Just a simple hearing test.

Today we took Sophie in for a hearing test. She has them periodically. This was the worst one yet. Even the Tech giving the test was almost loosing her cool. Because Sophie was born with a cleft palate she has had countless doctors visits. You would think she would be used to them by now. She has a plastic surgeon, a ENT and a speach therapist that she sees at least once a year. On top of pediatrician visits etc. But all the visits have only made her more fearful and harder to get her through. She gets herself very worked up and then can relax and let the doctor do the exam, test or whatever.



During our visit today she wouldn't let them look in her ear with the little light tube because she said it would hurt. She covered her ears with her hands and screamed at the doctor. Eventually I had to hold her in my lap and wrap my arms around her arms and hands and with my other arm hold her head just so the tech to look in her ear. She was just screaming and they weren't doing anything except looking in with a light. Then when the tech wanted to put the head phones on her, she would freek out because they were going to be (they weren't even on yet) too tight and she kept asking if it was going to be loud. It is amazing they got anything out of her. In the end we were told that her right ear drum isn't vibrating effectively so she isn't hearing all the tones out of that ear. This is the same result that she had a few months ago when we had this test done. So now we get to actually see the ENT doctor and see if we have to have another ear tube inserted. I really hope we don't have to do this!

She had ear tubes put in when she was 1 year old along with her palate surgery. We spent the next year putting wax ear plugs in her ears everytime she had a bath or went swimming. She loves swimming and we go to the pool all the time. I don't know how well this is going to work. We see the ENT in about a week. I am crossing my fingers that something else can be done rather than an ear tube. But she does need to be able to hear so we do whatever we need to do.