Samuel's ears--update

Today we had the ENT appointment. First they did a hearing test. The lady audiologist was SO much more informative than any of the other audiologists we've seen before. She did some new tests that he's been too young for until now. All in all, right now his hearing is not HORRIBLE but he is out of the range for "normal" hearing. He has some mild loss. However, she said that she'd like to re-test him in a few months because he has fluid in his ears today & that would affect the results. She said that if she gets the same (or similar) results from him after we get rid of the fluid, she will give us a letter to put on file for him at school stating that he does have some mild hearing loss & needs to be considered educationally 'at risk'. It doesn't mean he'd be moved to a special ed. class, but his regular teachers would need to make some moves for him to be seated nearest to them so he can hear them! Since we've always known that he has a little bit of hearing loss, this is no great shock or surprise to us.

When we saw the doctor, he said that Samuel's 5 or 6 infections in the past year is enough to "qualify" him for another set of tubes. However, he wanted to try ONE MORE THING before we do surgery. He prescribed a steroid nasal spray for us to use daily for the next 2 months. If it works, it will shrink any inflammation in his eustachian tubes & make the fluid drain out. We're not 100% sure if there is any inflammation, but if there is, this should help. The doctor said we may very well end up doing tubes anyway, but we're going to give this a shot. We go back in 2 months (April 17th) to make the decision on what to do.

I'm ready for my baby's ears to stop hurting. He tells us EVERY day that they hurt. :(