: So, we’ve had four sets of ear drops.

Interviewer: Four sets in total. And so we ask everyone this question. Did you try or use any other ways to treat the leaky ears? And if so, where did you obtain the information or advice from

G: No. You know what, because she’s so young I haven’t. If it was me, I’d be like chuck it in, it doesn’t matter. Because she’s so small and she can’t tell me if it’s hurting, I’m really reluctant to try any herbal, Olive oil, Castor oil, anything like that?
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G: Well, it’s like you could take a course of antibiotics and you expect by the end of it to at least be better. Each time I’ve been very sort of like, oh, we should take the antibiotics and it will be better. But it has not been the case, so she will take the course of ear drops, these new ones. Oh, she’ll be better, but still, nothing has worked.