Second Opinion

We saw the new ear doctor today about the dry skin in James's ears.  It's a longer drive than to UNC, but the parking is easy, and we waited only 5-10 minutes to see the doctor, which was awesome!

I had to laugh, though, because when we told him about James's medical history, the first thing out of his mouth was that he had been at Duke before going into private practice, and "for auditory processing issues, we always sent people to UNC, because they're the best."  (Yes, yes, we know.)

He took a look at James's ears and said they looked okay right now, but that if they started getting gunky that we should call up and bring him in.  From what we described of his symptoms, there are three likely causes: contact dermatitis (skin reaction to something like the hearing aid earmold), a yeast infection, or a fungal infection.  And all three have different treatments, so there's nothing he can do until he gets a culture of whatever it is.  But the fact that there's a plan for actually diagnosing what's going on was very refreshing!  It would be lovely if we didn't need to follow through with that plan, but I think we'll probably need to at least with his left ear (the right one seems to be okay for now).