Have you ever wondered if your kid has selective hearing or if there is something hindering him or her from hearing? If so, then I have a story for you! Last month, 2/3 of our kids went under anesthesia to receive ear tubes, and one had her adenoids removed as well. This has been a radical transformation in our household, and it all began with the common kid phrase, “I can’t hear you.”
Most of the time when I hear people talk about tubes, it’s usually with infants, so I had no idea this could be something a six-year-old or even a 1.5 year old might need. I thought we were in the clear because we made it past a year without any of our kids having many ear infections. Then cue the nastiness of this winter season, which brought about countless sicknesses and doctors visits. One of our 1.5 year old twin boys was on three rounds of antibiotics in a matter of a month, and the fluid would not drain. His was pretty straightforward that he needed tubes to be able to drain the fluid better. Our older child was a completely different story.
Around Thanksgiving, our daughter started getting sick, and we noticed some snoring and mouth breathing. Then she started complaining that she couldn’t hear very well. We weren’t sure if it was common, six-year-old selective hearing or something different. She had some wax build up, but they thought she was fine. Then she caught a brutal case of RSV that knocked her out for weeks. From that she ended up with a few ear infections, and she was not herself. She always needed everything turned up really loud, and we basically had to yell at her for her to be able to hear us. Her teachers also noticed these issues. She basically walked around like a zombie for the month of February, and it was heartbreaking to not be able to help her.
At the ENT, they do a hearing test first, and her nerves were fine, but she had hearing loss from the fluid sitting in her ears. She honestly could not hear what anyone was saying to her. The ENT mentioned her needing tubes, and I was shocked because I didn’t know they did them on older kids. He also talked about the possibility of her adenoids being an issue as well. Turns out they were enlarged and pressing against her nasal cavities, causing all sorts of issues.
Both of their surgeries went really well. Coming out of anesthesia was a little bizarre to watch, but I kid you not that two hours later, she had gathered all the instruments in the house and was running around the yard singing at the top of her lungs all day long. She bounced back so quickly and looked at me a few days later and said “I can finally hear again!” To see such a major difference was amazing, and everyone around her has noticed too. Moral of the story is that sometimes kids aren’t lying when they say they can’t hear what we are saying!
