Common Mom

Yesterday finally came and went . . . it was a GREAT day because Keira had her last appointment with the hearing specialist. She can FINALLY hear perfectly - woo hoo! For the first 16 months of her life, she had nasty ear infections CONSTANTLY. They wouldn’t go awayÂ for anything . . . not if we did “ear massages” - not if we gave her antibiotics - not if we changed her diet. We tried about everything. And each time she was given antibiotics, she got these nasty yeast infections - poor thing So at 16 months the ped. referred us to an ENT. 2 weeks after our first appointment, Keira got tubes put in her ears - it was like a whole new world for her! I guess we didn’t realize how much she COULDN’T hear until she COULD hear. Every noise that we heard every day startled her - the phone ringing, Maggie barking, the toilet flushing, the doorbell ringing. After 12-18 months, the tubes are supposed to fall out on their own. The left one came out at 12 months, right on schedule. The right one did not cooperate as much. It was out of her eardrum in aboutÂ 24 months, but would not come out of her ear canal. It was in there until, well until Keira put a bead in her ear and we had to go see Dr. Smith (our awesome ENT) to take it out. Anyway, the bummer is that you have to go in every 3 months for a hearing test and ear exam until both tubes are out. After the right tube “fell out” we went for what we hoped would be our last visit to wonderful Dr. Smith. No go . . . Keira’s hearing was awful! She couldn’t hear low tones, especially in her right ear, and it was just plain bad. We figured she had something going on medical-wise (cold, allergies, whatever) so he gave her a break and told us to come back in 8 weeks. Yesterday wasÂ 8 weeks, and after another fun-filled day of chaperoning Keira’s preschool class on their fieldtrip to the zoo, we went to visit Dr. Smith one more time. Keira’s hearing was awesome! I’m so excited . . . not that I don’t like Dr. Smith or the awesome Audiologist or the great ladies at the front desk, but I did not want to go back again. Because if she couldn’t hear, the next trip back would have been to get another tube put in her right ear.