Surgeries....Again.

Nathanial, Ethan, and Noah have been in speech and development therapy for almost a year now (wow!) and so it was time for their bi-annual hearing screens to go with their evaluations for their IFSP's. Nathanial passed his, but was right on the line of a need for a medical referral. The general consensus was, though, that he is hearing well enough to be at a learning level. So he was ultimately not referred on, which was good because he just got a new set of tubes a few months ago. Noah failed his hearing test massively - completely missing entire tones. He did not hear things no matter how loud they got. Ethan failed massively, also, but heard all the tones, just at very loud levels. So they were referred back to Dr. B for an evaluation.

When we went in, it was discovered that Noah's one tube fell completely out, the other was just barely in, and there was a lot of fluid behind both eardrums. Ethan's tubes were both in place, however they were plugged completely, so no longer working. He also had a lot of fluid behind both eardrums. We decided to go ahead with surgery for both of them.

They went in today and Noah knew when we got to the floor just exactly what was going to happen and started sobbing. I was able to distract him with a new blankey and teddy eventually. (I love the hospital that we go to for this - it is very progressive and very comforting for little people, especially considering it's in a town with a population of about 9,000 people.)

Ethan went first, which was a huge help because he doesn't have the propensity for drama that Noah does and he feeds off Noah. He got right in the little wagon and said "bye-bye" to me and was off. He was done in about an hour and Dr. B came in to chat with me. He had a ton of thick mucus behind both eardrums, which was drained and his adenoids were "huge." She feels his speech and hearing should be drastically improved now. His one tube was also fairly buried in his ear, so she had to do a little more "work" to get it out. She said we will probably see more bleeding from that ear than the other three ears and just to know that was why. As soon as they took Noah back, they came and got me for Ethan in the recovery room. He was saying miserably "mommy, mommy, mommy" over and over. Once I started to hold him, he did much better. We got in a lot of cuddle time while Noah was in surgery. Ethan also had/has some breathing congestion now, but they said that should clear up in a few days. He wasn't so bad that he needed a breathing treatment (like Nathanial) which was reassuring; they just heard a lot of "gunk" in his lungs afterward.

Noah went next and because Ethan went without much fanfare, Noah got in the wagon and said "bye-bye" to me, also. Noah had a ton of pus behind both eardrums, so was given iv antibiotics while also being given fluids (Ethan also received iv fluids). Dr B is not sure if he will ever get back some of the tones he totally missed (there was indication of damaged nerves from birth on for those tones), but they are "not tones he really needs." Interesting....

Noah had some dramatics coming out of anesthesia (as always) so one nurse came to cuddle with Ethan while I went back to recovery with Noah. He did better after I got back there and was able to hold him, but still had the little sobbing-breathing problem and would just break into more sobs on occasion.

Ethan drank right away and ate an entire popsicle, but Noah refused. He was not allowed to have the IV pulled until he drank 6 oz of juice and half a popsicle so they could see that he would indeed drink and not vomit when he got home. It took him a good 45 minutes to decide he wanted to go home bad enough to drink anything. As soon as he did, we were GONE.

This afternoon, both are rather hyper and not wanting to rest or nap at all. I believe they may be ramped up on pain killers, but they need to rest. They are recovering well, though, and really don't seem to be in any pain...by now we should be almost out of the effects of the pain meds they had at the hospital!

Nathanial's Surgery

Nathanial had surgery on Wednesday for his tubes and to remove his adenoids. Dr. B went in and took out his old tubes, then cleaned everything out and flushed it with antibiotics. She said that his right ear was just bulging with infection and granulated tissue. His left ear was somewhat better but not a lot. She then put it new tubes and gave him IV antibiotics. He had a bit of trouble with barking and breathing afterwards, so while he was in recovery, they gave him a nebulizer treatment. He would not sit still for me while we were at the hospital, so I only got one picture of him prior to him going back...and of course, he has his tongue out!

I got home to some very sleepy boys (they all got up at 5 am and have all week!) who were passed out on the living room floor. It was kind of funny, but that also meant poor Nathanial didn't get the nap he so very needed because he didn't want to miss out. Not sure I will ever give him pain medicine again, either. He had a bit of an issue with it - he looked rather out of it and was having some issues walking...and that was with 1/2 the dose!

All in all, he's done very well. We are having some drainage still, but I'm hoping that is just from the surgery. Please pray with us that this heals him and he doesn't have any more issues with his ears!

Nathanial at home with his surgical hat on.


Noah is sleep-y!

Ethan is also exhausted!

Another hearing test

Aidan had a massive ear infection in July. His first ever and it was nasty. When we took him into his ENT to have a look, we found out he had a lot more going on than "just" an ear infection. We got it all straightened out and still felt like he wasn't hearing well. She looked and both his tubes were still in place. So we decided to wait until he started preschool and then do the speech and hearing evals through AEA.

He had his hearing evaluated in October and didn't do so hot. I got a letter home that day that said he had failed in his left ear and if we wanted to take him in before we got the formal evaluation report back, we could. We decided to wait until we got it back. We got them back today and they were not good.

The audiologist says that he has "significant hearing loss" in his left ear. He is not at a "learning level" with that ear. The formal recommendation from AEA is to get him into his ENT asap and have him sit with his right ear towards the speaker and other kids. That was a little overwhelming. I knew he wasn't hearing, but I had no idea it was that bad. So I called his doctor and he goes in December 12. Hopefully it is just that he needs tubes again and this is permanent damage.

Tonight, Steve was talking to him and he kept saying "What?," "What did you say?," like always. So I told Steve to try talking near his right ear. So, we turned Aidan and Steve told him in the same tone of voice what he had said and he got it instantly. It was interesting because Steve was NOT facing his left ear, he was standing directly in front of him, and he still couldn't hear until Steve stood near his right ear. Explains why he sits on top of the TV, with it jacked way up and why he can't hear me. We went through all this before, but since he was hearing some of what we were saying, I didn't think it was so bad.

He had his speech evaluation done a couple of weeks ago and we haven't heard anything back yet on that. The audiologist said that his speech would more than likely be affected by his lack of hearing in his report, so I guess we'll just wait and see what the SLP said. If she takes as long as the other guy, it will be a while before we hear back.