Be warned, this is a bit of a saga.
So, back around the beginning of the year, Jer and I were starting to get concerned about her hearing. Her speech basically stopped improving and progressing, she said “huh” and “what you say?” all the time, and she was watching my lips while I was talking to her. So we took her to the pediatrician to get it checked out.
Now begins the long story.
At the first visit to the doctor, they gave her a very basic hearing test, which she passed. Then the doctor looked in her ears, which she said looked a little red, maybe it was an infection. She, of course, gave us a prescription for antibiotics and told us to come back in two weeks.
So we did the antibiotics faithfully and hoped it was just an ear infection, even though Addie had no symptoms of an ear infection except for not being able to hear.
We went back two weeks later with no change in her ears, but this time she 100% FAILED the hearing test. Didn’t hear a single thing. Doctor said she would order a referral to an audiologist for us, but in the mean time, come back in another three weeks just in case it went away on its own. (I’m sorry, what? How does that even make sense?)
But whatever, we did what our doctor said. Even though, three weeks later, there was no change. Surprise, surprise!
Then, two weeks after that, our referral finally came in the mail for the audiologist. The first available appointment was two weeks out.
It’s April by now. We started all of this in January.
We went to the audiologist (even though the one our insurance picked for us was 30 minutes away), and Addie took some more specific hearing tests. The audiologist confirmed that she had “mild to moderate hearing loss.” She also tested the nerves behind Addie’s ears to make sure they were working. They were, luckily! Otherwise, she would have needed hearing aids. The audiologist basically said that Addie’s eardrums were not moving at all because there was too much fluid behind them. The audiologist sent all her notes to Addie’s pediatrician who we saw another two weeks later.
The pediatrician basically looked at the paper, said “Okay,” and got us a referral to the ENT. Which came (you guessed it) two weeks later.
Meanwhile, one of Addie’s little friends has hearing loss and speech delay also, and she went through this same thing when she was much younger. I had been talking to her mom about all of this and she suggested I try taking Addie off of milk. She had read it online somewhere, tried it with her daughter and it had worked very well. I don’t put a ton of stock in things people read on the Internet, but it was a simple thing, so I thought I’d give it a try. If it might fix it, why not? Well, it seemed to improve a little for the first few days, but after that, it was back to a lot of “huh” and “what you say?” and “Mom, turn it up louder.”
The ENT’s office actually got us in within a week of when I called, if you believe it. The ENT was a very nice man who Addie actually really liked and listened to. She was obedient and didn’t have any anxiety for once. All these doctor’s visits were getting routine, I guess. Anyway, the ENT took a quick look and said, “Yep, she’s going to need tubes, but that’ll solve everything.”
Now here’s the part where you can see how messed up the insurance system is. The ENT recommended tubes, but couldn’t schedule the surgery without a referral from the insurance company (pretty standard). BUT the ENT’s office is not allowed to request the referral, only the primary care physician (the pediatrician, in our case) can request it. So the ENT referral coordinator (that’s somebody’s whole job!!) called the pediatrician’s referral coordinator and left a message saying that a referral needed to be requested for Addie to get tubes in her ears. The ENT referral coordinator told me that she would call when she got the referral in.
A month went by.
It’s June now. Knowing that the referral process can take up to a month and that the mail is not always dependable, I waited one more week just to be safe.
Then I got on the phone. First, I called the ENT’s referral desk. No answer. Next, I called the pediatrician’s referral desk. No answer. Then, feeling a little desperate and slightly ticked off, I called the insurance company directly– totally ready to launch into a tirade with phrases like “How dare you?!” and “You’re what’s wrong with America today!” and “What if she had cancer? Would we still have to wait a month?”
Instead, I spoke with a very helpful person who was calm and polite and told me that Addie’s surgery had been approved a week after her appointment at the ENT. FOUR WEEKS EARLIER.
I called ENT referral desk back and left a message this time, indicating only a fraction of the frustration that I actually felt. They called me back later that day to schedule the surgery. The soonest slot available was, of course, three weeks away. Which brings us to July. (Remember how we started in January?)
Well, it finally happened last week. Jer and I took Addie to the surgery center while my parents stayed with Jonas. We got there very early in the morning, and Addie didn’t show much anxiety or nervousness. We had been trying to prepare her for a few weeks– talking about what would happen, why she needed her ears fixed, etc. Everything was going great, even though we had to wait for quite a while.
Then we got back to the area where she would get ready. She saw all those huge hospital beds with (mostly) old people on them, and she got really nervous. Then, they wanted her to put on a hospital gown, and that threw her over the edge. We hadn’t talked to her about that part, and she just LOST. IT. Screaming, kicking, crying, the whole thing. Finally, the nurse supervising Addie’s procedure says she can wear her own jammies, and things quiet down. She still will not get in the bed, but she will sit on my lap while we wait. Then, they took the bed without her and she let a very nice nurse carry her back to it.
Jer and I went back into the waiting room and were there for maybe 15 minutes before they came to get us again. The whole thing was so fast! When we went in, she was already sitting up and still kinda waking up. We gave her some juice and she sat on my lap while they continued to monitor her. The ENT came and spoke with us. He said she had so much fluid in her ears that to her, it probably sounded like she was underwater! The nurse came then and gave us some medicine and instructions. Then we could go home! We were back around 9 a.m., then Addie got to eat breakfast and we had the whole day ahead of us to recuperate.
I wasn’t sure how the day would go. I thought she would probably be a little groggy, and at the very least be in a little pain.
Nope. Nothing. She was back to normal within minutes, it seemed. In fact, she had a really great day. Mostly because it was “Give Addie Whatever She Wants Because We Feel So Bad She Had to Have Surgery” Day. She watched a lot of TV, got an ICEE and popcorn at Target, and generally only heard “Yes” for the whole day.
Presently, it’s been about a week since then, and Addie is doing great! She can hear me when I whisper or when I’m not looking directly at her, and her language and speech is beginning to catch up. She has a lot of bad habits in speaking, but now she can at least hear the difference in sounds, instead of just copying our mouths. Her tubes will eventually fall out on their own, and the ENT is very confident that she won’t need another set.
So for now, it’s earplugs in the bath and at the pool.
But she can hear! 😀
Going Green 
