1.27.12
We went back to Dr. Regehr to have a post surgery check up. Ashley had been feeling good and so I expected this to be a simple and routine appointment. It is routine to what for awhile in the waiting room, but for this appointment (the first one I went to without Nate) we waited for 50 minutes! I was starting to think they forgot about us. I should have gone to the counter after 30 minutes, but a 30 minute wait is typical. Ashley did good for the first 30 minutes, she played with other kids. She "colored," she got in and out of the kids chairs, she walked around the waiting room, she played in the water fountain, she washed her hands in the bathroom, she had a snack, she had milk, she had another snack. :) And on and on. Finally they called our name and we waited for about 5-10 minutes for the doctor to come in. That was easy! :) Doctor looked at her ears and thought they looked great, the tubes were still there and he anticipates/hopes they will stay in for a year to a year and a half. He said we didn't have to worry about getting the water in her ear anymore (which is good because it was hard to wash her hair and worry about water getting in her ears). I don't recall that he said much about her breathing...it's still loud! :) He said to continue with her acid reflux medicine. He wants to see us back in 6 months. Next up, we did a re-check of her hearing. We waited for another 15 minutes or so to be called back for the test. I'm not really sure what to think of the testing process. This is done with a small portable machine, with a small earbud headphone type piece that goes in Ashley's ear with a wire which connects to the machine. Somehow noise is transmitted and I think the machine reads if the ear drum responds to the noise? Basically, Ashley just sits there and has to be still and quiet. This is the same test we did in December which she failed on every level. The test goes through 4 levels and she should pass each level. When we went into the room, the technician mentioned that Ashley was breathing loudly, I told her this was normal and asked if it would be a problem. She said "we'll see, it might." She started with the left ear and began blowing bubbles to keep Ashley quiet and entertained. The earpiece fell out a few times and what it did read, she said she didn't pass. We switched to the right ear and I could see the machine for this one. Ashley kept wiggling though and the earpiece kept falling out. I decided to nurse her to keep her still. That worked much better, I could see the screen show that she didn't pass the first level, passed the second, "noisy" on the third, and then the piece would fall out and the fourth level would never finish. We did this 3-4 times and pretty much the same result each time. We decided to try the left ear again since she was being pretty still. We did the left ear and she passed all 4 levels! I was happy to see that. The techinician said she would let the doctor know the results and if he felt the need, he would let us know he would like to do a more extensive hearing test. If not, we would just retest in 6 months.
The technician asked if Ashley passed her hearing test at birth. I recall that they did have trouble with the tests at birth and did have to come back after an extra day to retest, I am pretty sure it was the right ear they were having trouble with too. But, I believe that she did eventually pass it.
I hope there is nothing more to it and the test was just not the best way to get results, but we will see after 6 months how she does.
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