Audiology Test

At Natalie's 4-year check-up in December, her pediatrician noted that her ear tubes were not "in place" but still in her ear canal.  This instigated a visit to Natalie's ENT, who confirmed it and said it was time for a hearing test and surgery to put ear tubes back in.  That instigated a visit to Natalie's ophthalmologist to check her eyes, since if Natalie is going under anesthesia for one thing, we try to do two things at once...and the ophthalmologist always wants to check her eye pressures under anesthesia.  And the eye doctor and the ENT have to coordinate surgery times, so we got a date for the first week of March.

Yesterday was Natalie's audiology (hearing) test.  The last one she had was in May, and the results showed that she wasn't hearing very well, which I sort of suspected (which is why she always gets ear tubes re-inserted when they fall out).  This time, I thought she might have reduced hearing, but I also suspected "selective hearing"...you know, where kids decide when they want to hear what you're saying, and  when they don't want to hear you.

I was extremely pleased with Natalie's behavior during the whole testing time.  She did so well at letting the audiologist look in her ears with an otoscope, then sat nicely with things in her ears that measured sound waves, then went to a sound booth where she sat nicely with other things in her ears that made sounds to test her response to sounds.  A couple of times she wanted to grab the things out of her ears, and I just said, "Fold your hands, Natalie," and she folded her hands and sat nicely...especially in the sound booth, where she sits on a chair by herself (I wasn't holding her in my lap like most exams).

When Tom asked how the test went, I started with, "She did so great, behaving nicely!"  Tom wanted to know how she was hearing, afraid that her hearing had grown worse since the last test.  But behaving nicely is important to getting a good reading on the test (and behaving nicely is important in many other areas of life, too!) so that's what I was most excited about.

But the results of the test are:  the audiologist observed both tubes are out of place.  In the left ear, the hole in Natalie's ear has either closed over, or is clogged with wax.  In the right ear, there is still a hole.  But even with those differences, her hearing in both ears is still good, and practically the same in both ears.  So that makes me ask if we should put tubes back in or not...that will be my question when she visits the ENT next week for the pre-op appointment.