Two Birds, One Stone

You all know how I love lists...and crossing things off of them. 

Today I got to accomplish 2 things...yeah!

Lauren and I traveled to Iowa City this morning for her appointment with the ENT Doctor. That was #1. 

I also got a start on my desire to have Jordan and I each spend more one on one time with the kids. And Lauren and I had a blast. 

First the appointment. That wasn't a blast but it did go well. The doctor we saw was amazing. SO great with kids, and parents.  He examined her ears and did some more tests. He used tuning forks in different spots on her face, head and in her mouth and had her tell him different things about what and how she was hearing. Very interesting to watch. 

They had all this high tech equipment including an ear microscope connected to a camera and then projected to a screen so I could watch what they were seeing and doing. Pretty cool. Although gross. 

He also asked her questions that no one has asked before, like, hey, Lauren, do you have any ringing in your left ear? She answered yes, that its always ringing. What!?!? 

So, the dr. said he was surprised to see how great Lauren's hearing loss was because the hole isn't very large. He said he expected it to be bigger. He said this concerned him that there was perhaps something wrong with the bones in her ear. 

He said the first step is still to patch the hole in the ear drum with a very simple procedure. We will do this on Friday, August 7th. He just said that he cannot promise that in a couple years we wont be back looking into doing something about the bones. He HOPES her hearing gets back up to a level where nothing more is needed, but he cant promise it. There is also quite a lot of scar tissue from all her ear infections as a toddler. There is nothing that can be done about that and it is likely contributing to the hearing loss. 

The other procedure that would work on the bones involves an incision behind her ear that sounded way too much like the movie Face Off for me to even listen to. I am praying that we never have to consider that.

Unfortunately the dr. also said that Lauren's hearing loss in that left ear is not mild, it is significant and well, just bad for her. He said he cannot promise that she wont need an assistive device in that ear at some point if these other measures don't work...

So tonight I am praying that this simple patching of the ear drum will be all that is needed. That when we go back in September for a recheck, her hearing will be MUCH improved. Really I feel very calm about this. I am trusting that the hearing will come back up. 

Lauren says she is fine with having surgery again. She said she wants to hear right when school starts. She just doesn't want any stitches. (Which she will have...they take some cartilage from her outer ear to fill the hole...and so she'll have stitches...but hopefully she wont be able to see them.) 

And then Lauren and I went to lunch...just us. And we did a little shopping. I love this kid and she is so grown-up. I need to hold on especially tight right now because before long she is not going to have any 'little' left in her. 

 

She even got to ride the carousel, and I bet she thanked me 19 times. at least.