Ruth Got Tubes

Ruthie had a big day today. She had surgery to put tubes in her ears. And she did awesome! The doctors and nurses were all super impressed by how calm and sweet and compliant she was. Almost all kids get a sedative before surgery. Ruthie didn't need one. And then just about every toddler gets carried back to the OR by a nurse, kicking and screaming. Not Ruthie. I warned the nurse that he'd probably have better luck just letting her walk in, holding his hand. And that's exactly what they did. She left me without a tear, walked with the nurse right into the OR. Climbed up on the table on her own and wore the gas mask without one complaint. She went to sleep quickly, the procedure took 10 minutes, and she woke up well, too - not a single tear, scream, kick or outburst! The anesthesiologist asked to take her home. And the doctor told me the rest of his day is now ruined. Because Ruth was the first surgery of the morning and now he'll expect such awesome behavior from everyone else. haha

 

Here she is, after we got home, showing off her fancy new bracelets - which she doesn't want to take off. The nurse spun it really well, she gave Ruthie "Christmas bracelets with bows on them."  They were really an ID band and an allergy alert band. But Ruthie LOVES them none-the-less. I think she was almost as thrilled that Mommy had a matching green one ;)

 

She thinks this morning was a fun date with mommy, not surgery. She got to drive in Daddy's truck with just mommy. Got to snuggle with Mommy in the waiting room. Color with Mommy in the pre-op room. And sit in mommy's lap while eating a popsicle for breakfast in post-op. Guess that's beats some mornings when mommy is just consumed by caring for the baby. Ruthie enjoyed her morning out and can already hear so much better! In just hours afte rthe surgery, her speech is already starting to sound clearer!

 

It's been a long rode to get to this point. In March, Ruth had pnuemonia and a double ear infection. The infections went away by the fluid didn't. Our pediatrician finally refered us to an ENT in August and the ENT told me our pediatrician had no idea what he was talking about - her ears were great.

 

Since I haven't been so thrilled with our pediatrician. Mostly with the way he runs his practice. Like, not arriving till 9am when my appointment is at 8:30, putting his stethoscope in his ears because he says my kids are too loud - but he has signs up everywhere listing a dozen "do not"s for kids. And then he leaves us in the exam room to wait an hour for him. We were rarely out of there in less than 3 hours. And then there's all his random lectures.... like how "raisins are the worst thing you can feed your kid!" and "don't let you kid watch tv because the commercials will rot their brain."  Totally random stuff.... it makes me laugh. But, anyways. I'd been looking for an excuse to leave for a long time. And the ENT disagreeing with our pediatrician was enough.

 

We found a great new pediatrician and at Faith's 5 year appointment, I asked her to check Ruth's ears. Ruth didn't seem to be hearing us well and I was curious if the fluid was back or if she was just 2.5 years old. There was a little fluid on one ear, but the other was fine. Two weeks later, there was still fluid in the same ear but now the other had an infection. So the pediatrician suggested we go see an ENT and get a hearing test after the infection cleared up.

 

In the mean time, we're trying to get Nathan and Ruth into private speech therapy. The SLP our insurance covers requires us to see her ENT first. I'm so glad she does! The ENT said Ruth's infection hasn't gone away and, upon hearing her history, suggested tubes. I jumped at it. We're so ready for this fight to be over. But now I kind of feel bad... I blamed our first pediatrician for over reacting. When in reality, the ENT he sent us to was the problem! Our first pediatrician warned me that he ears could turn to glue if we didn't see an ENT. Sure enough, her ears were glued shut today. The surgeon doesn't know how Ruth was hearing anything. He said it was pretty bad in there. How did that first ENT miss this?!

 

Anyways, Ruth's ears a done and we'll go in to recheck them next month, and have a hearing test then. The SLP is also evaluating her next week to start some speech therapy - but she thinks Ruth's speech will clear up very quickly after the tubes.

 

Well, the ENT also saw Nathan so that we could get him into private speech therapy. And we were surprised to learn Nathan has fluid on his ears also. He has a hearing test on Friday. That will help determine if he will need tubes, too. The doctor said most kids his age don't, the fluid goes away on it's own. But we have no way of knowing how long it's been there! Or how much it's affecting his hearing. W'ell know more tomorrow. Nathan does seem to have some trouble hearing us. So we're hopeful that some of his articulation problems is just due to the fluid on his ears and will clear up quickly when he can hear better.

 

Nathan had his speech evaluation this past week with the SLP. She said he only says about 4 sounds wrong, but those 4 sounds are common ones in sound blends. She believes that his language skills will greatly improve when he learns to say those sounds better. For instance, Nathan might say "My daddy work hard so we have money." He leaves an "s" off "works"because he knows he can't say it. And he skips the word "can" because he knows he can't say that either. The SLP said he's smart enough to know what he can't say and he's learned to substitute words (like saying home instead of house). Her evaluation rates kids on a percentile basis. Nathan got a 4%. That sounds terrible. It's bad, but not as bad as it sounds. She said the averge child has a 40-60%. And the public school system only accepts kids with a 7% or below for speech therapy. Nathan's speech is on par with the average 3.1 year old :(  But the therapist is certain that can change. She is extremely optomist and looking forward to working with Nathan. We just have to wait for insurance to agree and then therapy will begin. She said her ratings of 4% and age 3.1 are on the lower end because she knows insurance is omre likely to cover that. So here's hoping. I feel bad that when we didn't start with private therapy right away when we left the public school system. Our local school isn't so grand..... we were pretty disappointed. And we were thrilled he was TALKING. When he was 3, he had 6 words. So in our minds, Nathan was doing awesome. It took going to kindergarten and hearing the other kids to help us see that Nathan's speech has really been hindered. But it's all reversible and the SLP seems really awesome!

 

That's enough rambling. The kids are doing great. And soon they'll be even better!