After our appointment for Rowan the other day, I spoke to his doctor and she confirmed my suspicion. She wouldn’t prescribe anything if Ro didn’t have an infection. I totally understand why not, and support her decision, but I admit that I’m fed up with waiting. However, waiting happens from time to time. So she booked him an appointment to be seen at her office by another doctor, as she herself is currently on holidays. That was yesterday afternoon.
Ro had been so cooperative at his first hearing test, I was hoping for a redo of that. He wasn’t so sure, and wailed as I hauled him out of the van. However, as soon as he was out and we were walking in, he was fine. We checked in and sat in the waiting room for a while. It wasn’t too long before he was called back. Unlike last time, he didn’t panic, and instead of me having to carry him and comfort him a little, he just walked with me. I let him “help me” by carrying my wallet, which helped, I think. He felt pretty important. He told the nurse who walked him back that it was his laptop. She got his weight, and walked us back to an exam room. We spent a few minutes pep talking about cooperating with the doctors and I encouraged him that he had done SO well at his last appointment, and he was a pro by now at getting his ears checked. He seemed to like that, though his goofy faces said otherwise.
We were joined by a medical student just a few minutes after entering the exam room. We talked just a little bit, and then she asked Rowan if he’d go sit up on the bed so she could check his ears. He politely told her he wouldn’t, haha, but I convinced him to join me up there, so he came along. He insisted she check his right ear first, so she complied, and followed with the left. And then, as I expected, she said there was some fluid in there, but no infection.
“Its all pretty normal in there, I think he’s perfect. Nothing to worry about,” she said. I went into the conversation about how every time Rowan’s ears have been checked, thats been the result. Its hard to know if its the same fluid just living in there, or it keeps forming through our houses many illnesses and colds. She pointed out that he seemed to be hearing her fine (eye roll) and I reassured her that if I had brought some background noise with me, it would be an entirely different story. She said she was going to bring in another doctor to have a look at him, and off she went. Very polite, very nice.
She brought with her two more women; a doctor and a resident. Everyone was lovely, but louder and boisterous, and I was a bit nervous Ro would clam up. But he didn’t! They were all so enamoured with him, and he just grew taller and taller as they laughed at his jokes and complimented him. It was completely adorable. He cooperated beautifully and let everyone look in his ears. It was around that time when I learned that, for some reason, they didn’t have the official report from his hearing test appointment! Dr. Guselle told me on the phone the other day that she didn’t have it, but would put it as a task on her assistant’s desk to hunt it down. And they still didn’t have it! I was kind of disappointed, because I absolutely agree that his ears don’t seem to be problematic at all, but I also live with him and see that they are not functioning 100%, and its frustrating! I wish they had that report to look over, but they didn’t. However, the doctor who was overseeing Rowan for Dr. Guselle seemed more intrigued about the fact that the background noise was what really messes him up. She said his speech is excellent for his age (win!) and thats such a big indicator of hearing. Yet, we do have a decent amount of time where we all listen to each other, like over meals, prayer time before bed, and anytime Solly isn’t being super loud. (There are not too many quiet times in our day, lol!) So he’s had a lot of time to develop his speech, but when things get loud and busy and we try to communicate with him, he gets SO frustrated!
The doctor noted that we have yet another follow up with Dr. Guselle in a couple of weeks, where she’ll assess the fluid then, and then hopefully be able to judge if its improving or not. If he hasn’t been sick recently, it should at least be slowly going down, if not all gone. If its still there, likely we’ll head in the direction of an ears, nose, and throat specialist. But this is a good start, I suppose. A bit of a fruitless appointment, but at least there is a starting point now, and we can wait to see if the fluid goes down or maintains.
All things considered, I’m SO impressed with how well Rowan handled his appointment with all the ladies. That kid is so stinking charming!