Thursday, February 25, 2010

Surgery

Well, they’ve figured out the problem and the solution is surgery. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Caden has had trouble with his hearing lately. We had his follow up appointment on Monday. His ear infection is gone. They did a hearing test on him. He did not score well at all. There was a box in the middle of the paper, and the line was supposed to come up into the box and go back down again. Well with both of his ears, the line barely moved from the bottom of the paper, let alone get anywhere near even the bottom of the box. His doctor sent a letter to the specialist in Winnipeg, who will send us a letter telling us when to come in for an appointment. From there, he’ll schedule the surgery to put tubes in his ears.
In the mean time, Cadens Dr. decided to try another round of antibiotics, as well as a nasal drop. Apparently, the passage from the nose to the ears can become blocked, which is part of why he can’t hear, along with his ear drums being pushed back.
It scares me a little bit to think of my little boy having surgery. I know its not a big deal, and they do it all the time, but its still my baby.
My Dr. said that once he has the surgery, it’ll be about 6 months till the tubes fall out on their own. They are so tiny. She said I would notice them on a Q-tip one day. Also, she said that he likely won’t be able to go under water. I don’t like that idea, as summer is coming up and Caden likes to swim. However, I talked to a friend who’s nephew just had this surgery done and the specialist had told him that he could go swimming to try it out. If he gets an ear infection, then he knows that he can’t go under water anymore. Apparently it doesn’t happen to all kids, that they have issues with going under water with tubes in their ears. Lets hope.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted as to what happens with that. We go back next Thursday to see if this medication has done anything to improve his hearing. Then, we just wait for surgery, which I hope can be soon. Its driving me crazy to hear him say ‘what’ after everything I say to him. How nice it’ll be to have a boy who can actually hear me. Tuesday he was playing outside by himself. I went out to check on him and called his name, loudly, 3 times. No response. So I went looking for him. Turns out he was right beside the house, playing, but he didn’t hear me call his name at all. Scary.

2 comments:

Colleen said...

Hope the surgery goes well.

Kristin said...

We've done the ear surgery thing. Yes it's not fun sending your child for surgery, but believe me, it's a lot harder on you than him! Grant has a hole in his eardrum from poking a Q-Tip into it. He's allowed to go under water, we just make sure that his ear is plugged. I'm sure you could do the same for Caden. It's not the water that's the problem, it's what's in the water. Grant's had to plug his ear to go into water since he was 2. He's so used to it now that he knows not to go into water without it and will go get it and ask to have it put in. It's really not a big deal if it saves him from ear infections! But I totally hear you about sending your kid for surgery! Nerve wrecking!