Lefty Makes a Comeback

At our second ENT visit Wednesday, we confirmed my suspicions. I knew for sure that he'd improved a lot. In the few days before the appointment, I kept imagining that I was writing about it and telling people the news, and in my mind, every time, I said that his left ear only had a total loss of 5-10 decibels, and that the rest would heal up with no problem.

Normal hearing is being able to hear all the frequencies at 25 decibels. For kids his age, they like to see them at 15 decibels instead. Last week, his left ear required decibels ranging between 20 and 60, depending on the frequency. That translated into "mild to moderately severe" loss. This week, the required decibels ranged between 5 and 25. Yes, five. I didn't leave a digit off. Most of the numbers were hovering around 20. This means that his loss, as of Wednesday, was 5-10 decibels. And they fully expect the rest to heal pretty quickly. I got the impression that they think it'll be perfect next week. Aaric saw -10 on the graph, and says he wants his ears to get THAT much better. I'll settle for 15.

Now, the right ear hasn't improved at all. I mean, there were a few frequencies where there was slight improvement, but most of the measurements went down. His range last week was 30-85 decibels and this week it was 50-90. Still, they expect to see improvement over the coming weeks, as the nerve in the ear continues to heal.

Since I'd read that nerve damage can easily take several months to a year, I asked the doctor what he expects to see in Aaric's case. He said that since Aaric is on steroids (Prednisone), we should see healing in 3-6 WEEKS. I'm not holding my breath, and really trying not to get my hopes up about that at all. That just seems awfully optimistic, way too good to be true. He seemed confident in saying that, but I'm still skeptical. I know they WILL heal, but that just seems really fast. It would be great, though.

So, other than Righty being stubborn, it was a pretty good appointment. He also got some fancy doctor recommended custom fitted earplugs to keep water out, so that he can go to the pool safely. And they allow sound in, so that he can hear the lifeguards blowing the whistle!

Mikayla remains jealous that she's never had a horrible injury, and Xander remains clueless that the world doesn't revolve around him. He likes to stomp in laps around the dining room table blowing a whistle while the kids and I try to work on school stuff. I wish that for at least a couple hours a day, he had a handle on that whole "independent play" thing.