As most of you know, Molly has had five ear infections in the last few months and is not babbling. No, that's not the speech pathologist in me talking...it's the concerned mother. Molly does enjoy hearing her own voice. She says 'ahhhhh" and "ooohh" at the top of her lungs, but she just hasn't produced many consonants (which should begin to emerge at 3 to 6 months!). I knew Molly was behind, but we wanted to see if antibiotics would work with her ear infections, and we figured that she was busy working on her gross motor skills. (She is pulling herself up and scooting around furniture!)
Today we went to the ENT (Ear/Nose/Throat doc). Molly went through several hearing tests. Her favorite was in the sound booth, where she sat on my lap while the audiologist presented several pure tone sounds in one ear while lights and crazy stuffed animals were presented on the other side of the booth. Ideally, Molly was supposed to hear the sounds and turn her head. She did not. Molly continued to watch for the lights and the animals. Even when the lights and animals stopped, and the spoken words were presented, Molly did not turn her head. By now, I was more concerned. When the tympanograms came out flat, I knew she wasn't hearing us completely. The doc said both ears were full of fluid. She cannot hear spoken words in either ear. In the right ear, she hears only muffled voices, like she's under water and noises that are low frequency sounds. The left ear was more difficult to interpret. It appeared that she wasn't hearing anything at all, which seemed to baffle the ENT. Both eustachian tubes were "very small" and not allowing fluid to drain, even with the strongest antibiotics. The summary and recommendations?
Molly has a significant hearing loss. Tubes should restore all of her hearing in the right ear, and we'll just have to wait and see on the left ear. She's young. The tests could be wrong. We should talk to her in her right ear and "continue to use sign language" with her.
Tubes will be placed next Wednesday. We're all hoping and praying that Molly will hear our voices loud and clear right after the surgery!
1 comment:
I am so sorry to hear this you guys. Hopefully the tubes will alleviate the pressure and fluids and her hearing will progress. This must be so difficult for you. Give it to God and we will put you all on our prayer list too.
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