the experience at the doctors office was actually kind of interesting. first, emma had her hearing tested in a 2 part study. we were taken into a sound proof booth which housed a chair in the middle and some black boxes mounted in the upper corners of the room. the technician first performed a "tympanogram" to test how mobile her tympanic membranes {i.e. her eardrums} are. at first i was thinking, yea right...good luck getting this child to let you do this!! but, emma cooperated beautifully. she actually spent the entire morning flirting with everyone in the office, showing off her HI'S and BYE BYE's, and just generally being a little sweetie. but i digress....they use a small plastic bulb that sits on the outer portion of the ear canal and basically blows a tiny amount of air into the ear and simultaneously measures how much the eardrum moves. emma's eardrums don't move very much which is consistent with having fluid behind her ears.
next, the technician left the room and the formal test of her hearing began. she alternated different sounds...soft and loud, high and low pitch....and watched for emma's response to the noises. the boxes in the corners would also light up and there were little stuffed animals inside playing instruments which got me hysterically laughing for some reason. emma was less impressed ;) at the end of the day, she did great. she had a little difficulty with very low pitches {also consistent with fluid behind her ears} but otherwise her hearing was perfect.
then we met with the doctor who walked us through the procedure and basically said that in emma's case, this would be a quality of life decision. less trips to the doctor, less medication, less sick days in general. one of my major concerns was her having to undergo anesthesia for the procedure. the thought of needles and breathing tubes makes me sick to my stomach where it concerns our little bean. he soothed my fears by telling me that the procedure was needle and tube free! they will give emma an oral medicine to make her a little groggy and sleepy and then in the operating room, will use a tiny face mask to provide anesthesia. the procedure itself takes 10-15 minutes and then she'll come back to us in the recovery room. i was also worried about many stories i had heard about "water precautions". living in florida, especially with a mermaid child who lives for the water, makes it hard to avoid. he, again, told me that i didn't need to worry. unless emma would be dunking her head in excess of 4-5 feet under the water, there wouldn't be enough pressure to force water in and thus not really something to worry about. if the tubes haven't fallen out by the time she's ready for swim lessons, she'll wear little earplugs.....but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
at the end of the day, we decided to go ahead with it. i was sort of hoping that the ENT appointment would make the answer crystal clear for me. i went in to the appointment hellbent that if her hearing was impaired that would be the ticket to go for it. but, it's not....which i'm totally grateful for and happy about. i had to call our pediatrician, whom i trust so much, to help me reason through. i just know that emma is miserable when she's sick and is a completely different child {cranky, can't sleep, uncomfortable...} and i want as little of her life to be spent that way. our pediatrician encouraged me by saying that no mother she knows has ever regretted the decision. so, while its a very difficult one to make, i have to have faith that we're making the right one. as she said...it's a "quality of life" issue.
and when it comes to quality of life.....nothing but the best for our little ladybug ;) {who is now officially obsessed with raisins...}
{sorry for the darkness of these pics, i was more focused on protecting deja from the wrath of emma's raisin missile launches}
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