Can you hear me now?....

Update on Mary's hearing. Turns out, there is nothing to worry about. Thank you Jesus! We went to see her ENT, he looked at the schools report, checked her ears, and basically shrugged his shoulders. There is a tiny hole (again!) in her right ear, which he is not worried about, and an infection forming in her left ear. He is actually more worried about her left ear, just because of the amount of puss and wax he sucked out. Yuck.

As far as the right ear, she will never have a normal reading due to the surgery she had to repair the first hole. We will just watch this new hole for now. I guess what her pediatrician was seeing as water in her left ear was actually puss, indicating infection. So we have been doing drops, if it doesn't clear, we have to go back to the ear surgeon to see what he says. Apparently he has more sophisticated toys in his office. As for the school! The doctor looked over their report and didn't feel that their readings were of any concern. Of course considering all she has going on in both ears. He did however, feel that maybe they were just trying to cover their butts, and agreed to writing a letter telling them he is ok with her hearing, and he will take over from here.

I went right over to the school after seeing the doctor, figuring it will all be over. Of course, they seemed reluctant to just stop testing her, until I got a little more than aggravated and told them under no circumstances are they to test her hearing, ever again. "O.k., we will clear it with so and so,"etc.. That was the  Audiology department. I gave them the doctors name, phone number, fax, whatever they needed. I got a call from the school guidance counselor on Friday, she was wondering what was going on. Apparently the Audiology dept didn't tell her. Back to being aggravated. Nobody did anything after I talked to them, so I had to call the doctors office and tell them to fax the letter. I will give it until Wednesday, and make sure we are all clear. These little "bumps" throw me all out of wack. To top it all off, I broke a tooth, my fourteen year old is causing me grief, my son is doing terrible in one of his classes, and my husband is being cheap with me on my Christmas shopping! Everything always happens at the same time. I can't figure out if that's a good thing, or a bad thing. Take it all slowly, or get it over with all at the same time. Thank God there are more "smooth" days in my life!

Testing, testing.....

Tests, I truly hate that word. We have the results of Mary's genetic testing. As suspected, everything is normal. There is no genetic abnormality in Mary's DNA. That is good news, and it only means we are in the same position we were before. My biggest hope for some kind of a result was to ensure Mary receives every possible accommodation for her education and overall well being. I had to laugh, because my first thought on this whole thing was how I was glad we didn't have to pay for the testing! Believe me, I have come a long way! But, have no fear, we have other testing issues. It's always something!

 When Mary was 6 years old, she had surgery to repair a hole in her right eardrum. This however, has not seemed to be a problem over the years. Until now of course. Mary's school happens to be home to the Orange County Audiology Dept? So, in Sept. they tested Mary's hearing. She failed. We went to the Dr., he didn't see anything wrong, gave her ear drops just in case. October, retested, failed. Now I'm getting angry, because until she can pass the hearing test, her IEP is being delayed. The school psychologist won't even talk to her until she passes. We cannot apply for the McKay Scholarship without an updated IEP. I'm running out of time, the deadline is February. I was insistent that she was not passing the tests because of her inability to answer the questions correctly. Today, I went with Mary to the Audiology Dept, where they measured her hearing with a device, as well as having her answer questions regarding what she can hear. Not only is there an indication that she could have another, or the same, hole in her right ear, but there seems to be some partial hearing loss in her left ear as well. Okaaaaay!

I learned a lot about how our hearing works today. Apparently, Mary seems to be losing high frequency sounds. While she may be able to hear part of a word, she might be missing the ending or beginning sound. Naturally, this would affect her ability to learn in a classroom setting, and would of course, require a whole different set of accommodations. Lovely. Once again, we begin another journey. A journey into the world of tests and more tests. Of phone calls, and appointments. In the meantime, I have to look forward to trying to either make sure it can all be taken care of before February, so I can apply for that stupid scholarship, or I have to make countless phone calls to try to get around the cutoff date. What kills me is this, if I would have checked off the little box that said  "no", to agreeing to have Mary's hearing tested in the beginning of the year, I would already have an IEP. Of course I can't regret saying "yes", because if there is something wrong with her hearing, it would have only gotten worse if left untreated. Once again, Mary's angels are looking out for her. Now if only they could make a few phone calls!