Tests, Tests & More Tests

After almost 8 months of constant ear infections, I finally got Kaycie a referral to see an ENT to see if tubes were necessary again. I also wanted to do a hearing test while we were there as I've suspected a little hearing loss in one ear from the constant infections she's had. I've suspected this for a few reasons, her speech has always been behind to me. The preschool screenings at the school district have confirmed this recently by telling me that she doesn't do so well on the articulation portions of the tests. Also, when she's sick, she can't hear me at all. It's like she's completely deaf. So at the ENT office, we first met with an audiologist. She tested Kaycie and then told me that sure enough she has high frequency hearing loss in both ears. I wasn't expecting that. She said that the type of loss she has is not caused by ear infections. Ear infections cause low frequency hearing loss. That explains why she's completely deaf when she's sick. So the ENT wants to do CT scans of her temporal bones and genetics tests to see what caused the loss. Her cousin Brenden also has high frequency hearing loss and was diagnosed when he was a newborn. His is more severe though. So now she will definitely qualify for speech therapy which she really needs before kindergarten starts next year. She also will need hearing aids to help amplify the sounds that she can't hear. They want to keep an eye on her for the next year or two to make sure it doesn't get worse. Our regular doctor also wants me to get blood tests done on her to make sure all the antibiotics she's been on in since November haven't had a negative effect on her body. Finally after all this, we still need to go back and see if she can get tubes to avoid all these ear infections. She had to miss our fun trip to Utah 2 weeks ago because of a painful ear infection. The poor girl can't catch a break!!