Surgery

At the end of August, during the first week of school, Liam had surgery to put tubes in his ears.  Some time last year we noticed that he didn't seem to be hearing well.  Liam would frequently say "what" to everything we said, sit particularly close to the TV, always ask for the volume to be turned up, and sometimes didn't respond when we called him.  Some of my friends who taught him in Joy School thought that it was just selective hearing, but that internal motherly nagging told me it was something more.  When he failed the hearing test at the pediatrician's office twice, I knew my hunch was right.  After a couple of appointments with an audiologist and and ear, nose, and throat doctor, Liam was scheduled for surgery.  Apparently he had a lot of fluid in his ear that was causing diminished hearing specifically on his right side.  The left side, in turn, had a vacuum like environment which the tubes would also help.  The procedure was really fast and all went well.  The doctor said she got a lot of thick gunky fluid out of his ear, more than she was expecting, I think.  Immediately after Liam woke up from the anesthesia I noticed his hearing was improved!  I could whisper and he responded.  On the way home, I intentionally had the volume of the movie in the car down low and he didn't ask for me to turn it up even after we got on the freeway, AND we carried on a conversation at the same time!  Pretty amazing!  While his hearing is much improved, his listening still leaves a bit of improvement.  I guess that's the nature of 5 year olds!  I still have to remind myself not to raise my voice when I'm talking to him.  I didn't realize how much even I had made adjustments to compensate for his lack of hearing.  He'll have the tubes in for a year or so.  I'm thankful that it wasn't anything more serious and that I followed my gut.