"I'm not cold!!"

By the way, I asked her teacher for info about how the kid is doing in class re: hearing -- I know there's been some loss, and was wondering if it was impacting her. Just got a kind of an "ack!" response, not too bad:



So, yeah, it's actually impacting her, which is a little scary. But she seems to be doing fine anyway (and I thanked the teacher for taking the extra steps to make sure sozlet understands things). Her congestion has recently eased a great deal so I'm hoping the fluid will follow, and that her hearing will then improve. ENT appt. on Monday, should get more info then.

Speaking tangentially, as is my way, I guess I'll mention that I saw an article about hormone replacement therapy with progesterone affecting women's hearing. Now they tell me! I will probably put the link on Roger's thread..

Let me know if you have trouble finding it, Osso.

Soz, just what is an "Ack" response. Is teacher having trouble communicating orally? Sometimes that can be a bigger problem to communication than hearing loss.

Trouble is when I save links for myself they go into something called webarchive, so that if I link them to a2k they have my name all over the place. Haven't yet figured out how to circumvent that except by accessing links freshly, which you can't do with some timed newspaper sites. Mumble, grrrr. I know my name already and it's very annoying.

But that link was within this week, I hope.

Interesting stuff, Osso, and thanks for posting it, ehBeth.

Roger, that wasn't clear, sorry... I was saying that the teacher's emailed response to my question about sozlet's hearing made me go "ack!" even though it wasn't so bad. I guess I had expected something more like, "Nope, she's doing fine, I don't notice any problems..." That's the response I got when I asked her preschool how she was doing when her hearing was at similar levels (I think) the previous two years. But this response from the kindergarten teacher is saying that yes, there are actually hearing-related problems that the teacher has to put extra effort into circumventing, that's a little startling.

I think partly it's just that in preschool things were much more free-flowing, and the stuff that wasn't loosey-goosey was easy to figure out from context -- time to have a snack, time for recess, etc. In kindergarten it's "color this pink and write this three times and then connect the pairs of..." Lots of specifics that all have to be heard correctly.

She's functioning completely 100% fine at home but we're already set up for dealing with hearing problems. E.G. lived with me for 8 years before sozlet ever showed up and had already internalized a lot of stuff -- he has a terrible time talking to someone who's not looking at him, for example. (He's always confusing colleagues by pausing when they turn away for whatever reason when he's mid-sentence.) Sozlet's the same way. So the whole family is used to making sure that the person who is being addressed is looking at the speaker, just for example. Lots of things like that.

I've been muttering things from behind my hand at random intervals and she's doing well with that ("dinosaur", "sidewalk," "airplane") so I think the hearing loss can't be too severe. And she seems to have no problem communicating with friends, not having to look at them, etc. (Kid's voices are harder to hear than adults'.) I'd guess less than 25 db loss -- but we'll see. (I'll press for an audiogram on Monday.)

Nice sandwiching job by the teacher!

And good luck with the ENT appointment.

I noticed that too! :-)

My sister had a similar problem in school (20dB loss on her "good" ear, 50-60dB on her "bad" ear.) What brought a big improvement for her was to sit in the front row, where the teacher would usually be near her. I hope Sozlet's ears will recover so well it won't be a concern, but it can't hurt to remember it for when she goes to school.

(And ... you have standards in kindergarten now? I wonder how untested slackers like us ever got an education.)

There aren't rows -- round desks with kids grouped around them. I'm not sure where the teacher stands in relation to that, though.

Yeah, kindergarten is the new first grade, basically. (I've thought of mentioning that on boomer's thread, too, for context.) Preschool has become the new kindergarten. I think it's stupid as hell to have standards in kindergarten.

It was 20, or 23.3 depending on how you figure.

Overall the news is good. That was just in the left ear, which has a lot of fluid in it. The right ear is looking good, and hearing is within the normal range. The audiologist did a bone test of the left ear to bypass the fluid -- that was normal. So it's purely due to fluid, and therefore temporary.

The ENT didn't like the looks of the left ear -- no ear infection per se but he seemed to think it was just a matter of time. He said he'd prescribe antibiotics, and I asked "prophylactic?" and he said no not exactly, while she doesn't really have an ear infection there is some bacteria. The implication seemed to be that she's basically in the very early stages of an ear infection. I really trust this guy and he hasn't steered us wrong yet, so I'm just gonna go with it.

Chewable pill form -- if that goes over well with her it'd be great, since she always hates the syrup version.

He also prescribed Nasonex again, and recommended that we continue with saline.

By the way, I was wrong about there being fluid in her ears in July -- there was at the April appt., but it had cleared up by July. So this is new, since then.

He wants to get the fluid cleared up before moving on to investigating adenoids/ cause of persistent congestion.

Will go back at the end of November for a follow-up.

(As an aside, I'm always so proud of sozlet at these appts... she always manages to make a big impression on the adults we deal with there. The audiologist said that it was the most fun she'd had in weeks. :-D)

Good news there, Sozobe, mostly, anyway.

I'll pipe in to say I solved my problem with giving links to things I'd saved - which I'd mentioned a few posts back.
Seems I once clicked on webarchive by mistake, and things were being saved with these strange urls with my name in them. Now I've clicked on the Page Source format, and all is right with the Mac world again.

Soz--

Since you must go through the tedium of trying to pinpoint the cause for the mysterious ear infections, you deserve to have the Sozlet behaving like a Picture Book child.

Yes, congratulations on the news and the "picture-book child" - glad to hear it!

Thanks guys!

Here's hoping the antibiotics will do the trick... I'm scared of them based on previous experiences.

She wasn't really "picture-book" in the sweet and compliant sense, she was mostly funny. There were a lot of conversations that took place between her and the adult who was dealing with her (nurse, doctor, audiologist) where I couldn't see her and just stood back and watched the interpreter. I can't remember specifics unfortunately but it kept happening that the interpreter would burst out laughing and had to compose herself before she could go ahead and interpret for me. One minor one was that sozlet told the doctor that her ears had been popping, he said "that's really normal," she said "really?", and he went to the chart on the wall and pointed to the various parts of the ear, how this made this happen, very technical and detailed but clear. She listened patiently and then at the end said, "I know, my mom has already explained all of that to me," with this certain polite-but-slightly "duh!" tone that was really funny. (To his credit, he cracked up.)

Suppose we use "picture book" in the "memory album" sense?

I guess. :-)

I worry that I paint too saccharine and cutesy of a picture of her -- she's more complex than that. I gotta update "sozlet stories," been a while.

Soz--

Not to worry. Your descriptions of baby barf will prevent a totally cutsie image.

Gawd I'm glad this ENT is so patient.

The appointment went like almost all interpreted appointments go -- even if I make lists and try my best to cover everything while there, there is a data gathering vs. processing lag that always makes me say later, when thinking about things, "wait, what about...?" One thing I really like about this guy is that he is open to email communication for that kind of after-the-fact clarification.

So this time, it was that I read off my whole list of questions, fine, had them all answered, fine, he said "antibiotic," I was like huh but really did respond appropriately, got further info from him, sounded reasonable, went with it.

Then filled the prescription on Wednesday, and before giving her the first dose had this "ack" moment... she's doing so well! She hasn't blown her nose ALL DAY for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday), which is the first time in forever. There's been marked improvement. Is now really the time to start medication?

So on Thursday morning wrote him an email saying that I wasn't sure if I had adequately conveyed her improvement -- that she'd been stuffy pretty much continuously since the end of July but that it had waxed and waned and that the recent trend was towards much, much better, including not even blowing her nose once since the appt. on Monday. (I do saline at night and get some stuff out, not much.)

He wrote back saying oh, he hadn't really got that and thought it was consistent for that whole time, if that's the case just continue with saline, no meds.

Cool!

I have all the medication on hand if it does become necessary. We'll see.

Well that's excellent news. I'm sure her poor little nose could use a break from the kleenex!

Soz--

Not to worry. My hearing is good, but when I'm driving home from medical appointments, I'm frequently coming up with follow-up questions that I never asked.

Staircase Wit Syndrome.