The Tale of Two Preemies: Ears

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Ears

I've got this kid. He's a good kid; well-behaved, even-tempered, mild-mannered. He's the one who's had surgery, broken a leg, broken a shoulder, and now has significant hearing loss in his left ear. My heart breaks for him. Thankfully, it appears the hearing loss is treatable, but it's just one more thing he has to go through. He's just that kid that if something bad is going to happen, it's going to happen to him.

At his normal check up in June, he did not do well on his hearing test, but whether it was from too many distractions or actual hearing loss, we weren't sure. The free audiology testing is only done during the school year, so I figured we'd wait until school started. Then cross country started so I figured I'd just wait until I was done coaching to take him in. At about the time that happened, I got a call from the school nurse saying he didn't pass his hearing test. So in we went. The audiologist said his hearing loss is equivalent to wearing an ear plug and holding your hand over that ear. The funny thing, no one noticed. He never said anything. His teacher didn't notice. I didn't notice. Talk about making you feel like a bad parent. How do you not notice your kid is half deaf?!? We see an ENT at the end of this month. Pray it's an easy fix and he gets to spend the rest of his years as "normal."

1 comment:

Kelly Strei said...: Becky,

I have a 7-year old son who recently got hearing aids in both ears. I know exactly how you feel. It was very hard for me to come to grips with the fact that he needed them and deciding to actually get them for him. If you ever want to talk about this, please let me know. I know you'll make the right decision.

Kelly (Petersen) Strei
Ceres - Alpha Pledge class; 11/15/2012 4:37 PM

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Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.