Olivia's Hearing Update

Figured today would be a good day to update you on Olivia's hearing difficulties.

We saw the ENT specialist in May and he confirmed that she had fairly severe fluid build up in both ears, but especially in her right ear. He wanted a full audiological exam done and then a follow-up appointment in November. We were free to call sooner if she developed any continuous ear infection difficulties. At first she was having some trouble with that, and I thought for sure we'd have to bring her in early and get tubes put in her ears, but they ended up going away and she hasn't had any subsequent issues.

The audiological exam was done in June and had less than impressive results. Her right ear had fairly significant hearing loss, including only being able to hear conversationally at 8%. Not good.

We seemed to be noticing some improvement, and with no more ear ache troubles, we remained hopeful that God was healing her, likely through the growth of her body causing the eustachian tube to angle properly (instead of being too horizontal, preventing proper ear drainage, as this was likely the cause of the trouble).

Today was her follow up appointment - she first had an audiological exam followed by an appointment with the ENT specialist. And - her hearing is perfect and the fluid is gone! No surgery needed, not even any follow up appointments needed. Praise the Lord!

PS - forgot one crucial part of this story....

Later this afternoon, after school, Olivia told us that, during the hearing test at school (routine for all kingergarteners and Grade 1ers), she could hear all the beeps, but she didn't raise her hand for all of them cause the hearing tests are fun and she wanted to go to more of them!

Oy vey! Only Olivia.

Don't worry, I made her fess up to her teacher (so she didn't waste any of our educational resources and money) and apologize for the deception. But I gotta say, privately, I totally laughed.

Olivia's Audiologist Appointment

Olivia had an audiology appointment today.

She's been notoriously bad for saying "What?" constantly when we spoke to her, but we chalked that up to her personality and simply not paying attention, or even selective hearing (all you parents know what I mean!).

And it definitely is still partly that. She is still Olivia after all. But during regular Kindergarten screenings in the fall, some red flags went up. She has problems in the screening on Nov 18 in her right ear only, and on Dec 8 in both ears. We received a notification that she needed to see an audiologist for further screening.

That appointment was today and she failed the screening test. Today's test indicated that she has normal hearing in her left ear (she heard 5 out 5 of the tests) but possible hearing loss in her right ear (she heard only 1 out of the 5 tests) and middle ear problems in both ears. The audiologist indicated that right now what she is likely experiencing is similar to having plugged ears on an airplane - something an adult would complain about, but children are highly unlikely to.

At this point we need to schedule an appointment with her regular doctor for treatment of her middle ear difficulties and wait for a referral to Audiology for a complete hearing test/full audiological evaluation which will likely take a couple of months.

In the meantime, we need to advise her teachers to speak on her "good side" to make things easier for everyone involved. And I certainly need to remember this myself too!

The audiologist suggested that at this point things could go either way and that she could not predict which way they would go. She said that we may be able to simply clear up the middle ear difficulties and things would be fine, or there may be further steps necessary to address the hearing loss.

In each of her tests the results have been progressively worse, though all screenings have taken place during winter (ie cold season) which can impact results as well.

There is some history of hearing loss in Nathan's extended family which is making me less than optimistic about future test results.

However, I am thankful that it is not a more serious problem. Hearing loss is certainly not life threatening, and would be my "loss of choice" if I was forced to choose (I, personally, would rather lose my hearing than my sight, for example).

That being said, we are still praying that her middle ear difficulties will be healed and her hearing completely restored, but that God would be glorified no matter the outcome - and humbly ask for your prayers as well. Thank you.