Timeline

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Wren's Ear Drama

Poor Birdie.  For reasons unknown, she got bad ears.  We finallygot a referral (and subsequent appointment) with an ENT at the local hospital.  This after her ear drum burst in April and has yet to heal.

The entire experience was just a bit odd as an expat.  The hospital wings seemed to be pieced together in a haphazard way.  We entered through the instructed wing door and walked along a corridor for a while.  Then, there was a large open area with what appeared to be an information desk of sorts along with rows of chairs like you'd find at the local DMV.  There were people scattered throughout the seating and no one to be seen at the desk.  I did notice a scrolling billboard that was instructing people with ticket number 8 to head to room 3 (or something along those lines).  I stared blankly at a woman in the seats and she pointed to a black box that spit out tickets.  After I procured my ticket and sat back down, I noticed a smaller sign with an arrow pointing to ENT something or another.  On a whim, I decided to see if that was where we were supposed to be instead...

We found the door into the ENT area and again walked past an empty desk to a section of chairs facing a moving billboard.  Again, looking around blankly, a gentleman walked by and told us to have a seat because there wouldn't be anyone in until 9 am.  Strange... my appointment was supposed to be at 9 am.  A few other people trickled in - of all ages - which I found a bit odd since I was 99% sure we were supposed to be seeing a pediatric ENT!

Alas, we finally were called back by an audiologist for a hearing test.  First thing to note - Wren was asked to sit on my lap in a chair placed in front of a desk with a laptop.  No soundproof booths here.  The audiologist tried to get a pressure reading - but both ears failed.  No surprise.  We couldn't get readings in NYC either.  Then Wren was given headphones and asked to move bears from one bucket to the other when she heard a noise.  Good thing it was Wren and not me doing the test - because I could see the audiologist pushing the button on the keyboard and then looking directly at Wren???  Ugh.  Apparently she passed almost flawlessly - which means once again we have NO idea why she's so freaking loud.  I keep being told she can hear just fine!

Back to the waiting room before seeing the ENT.  I don't remember her name - something Greek.  :)  She had a good look and said she wanted to use a small "hoover" to remove the tubes (that were sitting in the canal) and some of the extra gunk that had accumulated to get a better view.  Wren was a champ. We got to see the tubes and oddly enough, the tube in her right ear was an actual tube (this is the ear that had issues during the second round of tubes in NYC) and her left ear had more of a grommet looking thing.

Essentially, both ears still have perforated ear drums, the right ear is slightly worse than the left.  And, there's not really much that can be done when the child is so young.  There are some patches that can be done to the ear drum where the doctors use a small piece of cartilage from the ear itself and then hope the ear drum reforms around the patch... but they don't recommend the surgery for someone as young as Wren.  The surgery has a fairly high success rate in kids closer to age 8-10.  That seems like a life time away.

In the meantime, we're supposed to get a call for custom ear plugs to be worn in the bath, around sprinklers, when swimming, etc etc.  The doctor told us not to keep her from any of the normal kid activities -- but I admit I'm a bit weary of the swimming!  If the ear infections continue, then we'll have to consider doing the surgery sooner rather than later -- but for now, it's just a wait and see.

Boo.

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