Tubes

We are on the journey to getting tubes for Maisie's ears and her adenoids removed. It's been a long time coming, and I'm praying that this will help her speech and hearing.

Maisie has had frequent ear infections since she was was only a couple months old. Several of these infections caused her eardrum to burst. I asked our pediatrician about going to an ENT several times, but we never got the green light. I really like our pediatrician, but she tends to be pretty conservative.

At age 3, it's developmentally appropriate to understand 75% of a child's speech (by people outside the immediate family). Maisie's speech is improving, but still can be muffled sounding.

At the 3 year old wellness appointment, I was referred to get an Early Childhood screening/evaluation at our local Area Education Agency. In this evaluation we were told that Maisie is devlopmentally where she should be...however she failed 2 hearing tests. She got an ENT referral. Speech was not reccomended because it was thought that her hearing may be the cause of her speech concerns.

At the ENT we were told she has fluid in her ears and is diagnosed as mild to moderate hearing loss in both ears. We are now scheduled for the surgery in about a month.

I'm feeling nervous, but hopeful that this will be a positive experience!