A few weeks ago Logan got a cold. We all did. As we feared it would it spread into his ears and he got another double ear infection. Although we did not have an appointment to go back to the ENT until late September we were back early for cleanings. He was put on an oral antibiotic and the cold cleared up. A few days after the ten day course and with a couple of cleanings his ears were looking almost better too. However, the fascination with blowing in his ears has returned and he is far more determined to fight our efforts to stop him this time. Every time I hear the whistle of his ear I feel the anxiety rip through my body. I am so worried he will continue to give himself chronic ear infections. I worry for what it does to his hearing both long and short term. Even if he improves in the future all the infections now could permanently delay speech skills as he is in such a critical language learning period right now. I see the distress the ear infections, drops and antibiotics cause him but cannot help him understand all the effects of his ear blowing and why he must stop. I cannot help him see the connection between his pain and the blowing which seems to satisfy him so greatly. It is heart wrenching to spend an hour stopping him from blowing in his ears just to walk away and hear him do it again or to hear him wake in the middle of the night and start blowing again. I know children can live happy lives both blind and deaf but if I can do anything to help him keep his love of music, enhance his chances of language acquisition, and keep him pain free I will do them. I just wish he could understand why I am stopping him.
There is one factor in his favor this time however. Logan's postnasal reflux has greatly improved so he is getting less food trapped in his nasal passages. This means there is less food and milk getting to his ears. I am hoping that is why he got (mostly) better so much faster this time even though he is determined to whistle a tune out his ears by September. A not so great development, he can now get air out his ears even when his mouth is open a bit. Talented yes, but not good for him.
In late September Logan will have a joint MRI, more advanced hearing test, and ear examination all under anesthesia A little while back we went to our local Children's Hospital hoping for further advice on Logan's "skill" and they had actually seen this before and recommended a full look at all his face structures to look for a patenous ear canal (always open) which we suspect at least on his left side. They will also check for any other abnormalities we should be aware of in his internal facial and ear structures. They are also going to get an updated look at his brain and since he will be under anesthesia it should be a bit better than the one done when he was a day old because he had moved a bit during that scan. To make the most of his time asleep we were also hoping his occularist can come in and make the molds he has been wanting for months but he will unfortunately be out of town. In the meantime Logan continues to be without conformers that work for him. It is such a rare specialty we don't have a lot of care options in this area. Currently we can't even put Logan's conformers in for even a bit until they fall out because they are now so loose Logan easily pops them out. Not only that but now that he is eating finger foods so well the last time he had them in he pulled one out and immediately tried to eat it like a Gerber puff. Yum, yum!
We are hoping for some good news in September. Until then I hope Logan stops taking advice from Jiminy Cricket...
"When you meet temptation and the urge is really strong, give a little whistle..."
No Logan, please don't.
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