sensory surprises

on the topic of tubes & adenoids

it was at his 4-year check up earlier this summer that i finally managed to extract two things from a pediatrician:

1)  a referral to an ENT, based on my theory that the kid couldn’t hear well
2) a referral to the OHSU Childhood Development & Rehabilitation Center for his delays.

the second got us to an utterly passive speech therapist who at least gave us a one-on-one referral that led us to our current speech therapist who recognized the signs of SPD and who kicked off the transformation we’ve seen over the last few months.

the first got us surgery.

for those of you followed me on twitter/facebook prior to this blog - you might remember my excitement and trepidation over the kidbot’s ear tubes insertion and adenoid removal surgery this summer.  some of you have also asked me whether in light of his SPD diagnosis later, the surgery was a good thing.

when we talked to the ENT after both a physical and hearing exam, she was confident that the fluid in his ears was obstructing his hearing (and thus also playing a key role his speech delay), and that his adenoids were obstructing his breathing (and thus causing sleep apnea, and thus causing attention and behaviour issues due to lack of good sleep.)  at the time it sounded like MIRACLE surgery.  and despite the worries that come with putting your kid under the knife, i was pretty stoked.

except for the trauma of trying to get a resistant kid to take the meds that would put him to sleep, the surgery was a piece of cake, as was the recovery.  the doctor confirmed that there was considerable fluid in both ears, and that his adenoids were “HUGE” - and that we should see immanent improvements.  and well, we did in many respects:

a) i’ll never forget the first time i heard him answer Dora the Explorer when she asked a question of the audience.  it was about 4 days after the surgery.  i was blown away. 

b) the kidbot doesn’t snore anymore.  (he used to saw logs, in his sleep. it was crazy)

c) the kidbot has not had an ear infection, runny nose, or cough since surgery.  after months and months of him always being sick with something, he’s been healthy as a horse save one stomach virus.

these are all awesome things, and I am glad we got the surgery… but in the end, it was not the miracle cure we had all wondered about.

it wasn’t until we started to get help for the SPD that he started to come out of his shell - but certainly the help of the surgery and the progress from the therapy are not completely disconnected.  for example, the listening therapy and vestibular work would certainly not be as useful if the kid’s ears were still filled with fluid…

so long story short - i’m glad we got the surgery.  it was the right thing to do.  but it does make me think about how many kids have problems like the kidbot’s - and how they can so easily go undiagnosed or wrongly diagnosed.