Sammy - Hearing Update

Prince SammyEnjoying a beautiful day

Sammy playing in our sandboxLooking a little apprehensive inside of a Fire Engine
Saying grace
Eating a snack with Sammy at preschool
Being silly

Results of Sammy's latest hearing test showing the decibels & frequenciesThis graph shows flexibility of eardrum - or lack of

Sammy has been having a great year and adjusting to preschool very well. He has two great teachers and we really love his school. Sammy is still quite shy and hasn't really made any friends at school. When I ask him if he has any friends he says "no" and when I ask him who he plays with at school he says "myself." He was born with a more socially timid personality and that's fine. I don't pressure him to try to be someone other than who he is, but I do encourage him and praise him when he does speak up or interact with other people. Sammy and Johnny have been getting along really well with each other and have reached a new level of sweetness and friendship. I'm relishing this phase while it lasts.

Sammy's hearing has become a problem again and he is scheduled for surgery on November 20th. He had tubes put in his ears when he was about 19 months old the first time and achieved normal hearing for the first time in his life about 2 months after that surgery. The tubes lasted a really long time and he enjoyed normal hearing during that time. At the beginning of this summer I took him to the ENT for a check up and found that both tubes were out and his right ear was full of fluid. His left eardrum had a hole in it from the old tube and so it was not building fluid. The ENT wanted to see if the fluid would resolve itself over the summer so I brought him in for another check up at the end of summer with a hearing test. The right ear was still full of fluid and the left eardrum still had a hole but his hearing test showed a normal result on both sides. Being an observant and sharp little kid, I think Sammy outsmarted the audiologist a bit and was watching her mouth for cues during the hearing test. The plan was to return for another checkup in 4 months unless he had problems sooner.

Sammy's preschool teacher noticed that Sammy was having trouble hearing and not responding to verbal instructions with the rest of the class. So I did my own test at home and would plug one ear at a time and ask him questions while positioning my head so he couldn't see my mouth. It was immediately obvious to me that he had lost a lot of his hearing in his right ear. Back to the ENT for another hearing test and this time I asked the audiologist ahead of time to perform the test in such a way that Sammy couldn't outsmart it by reading his lips or watching his mouth to know when to drop the bears in the bucket. The test showed that his hearing in his right ear was noteably impaired and mildly impaired in the left. The top graph above shows how loud each frequency needed to be before Sammy could hear it. In a child Sammy's age, normal hearing is usually about 5dB (according to the audiologist) meaning that they can hear sounds as quiet as 5dB. In his right ear at low, medium and high speech range frequencies, Sammy could only hear sounds as loud as 55, 35 and 50dB. That's not very good. Sammy's left ear had better hearing at 30, 10 & 15dB, but still didn't show normal hearing. The other part of the bad news is that the hole his left eardrum had healed up since the previous visit and fluid was building up in his left ear too. You can see where that is going ... with time, he'd probably get more hearing loss in his left ear as the fluid sat in there and thickened. Sammy's right eardrum is currently retracted (meaning sucked in by vacuum) which if left untreated could permanently damage his delicate ear bones.

The second graph shows the flexibility of both of his eardrums. A bell curve is the desired result as a puff of air pushes the eardrum in. As with every test before, Sammy's lines are flat as a pancake in both ears showing zero flexibility, presumably from fluid buildup. So, I got him in as soon as possible on a cancellation appointment and he will be getting tubes put in both ears, plus have his adenoids removed. The adenoid removal is supposed to decrease his chances of having to have a 3rd ear tube surgery by 50%. Another benefit is that it may reduce or eliminate his mouth breathing. Sammy's mouth seems to be hanging open most of the time whether he's awake or asleep as he seems to have trouble breathing through his nose. It would be a great added bonus if that were fixed too!

So, please keep Sammy in your prayers that he will have a successful surgery with no complications and will have the best possible results.