ENT Visit

As noted in the blog before this one, we went to the pediatric ENT this morning for the girls' follow-up visit after their ear tubes placement surgery in January. They both did great! Yea!


They had fun playing in the waiting room for a few minutes, and then they called us back. They wanted to weigh both girls which made me a little nervous. Do you remember the screaming episode at Lily's 3 year check-up when the nurse wanted her to stand on the scale? I do. However, this time she stepped right up to admire the stickers that were on the scale; she held my pinkie finger too, but I figured that wouldn't matter. She was 34 pounds. They asked us if Mia would stand on the scale too, but we figured though she could, she wouldn't stand still long enough for it to read. We put her in the carseat-like scale instead; she looked terrified, but she didn't cry. She weighed in right about 24 pounds. Of course, their clothes add a little bit of weight, but it's always good to know approximately what they weigh.

Next we went into a little room to wait for the physician assistant. Both girls quickly realized the little round stool can spin really fast. I helped Lily up and spun her around; Mia started banging on the chair a minute later. Thankfully, Lily readily agreed to share, hopped down and helped me spin Mia. We alternated a few times until the PA arrives. Both girls did very well while they were examined. She looked at Mia first and said it looked like the far end of the tubes might have a little bit of dried blood on it, but because of it's location she couldn't tell if it was on it or in it. She said a quick puff of air test conducted in a few minutes could determine that. She also looked in her nose and in her throat and said everything looked good (minus the runny nose Mia is currently sporting). Then she looked at Lily's ears, and said they looked perfect. She checked her nose (perfect) and her throat. She noted her tonsils looked swollen which made me nervous because I had just been reading about how many kids have their tonsils taken out unnecessarily. Then she looked in the chart and determined it was most likely a temporary thing from a cold because her tonsils had been very small at the pre-op visit. What a relief.

After seeing the PA, we went to the hearing test room. The doctor ran the puff of air test on both of them, and said the results were really good; air is going completely through all tubes which means any fluid in there is draining properly. Then Lily and I went into the sound-proof booth where they ran the same hearing test as before on her. She wears a set of earphones and when instructed, she puts a peg on a board and builds a tower that way (Lily always loves to build tall towers). They did this for awhile and she was done. The doctor said she did great! Then Ryan and Mia went into the booth where they ran a hearing test on her. They make various noises and watch her reaction to them. She did well too! The doctor then told us the tests prove there is a big improvement in their hearing; Lily is now in "normal" range at all levels and Mia passed her test too. Since Lily could wear headphones, they determined that her hearing is good in both ears. Mia is too young for the headphones, so they cannot determine definitely that both ears are good, but they think they are because she was responding appropriately to the sounds coming from different parts of the booth.

Since those results turned out great, we were ready to go. Lily was very excited to pick out a sticker from their basket at check-out for her and for Mia (she referred to this in her song on the car ride to the doctor...see previous blog entry). They had lots of different ones to pick from. She picked two Bob the Builder characters. I don't think she has ever even seen Bob the Builder, but whatever, she thought they were cool. Then she changed her mind and said I could pick one for Mia instead. I decided on a Mickey Mouse one; this made Lily put hers back, and she ended up with a Cinderella one. By the time we got to the car, she had switched them and taken the Mickey Mouse for herself, but she pulled the Cinderella one off the paper for Mia to play with. Who knew one (or two) stickers was such a great reward for behaving well at the doctor's office?

Even though we can definitely see a difference in the girls, and we felt like the tubes were working great, it is such a relief for the doctors to confirm it! We are so thankful that Dr. White referred us to Dr. Baktha's office, and that he successfully placed the tubes in their ears so they can hear well. What a wonderful blessing to know that our girls can hear!