Thinking & Feeling

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.” Horace Walpole

Monday, 12 December 2005

Hear Hear

Well after Griffin had his tonsils & adenoids removed and his ears cleared (myringotomy), we were meant to go back for a follow-up visit in January this year. We never did...

In the mean time griffin has been for his PT and then speech therapy and his therapists have basically graduated him now saying he has caught up on any delays he had and is now on track for his age.

We thought it was probably time to take him back to the ENT (Ear Nose and Throat specialist) for a follow-up and to get signed-off by him too. We decided to take Quinn along too and he tends to have fluid in his ears and get bacterial outer ear infections too. So last monday off we went.

Turned out that Quinn still has a very fluid filled right ear, and needed antibiotics to clear that. Griffin was mostly healled well but the Dr was concerened about the sound conductivity in both boy's ears and ordered an auditory evaluation for both.

He thought Quinn's hearing loss was due to an infection and ordered antibiotics to clear this. He was more worried about Griffin physiologically and through he has constricted eustatian tubes or something.

We went of for the hearing tests this morning. They hada good time and enjoyed sitting in the little room (almsot like a radio broadcasting room) with head phones and playing the games with auditory cues.

There's good news, bad news and ok news and expensive news.

  • The good news is that both of their left ears are fine and work as expected. *yay*
  • The bad news is that both of them have reduced hearing in their right ears, Quinn's is worse than Griffin's.
  • The ok news is that she believes it is temporary in both cases and caused by the fluid buildup behind the ear.
  • The expensive news is that we have to go back to the ENT for treatment (possible surgery - ala grommets ofr such like), and then have to have another follow-up hearing test to see if their right ears have improved afterwards.
The ENT, antibiotics and audiologist have already cost R1500! Merry Christmas boys!


*Update* The ENT has looked at the audio scans and confirmed that hearing left x 2 is normal hearing right x 2 is hampered by fluid in the middle ear nothing significant enough to warrant invasion or treatment, and that it should clear up on its own over time. YAY.

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