This morning we had Maryn's appointments with the audiologist and ENT doctor. We started with testing her ear drums and a hearing test. They stuck these little probes in Maryn's ears to test the movement of her ear drums. I could tell something wasn't going right because the audiologist repeated the test numerous times in each ear. She then informed me that there was no movement in either ear drum. I, of course, had no clue what that meant so I asked if that was good or bad or what that meant. She explained to me that a healthy ear drum will move when it hears a noise and neither of hers moved at all. The machine they use is suppose to make a dramatic spike up when the ear drum moves (similar as if you were hooked up to a heart rate monitor that spikes every time your heart beats) and she showed me Maryn's results and every time she did it the result was a flat line across the bottom. My heart just dropped and I was trying to keep myself pulled together and calm at this point.
Next I held Maryn in my lap for the hearing test. We were in this very small, soundproof box of a room hooked up with all these various speakers. The woman went into a room directly across from us (we could see her through a window) and she started to speak to Maryn from the various speakers. Maryn would turn her head and look appropriately to wherever the sound was coming from, even when the noises/voices got quieter. The audiologist came out and told me that she passed her hearing test (thank you God) and that the ENT wanted to see us next to discuss her ear drum test.
So next we met with Dr. Huebsch. He took one look in her ears and without batting an eye told me that she needs tubes in both of her ears. He said that even though she has had quite a few ear infections as of late (3 in 3 1/2 months), the main thing that he is so concerned about is the fact that there is no movement in either of her ear drums and that despite the fact that she is currently on amoxycillin to help treat her ears she still had so much fluid in both ears that he couldn't even see the ear drum. He said that it is good that she can still hear but that hearing to her probably sounds like she has been in a pool all day and still has water in her ears. He said that we need to get the tubes in place so the fluid doesn't do permanent damage and so she won't continue to be in pain. Also since her hearing is currently muffled it could start to affect her speech development if we delay it much longer.
After our whirlwind of appointments, I walked out with a date for surgery and several pre-op and post-op appointments. Not what I was expecting, but I'm praising God right now that as far as we can tell her hearing isn't permanently affected and she can hear. It may not be the best hearing due to all the fluid in there, but at least she can hear. As nervous as I am for them to give her anesthetic, I realize this is the best option. I'm just so grateful right now that this is a fixable problem and we're not looking at anything more serious than this. Thank you God.
I know this must be part of God's plan... I didn't have any of my calendars with me and I think I was in such a daze from everything they were telling me that they just scheduled me for a bunch of appointments and dates without my even knowing if they would work or not. As God had it planned, Josh's schedule is completely free that day (not typical at all since it's only 3 weeks out) and my mom is scheduled to have her day off that week on that Thursday so she will be able to come down and take care of Makenna and take her to school for us. Plus all of the post-op appointments they scheduled worked as well. As a Christian I don't believe in coincidences. Obviously everything working out so well is God's way of trying to tell us that this is the right thing to do for Maryn and this is part of His plan.
As it is scheduled right now, Maryn will be having the tubes put in her ears on April 24th. Please keep her in your prayers.
