Update on Jase

Today I called our Help Me Grow and also received a call back from the lady who would have done the audiogram that our ped said to get. HMG is coming tomorrow for the paperwork and will just do an overall assessment on Jase as they don't do specific hearing screenings...I would have to go the hospital route to do that. It's a free service, so I figured I would do this first and hopefully be able to use it as a before and after assessment.

On the phone with the audiologist, I explained about the fluid, failed tympanograms, and large tonsils. She actually was very defensive and angry that his ped didn't refer him to an ENT right away. She said it happens all the time and doesn't know why the Dr's A) Don't treat the fluid issue and B) Don't refer them sooner, especially at this age.

Basically, all of his issues are causing each other. The larger tonsils could be blocking the tube that drains the fluids causing the fluid build up. That doesn't mean that the tube is damaged, but could be blocked from the tonsils. The fluid in turn has muffled everything he hears. She said one day I could say cat and that's what he hears, and the next day he could hear it as hat. I asked her if she thinks this could be a long time thing, and she said since he failed the tympanogram a month ago, that he has probably had this issue for a long time and we just haven't caught it. If we wouldn't have had the tympanogram done at my work, we probably still wouldn't have caught it because I had to ask the ped to do another tympanogram to check it based on him failing the first try.

I told her how he only has a few words, and that they aren't even that clear and she said that's probably because how he says them is how he hears them-which made sense to me.

She said if he were her son, she would call the ENT and schedule something on her own....so that's what I did. Our insurance didn't need a referral, so I called and was able to get him in this Thursday already! When I explained why I was wanting him to get checked, the lady on the phone agreed with the audiologist in that all of his problems are working together or are connected.

So, I'm glad that I followed through today, because if there are issues that can be fixed, then it's better to do it now rather than wait another 2 months to get the referral when he's that much farther behind if it doesn't heal itself.