I took Julie to the ENT this morning. First, the good news. She did AMAZINGLY well! She didn't shed a single tear, which is literally unheard of in our past experience. She went in a little anxious and kept saying "Melody ear," which is her way of telling the doctor to look in Melody's ear instead. The doctor obliged and peeked in Melody's ears first, after which Julie happily let him look in her ears! She even sat in the big chair and tried to play with the instruments. I was so proud of her! Then they did a hearing test, which has also brought much terror in the past. Not today! Julie let them put the ear buds in her ear to test her eardrums and she even went in the sound booth with the tech while I waited outside! Finally, she let the nurse walk her down the hall to get a prize out of the treasure chest. Has someone replaced my little girl with another? I can only surmise that it is a combination of growing up and going to school. I think she is learning that not all adults are trying to take her away from Mommy for good. I almost didn't know what to do with myself, I'm so unused to her acting independently. It's really amazing!
Now, the not so good news. Julie's tubes have fallen out, which we knew. Unfortunately, she has enough fluid build-up to cause some significant hearing loss. She has "mild" loss in her right ear and "moderate" loss in her left ear. That' not good. It means she really isn't hearing me when I am trying to get her attention. Once the tubes are replaced, her hearing should improve. We don’t have a date for that yet because the ENT wants to do a CT scan first. Once we have the results, the ENT will schedule surgery (either just for tubes or for tubes and tumor removal if it has grown back). Last time we did a CT scan it was no fun at all. I had to lay on top of Julie while they tried to insert an IV. They tried one side. They tried the other. There was blood everywhere. Eventually they called an IV specialist and she got it in. It was worse than our surgery experiences. This time I'm going to ask if they can give her a little sedative before attempting the IV. We shall see.
I'll be back later with photos from our weekend!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
ENT
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1 comments:
The Dr. looking in M ear first reminds me of a technique that can help kids go thru things they don't like. you talk to them about having one of their favorite toys or dolls do the procedure. so, talk to her about how her big bird toy that she loves (making this up here) is having a hard time hearing and needs to get his ears checked. you then ask her to check his ears herself w/ the instrument. After that, they are supposedly much more willing to get the thing done to them because they did it to their toy and know what it is like now. i did this technique on a child who had cried for hair washing everyday of her life and she was 2 or 3. We talked about the Elmo toy getting his hair washed, let her wash his hair and then we washed her hair and she didn't cry. her parents thought it was a miracle. Good luck!
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