Sunday, June 1, 2008

Ears can be silly things.....

Annalina has had some hearing problems lately. We have noticed this since early January. She was sick for a while and then the hearing trouble began. We took her in and she had significant loss in both ears. Since she had fluid on her ears the Dr prescribed antibiotics and when that didn't help at all she went on some serious antibiotics which cleared up the fluid temporarily, but within a couple weeks it was back! The school also tested her twice during this time with dismal results. So off to the ear specialist we went. Her hearing was tested once again and we were told she hears as if she is wearing the best of the best ear plugs. They told us that if she was 60 years old, she'd have a hearing aid! So she misses a lot. Annalina does not like to admit she has a hearing problem so she taught herself to read lips. This does not always work, but she has gotten pretty good at it. I talked to her teacher to let her know of this hearing issue and she had not noticed that Annalina was having problems hearing. It is heartbreaking just how bad it has become and just how hard Annalina has worked to try to compensate for this. So when she is on second base and her attention has just lit upon a bumble bee or a funny looking cloud, its not a wonder that she never hears the bat hit the ball, or her team yelling, RUN, RUN Annalina! Her coach has assured me this happens to kids that age who can hear perfectly well, and its really not a big deal. ::sigh::

So, Wednesday we are taking her in to have tubes put in both ears. This will keep them drained and will allow sound to pass to her eardrums! She will instantly be able hear again and for this we are so grateful and excited! Well, we are excited, Annalina says she could do without the whole surgery thing! She will be asleep for about 10 minutes total. It is a relief that this is only a temporary problem. I am so very thankful she will be able to hear again, because my maternal grandmother got sick when she was about this age and lost her hearing permanently. It has had me worried for a while now!

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