Gracelyn is no stranger to hospitals and doctors in her little 3 years of life. Between botulism and ear infections, our sweet G has seen plenty of docs.
I took her to the doctor in October for an upper respiratory infection and surprise, her left ear was infected. Between the antibiotics and ear drops we were certain that in the week and a half follow-up her ear would be clear. Wrong. As a side note, our new family doc is amazing! He is the first one to listen to and consider what I am saying about her lack of articulation stemming from her lack of speech therapy following her paralyzation from the botulism and then fluid in her ear making it difficult to hear. Everyone and I mean 95% of the people I talk to assure me "it's because she is the 4th child." NO! She is not mute, as if she is allowing her sibs to speak for her. She cannot pronounce words most of them not at all recognizable.
He referred us to an ENT and that doc let me see her left ear. It was disgusting. Come to find out her right ear tube had fallen out but her left was stuck from all the junk in her ear and ended up being the source of infection. He agreed with me that she cannot hear properly
We checked into the hospital on November 13 for an outpatient procedure to remove the infected tube.
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| the night before, neither one of us could sleep |
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| watching cartoons, thanks to the sweet nurse |
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| so beautiful and so brave |
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| she wasn't thrilled about that |
The doctor came out and told me that everything went great and her eardrum was surprisingly totally healed underneath all of the infection and fluid! We pray that means little to no hearing loss.
Funny story, the nurse told us when we went back to recovery that she would wake up fighting mad and not have an appetite the rest of the day. Gracelyn woke up so peacefully, opening her eyes, smiling at us and lifting her arms for us to pick her up. Ryan told her he'd picked up some donuts and she squealed. It definitely was a blessing to get that tube out.
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| she is one happy girl! |
The ENT referred us to a neurotologist a month after the procedure, allowing her eardrum to completely heal, for testing to see if she has hearing loss. I am anxious for that appointment next week, praying that Gracelyn will cooperate and we get answers and solutions. Since her tube removal she's began tripping over her words. I don't know how to explain it but it's not really stuttering.
2 comments:
I am so glad you have a great doctor and that taking the tube out has helped. I am praying that the neuro appt goes well and there is no hearing loss.
The good thing about reading your blog backwards is that I already know about the good outcome! Yay! And, I would wake up happy too if someone had donuts waiting for me after a procedure! ;)
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