Good Call Mom

A few months ago I took Brianne in for her long overdue appointment with the audiologist. He couldn't get a good testing record of her hearing because of an overabundance of wax and fluid in her ears.

That propelled us to a visit with an ENT. After treating a bout with an ear infection, and he cleaned her ears of excess wax, we made another trip to the audiologist and this time the testing went well.....okay,I should say he was able to complete the testing, but Brianne's hearing wasn't well, she fell below the acceptable line. The doctor explained we could wait to see if her hearing improves as she continues to overcome her ear infection, or, we could schedule surgery and put tubes in her ears. I knew that due to her Eustachian tubes being flat, not angled like non ds kids, this would further the problem of the ear fluid "clearing up on it's own".

With this knowledge and because I've noticed a great decrease in her hearing, I opted for the surgery. I believe she needs to be able to hear well now to help her learn language development. We're starting to teach her sign language, but being able to hear would be fantastic too.

Any how, two days before Christmas she had surgery and it went well. She woo-ed the nurses with her charm and smile. They all loved her. She even cheered a fellow patient in the OR holding area with a song and a smile.

After the 15 minute procedure the doctor came out and said that there was "alot" of fluid in the canals and that it looked like "thick yellow snot" (his exact words). He then said that it probably never would have cleared on it's own. All I could think of was 'good call' on my part. I guess I can make good medical decisions from time to time. (Barry's usually much better at deciding when to take a sick kid into the MD office than I am.)

She scared me a bit as the effects of the anesthesia wore off, her oxygen saturation rates were below 89. All I could think was "NOooooo, I don't want to go back to 24/7 O2" but after 45 minutes or more she perked up and her O2 rates picked up too.

It's fun to watch her respond to sounds around the house. As Cailin practices her flute she'll follow the sound. She's becoming a peace monitor. So far she's cried about 5-6 times just from hearing a fight break out among 2 of her siblings. I guess we'll just have to learn to be a little more quiet so we don't hurt her sweet sensitive hearing.