Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Tootle has had ear tubes since she was three years old. Cleft kids tend to have short Eustachian tubes which means that fluid collects in the ears if there is no intervention. Until the tube surgery, performed when Tootle had been with us for about five months, it was like Tootle was hearing things underwater. She's now on the third tube in her left ear and the second one in her right ear. Last summer we found out that the one in the right ear had come out but that a natural hole remained, doing the same thing that the tube did so that her hearing was very minimally affected. Rather than replacing the tube immediately, we decided to retest her hearing in six months. Yesterday was the retest, and Tootle's hearing was normal or above normal. The natural hole is still there, although it is smaller. We'll be retesting again in six months. I'm thrilled that we've been able to put off yet another surgery at least for now. The ENT say that she is likely to need tubes until she is a teenager, or grows large enough that fluid from her Eustachian tubes doesn't back up into her ears. In the meantime, we'll keep Tootle's preferential seating at the front of the class in place.