Surgery

Nathanial, Ethan, and Noah got their tubes in Monday. It went surprisingly well. Noah, I knew, would be our Mr. Drama, and he was.

Nathanial went first. He did really well and came back quiet, with some whining as he woke up a little more. Dr. Bell did the hearing test to check his cochlear nerve response while he was asleep. He passed in his right ear, only failing one out of six areas. His left ear was a pass, also, but not a good pass. He failed three areas, passed three areas. She said she may still do the ABR test on him depending on what we see in two weeks. The good news is that with his right ear being strong, he is hearing at a speech-learning-level right now and that is all we ever wanted. So now he should start to hear better and learn. Yay! He isn't responding as well as I would have hoped yet, and is still very quiet, but I still think it's partly his personality and he's just going to take more time to get the hang of things.

Noah went second. He wasn't sure what was going on and was chewing his lip before he went back. He didn't understand why they all got dressed up in little gowns, with footies and hats, and why Nathanial disappeared, but he figured it couldn't be good. I heard him coming down the hall when he was done, howling away. He was not a happy baby. Dr. Bell came in to explain he had similar results to Nathanial, slightly better. He has a strong right ear, and a weak left ear. He passed four out of six areas in his left ear; passed five out of six in his right. So, again, he is hearing at a speech-learning-level and should start talking. He already has! He had several words before the tubes, but he quickly caught on to more. We went to pick up Tylenol afterwards (to be sure I had plenty!) and he was crying in the store. When I asked him if he was just plain mad, he said "mad, mad, mad" and kept on crying. He seems to do really well with "m" words for some reason. He says mom, more, me, mad, mine. Interesting. He also has responded really well to when we talk to him and has said "I do," "I see it," and "Look this." I think he's going to pick up fairly well.

Ethan went last. His hearing test was good in both ears, so that was a relief. He didn't cry at all afterwards, was just hungry and thirsty. He has been picking up more words, also, which is neat to see. He has said to me several times "Here go" when he's handing me something and is saying other things, also. I think he'll catch on to language reasonably quickly.

It was a good experience. I wish I could have done more to prepare them, so they would understand, but you really can't. Poor Noah was just terrified before and was not a happy baby at all until today. Yesterday, he was just as owly as the day before. The difference was Nathanial and Ethan were both owly right along with him yesterday so he didn't seem as bad. Today everyone seems to be getting back to themselves. They are no longer having the balance issues they had Monday and yesterday, which is good to see. And they are finally taking a decent-length nap (gives me time to catch up here!). They hate, hate, hate the drops that go in their ears. Aidan was reassuringly telling them "It's OK, it's just cold...it doesn't hurt...don't cry, you're OK" while I was giving them the drops. I am glad I have someone who can tell me it doesn't hurt and it's just cold...because the way they are acting you would have thought it is a form of torture!