Monday, April 20, 2009

Back to the ENT

We were back at the ENT this morning, per our pediatrician. Finn does, indeed, still have fluid in both ears, so the doc is going to get authorization from our insurance carrier to have tubes placed in his ears. So, sometime in the next few weeks, we'll be back at the outpatient surgery center where he had his surgery two weeks ago.

I'm not surprised, and actually a little relieved. Maybe this will be one more piece in the puzzle of his sleep issues. The Zantac seems to have made a difference - he is sleeping better than he was before - but he still doesn't sleep through the night, and I just can't bring myself to do any kind of sleep training with him until we get every possible physiological cause addressed. Plus, I've been thinking about speech development a lot lately, now that Finn is at the age where beginning language might start developing. So I'm glad that we will be doing one more thing to optimize that for him.

I like this doctor, almost in spite of him. He's very direct and no-nonsense. He does use the reference "Down syndrome kids" rather than using person-first language, and yeah I notice it, but I don't take it personally for some reason. Still, you would hope that professionals who regularly work with persons with disabilities would know enough to use more sensitive language. But whatever. Pick your battles, right? Anyway, maybe I like him because he comes across as so competent, so I feel good about placing Finn's care in his hands.

9 comments:

Unknown said...
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Molly said...

I always try to be careful that I call the kids I work with "kids with autism" and not "autistic children". Some parents are all about person-first language, some don't care, others may not know it exists. So I'm always interested to hear a parent's take on language. My mom was actually the first one to explain it to me. She said "they're kids with autism, not autistic kids. They are a person first, they have autism second".

Today my gym teacher said "you have to fill out evaluations. They're r3tarded" and I said "They're not r3tarded. You could call them stupid. But they're not r3tarded" and she said "oh wow. I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking. I'm really sorry."(yikes. I corrected a teacher)

Urgh.

The Beers Family said...

We are off to the specialists next week for Alex's hearing evaluation. He is pretty delayed with speech - he does not overly mimic and does not say much - but he understands a lot. Work on the signing with Finn - it has been really helpful for us.

I am interested to see if Alex has the same hearing deficiency that I have that was not discovered until I was 5. I have failed every hearing test I have ever had.

I am interested to see if he hears the tones I dont. I hope so for his sake. Unfortunately he has at least 1 infected ear - the other was too blocked with wax to see :(

Good luck with the tubes!

SunflowerStories said...

Glad you have an ENT you are happy with! Too bad they couldn't decide this in time to do it when he had his other surgery.

Sean goes in for tubes on Friday, I am hoping it goes as smoothly as it has in the past.

When Sean got his first tubes, it was so interesting to see the way he reacted! I remember driving home from the hospital, he was so alert and listening to the music in the car. He kept "testing" out his voice and would giggle at the sound.

Rob said...

Our daughter Clara, born 6/6/08, had ear tubes put in about a month ago. The ENT proceeded direclty to tube insertion without a waiting period based on his observation of fluid in both ears combined with the six month hearing evaluation which indicated moderately impaired hearing. His opinion, based on his experience with kids with Down syndrome, was that there was no reason to prolong the hearing impairment during this critical developmental period when ear tubes would likely be required at the end of a waiting period. I am happy to say that Clara's follow-up hearing evaluation this morning indicated that her hearing is now within normal limits.

Good luck with the surgery. Clara's surgery was complete within 15 minutes and she was her usual self by the time we returned home from the hospital.

Lis said...

I hope the tubes help. Tanner had his first set in last April and another set in two weeks ago. Its amazing the difference it makes!

Tausha said...

So glad he is going to get tubes. I think this will help in so many areas. Sam still is funny with his sleeping, some nights he goes all night and some nights he wakes up?? It's a crap shoot. :-) Hope the surgery goes well!! I'm sure it will.

Anonymous said...

I hope the tubes help! It's good that you like this doctor and can trust him. I thought it was really interesting what Molly C said. I didn't know exactly what you were talking about with the doctor's comments. It makes sense of course! You learn something new every day! :-)

Anonymous said...

Our son had tubes put in February and there is a world of difference in regards to his sleep - he's so much more comfortable now! The hardest part for me was watching them give my son the anesthesia, even though they were really sweet and awesome to him. But I don't regret it at all. I'm always here for the support! Rock on mama!