ARGH!!!! Now V has a partial hearing loss!!!

Ktllc

New Member
Seriously??? Can't the kid have a break?!
Just went to ENT to check ear tubes on all 3 kids. Partner and sweet pea are fine. V... well not so much. Are tubes still in or not?? Hard to tell because of all the yuck. We head to the audiologist because doctor is concerned (I explained the behavior, and yesterday's testing). Turns out: partial hearing loss on both ears. The audiologist then bypassed the tampon, and his hearing was ok.
So now, we try some allergy medications and hope it clears. If not: surgery agin and new tubes.
In the mean time, doctor strongly recomment to contact the Psychologist and let him know. Yesterday's testing could have been really flawed by his hearing loss.
Can't anything ever be easy???
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
Could it be good news in fact? Could it mean that the communication delay is not actually as serious as the doctor thought?
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Probably means some of the communication "delay" is physical, not brain - which is easier to catch up from, but... still.
This gets missed SO often (both sides... hearing AND auditory processing)
And the impact is HUGE.
Yes, flag EVERYBODY who works with him, including school...
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I hear ya. My daughter, who just graduated, is twenty-seven now, but I will never forget her chronic ear infections and she has a perforated eardrum too. She did not have a speech delay, but she was very hard to understand so she had to see a speech pathologist anyway. She had tubes until she was twelve years old. I wish you t he best of luck and hope poor little V is not in pain.
 

buddy

New Member
lol, bypassed the tampon??? (I assumed you meant the tympanic membrane, the middle ear??) That is a good one, Ellen likes funny things like that... I thought that was a good typo! So anyway, his hearing nerves are fine, this is good, the goo can be fixed but on and off hearing can really mess a kid up, especially one who is at risk for lang issues, processing issues, etc. Sorry. I have to tell you my son had the exact same thing happen, he started screaming during an evaluation when 4 and that was the first time he was diagnosed as autistic. Turns out that night I found out he had double ear infections (and it was one of 2 times he has ever had ear infections, was really rare for him). So, the testing did turn out really different in terms of IQ score but the diagnosis was the same. so sorry you have to deal with that.


Seriously??? Can't the kid have a break?!
Just went to ENT to check ear tubes on all 3 kids. Partner and sweet pea are fine. V... well not so much. Are tubes still in or not?? Hard to tell because of all the yuck. We head to the audiologist because doctor is concerned (I explained the behavior, and yesterday's testing). Turns out: partial hearing loss on both ears. The audiologist then bypassed the tampon, and his hearing was ok.
So now, we try some allergy medications and hope it clears. If not: surgery agin and new tubes.
In the mean time, doctor strongly recomment to contact the Psychologist and let him know. Yesterday's testing could have been really flawed by his hearing loss.
Can't anything ever be easy???
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Ktlc...
Maybe this IS a "break".
As in... for some reason, schools understand physical problems better than brain issues.
Which means it should be easier to get some help from school with THIS problem... which will help other problems too.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Poor little guy. Wiz and gfgbro both had ear infections so often and bad that they had hearing loss. They both caught up really fast. Wi was delayed in walking and running until he had tubes. The day he had tubes put in he started running less than an hour after the surgery. He was 17 mos and it was nice to see.

Kids usually bounce back super fast from this type of problem once the tubes are working. If he has a lot of ear infections (and to cause these problems he probably does) you might want to think about the girlfriend/cf diet. It doesn't help all kids but I know quite a few who couldn't get rid of the ear infections until they tried the gluten-free, casein-free diet in desperation. When it works it works really well. They have a LOT better recipes and products for this now, so it isn't as hard as you might think. Heck, the Tofutti cream cheese is amazing - truly lives up to its' name (Better than Cream Cheese) and their ice cream sandwiches, Tofutti Cuties, are to die for. They are smaller than a reg ice cream sandwich and MUCH richer and creamier than most. I used to have to hide them or thank you might only get one out of a box because Wiz and J scarfed them all instead of their own reg ice cream sandwiches!! I even had to fight my father off at one point after he tried one. My dad is so anti anything that tastes remotely like health food that the food has to be amazing for him to eat a serving, much less more than one repeatedly!

I hope the ear infections are not too painful for him when he has them. If he doesn't have tubes in, ask about auralgan drops if you don't have them already. They are eardrops with lidocaine or somekind of "-caine" that numbs the ear and stops the hurt better than oral medications do (until the antibiotics kick in anyway).

Poor little guy. Poor Mommy (((((hugs)))))
 

Ktllc

New Member
Yes, great typo! lol I'll just leave it, just to make someone else smile.
V is not in pain but still I worry about the direct link between ear infection and developmental issues...
Last August, he passed his hearing test. So the problem started between end of August and now. Exactly when school started and when my parents were in town: when all he77 broke loose and I thought we were back to square one.
Well, I'll just call the doctor and let him decide what to do with the info...
 

buddy

New Member
In your case, if you were one of my kids, I would be concerned and keep on top of it too. The reason is that you already have a diagnosis of possible auditory issues, behavior issues and autistic traits. Kids with nothing going on can have trouble. What can happen is when hearing comes and goes (and with middle ear stuff like this, it can be significantly reduced but not deaf) the child naturally starts to not attend. Milestones that come from hearing what goes on around them are put off. When the hearing comes back they need to adjust to that... for some kids that can be a big deal. So when you have a kid who already needs more direct teaching......

I would ask them to treat him as if he always has a reduced level of hearing for now. Make sure they get his attention, seat him closer to the teacher, use more visual cues to make sure he is looking (which can be hard depending on the autism issues he has) or at least shows his signs of being aware. Once his E tubes are grown and angled more like his adult size, he will probably not have this issue as much. Good he doesn't have much pain, poor kid. These are kids that auditory trainers can help too. But he is little and may not tolerate it much.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Poor thing.
I agree, you'll have to do the testing over again. Sigh.
I agree, treat him as though he has a reduced hearing level. Talk to his face, not his back, and enunciate.
Other than that, I can only offer hugs.:consoling:
 
Top