A few months ago, we had Miss H’s four year old appointment and when they did the hearing test, she did not do well. The doctor chalked it up to her being four, the test not being that fancy, it being the first time and was generally, not concerned. She checked her ears (usually full of wax do to over-production), thought her speech was really clear and seemed to think Miss H was perfectly healthy. She did give us the information for an ENT, just in case we wanted to investigate it further. So since we have this fabulous health insurance, I decided to make an appointment just to see if there was an issue.
We had to wait almost 6 weeks to get into the ENT (who was super nice) for the appointment and testing. We met with the doctor first and then went back for the testing. Miss H talked everyone’s ear off and was a little miffed when she had to leave all the attention she was getting from the two doctors and several nurses to go into this padded quiet room. The audiologist started her testing and I knew right away she had found something. She did the same test a few times and looked like it was getting a reading she was not expecting. She then did the word repeating and sound test with Miss H. All of them were showing things not in the ‘normal’ range.
Then one of the doctors came back to see it all again. Miss H was great during all the poking, prodding, repeating, listening and such. The official diagnosis was moderate conductive hearing loss and they think it should be corrected with ear tubes. They are 75% sure the tubes will clear up the issue. The tubes are usually the first option because they usually show improvement really quickly and have a 95% success rate. The doctors were shocked by the results because her speech is super clear. Her hearing levels qualify her for speech therapy but at this point, we don’t think she needs it.
We felt a little guilty because Miss H had been saying, ‘What?’ and whole lot the last few months but we were chalking it up to a four-year old stalling technique. Her teachers were shocked by the news because of how quickly she has learned letter sounds, started to sound out words and her amazing ability to repeat conversations from across the classroom or next door to all of us 🙂
Kerry and I went back and met with the doctor because we had more questions and she was great with addressing our concerns. So, after waiting weeks for doctors appointment- I knew the surgery wait was going to be equally long. The only available date in June happened to fall on my birthday. Over the past few weeks, the ‘what’ has up-ticked and her teachers have noticed some trouble with ch or sh words.
We were all set for the surgery and then she got the stomach bug, Then, she had fluid in her ears. And, then the day before we postponed (with our pediatrician not being comfortable either) until July. More to come…
all three of us 
That is a lot to deal with! I’m glad that it has been identified and that there is a very high percentage cure out there! I look forward to continuing to follow your story!