Chloe was a trooper at her ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) appt today. Her OT and I have both noticed some hearing loss (she doesn't turn her head to sounds that are out of her sight as consistently as she used to) so that was the focus of our visit. The doc cleaned out the wax (she didn't love that, as you can imagine!), and also noticed some fluid in one ear. Since she is getting over the final stages of her croup/cold he wants to give her a month to see if the fluid will resolve. Until then I will keep an eye on her to see if her hearing seems to improve any, but we are scheduled now mid-July for a basic hearing test at Yale. At that point we'll talk with the doc again and then make a decision what steps to take next, if any. If she's still showing hearing loss we will potentially go next for a sedated hearing test at which point he could actually put tubes in right then if needed. I read somewhere online that 60-80% of people with Ds have some degree of hearing loss. He said he doesn't want us to worry about it at this point. She's her usual happy self, so as long as she's happy, I'm happy.
Wednesday is my Endocrinology appt so hopefully we'll get some answers for ME! And Friday is Chloe's eye doc appt. Her nystagmus seems much better so I expect Friday will be uneventful. I'd like to only have to worry about losing one sense at a time!!!
Boy, our little ones sure have the cards stacked against them, don't they!
Fluid, that seems to be the down syndrome motto for ears. Hopefully it will go away on its own.
ReplyDeletePraying you get some answers as well.
I noticed that Ella didn't seem to hear much of anything when she was first born. She hadn't passed her first few hearing tests either. Her doctor didn't want to delve too deeply into any hearing loss until she got older because it is just so hard to see inside those tiny canals and they probably wouldn't do anything that young anyway so why put her through any torture. But then all of a sudden at 9 months old when she started sitting up, we noticed a significant change. Alll of a sudden it seemed like she could hear and knew her name etc. I still don't know if her hearing is perfect but at least I know she can hear. We will definitely be following up on it during this next year.
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