Fears Over Ears

The last two weeks have been extremely stressful. We decided last week that Sean didn’t seem to be responding well to sounds. The Irishman and I had compared notes and were concerned. When his day care teacher (who has been working there for 26 years) agreed that he was too slow to respond we got really worried.

We went to our pediatrician who gave us a list of pediatric ENTs. The first one we called couldn’t see us until the end of February. Afraid the wait would be more than we could handle, we went down the list until we found one that could see us sooner.

Yesterday the Irishman and I both left work early. He called the office just before noon
(our appointment was 1pm) and found out that it was not where we thought it was located. The ENT was actually located about 45 minutes away! As luck would have it we had given ourselves plenty of extra time – we were still 15 minutes early for the appointment!

The audiologist were fantastic! The two ladies fussed over Sean and were wonderful with him as they did their tests. They explained everything to us and had us wait to in their office for the doctor instead of going back to the waiting room. They showed us the results right away.

The doctor confirmed that there is fluid in his ears. We’d been to the pediatrician twice in the last month or so, but that hadn’t caught it. It is not infected, just fluid in the ears that is preventing things from working the way that they should. We are going to try an allergy medicine for a month or so and check back to see if it clears up. The worst case scenario at this point is tubes. 

The office was far away, but they were very good. The doctor even waived our copay because we had to wait a while. I've never had that happen! I think God led us to the right place!

We are SO relieved! We have been making noises for the last week trying to gage his response. We’d let ourselves think of the worst case scenarios. It was rough!

On the plus side, this little guy has been the most fussed over baby you have ever met the last couple of weeks! Between home, day care, and the doctor’s office he has been the focus of everyone’s attention. We were given a few minor skills to work on at his six month appointment and he has been in baby boot camp for the last week. We are seeing progress already!

We are so thankful and blessed. There is some hearing loss but it is all caused by the fluid in the ears and it not permanent. Our families, friends, and coworkers have been amazingly supportive throughout this whole situation. We are emotionally exhausted by the whole thing, but relieved by how it all turned out!