I will tell you the story from the beginning. Kirsten went into the doctor at her 18 month appointment and the doctor asked how her speech was, how many words, ect. When she wasn't talking a lot the doctor said that if Kirsten didn't have a certain number of words by her 2 yr apt she would need speech therapy.
Kirsten's 2 year appointment came up and she had just gotten over RSV , which apparently can cause fluid to be in your ears? We set her up for speech therapy and have been doing it ever sense.
Finally a friend mentioned that her child had an issue where she had fluid in her ears and couldn't hear normally. I put it on the back of my mind and waited to see what speech therapy would do.
It started to get the the point where Kirsten stopped learning new words. I kept thinking about what my friend said and thought just give it a little more time with her therapy. When Kirsten started to regress on her words, I got worried and took Kirsten into the doctor. I asked the doctor if Kirsten could have what my friends child once had and what do you know... she did.
What Kirsten had was fluid in her ears. There is a little tunnel that lets water drain from you ears... Kirsten's was swollen shut so that the water was not able to drain. What does this mean? This means there was so much water in her ears that Kirsten couldn't hear correctly. She heard like she was under water. "Hey, how are you?" would sound like "A, Ow au oo" Which explains alot If you have ever heard Kirsten speak.
The doctor tried some medication for a month to see if it would help unswell the tunnel. We also did a hearing test and determined that her hearing in general was good. She could tell where sound was coming from and look in the direction in which it came. The medication did not work so we were refereed to an ear specialist.
This was the only pediatric ear doctor in the treasure valley. She is very hard to get into. However, they were able to see us in a couple days due to a cancellation. The ear doctor suggested immediate ear surgery to put tubes in her ears. Once again there was a cancellation. They were able to get Kirsten into surgery fast. How fast? The NEXT MORNING!!! Whoa huh!
Kirsten did really well. They gave her lots of little trinkets to play with while we waited. When they came to take her she didn't fuss. The nurse began talking to Dustin and I about after care for the surgery. They brought Kirsten out before the nurse was finished! The surgery only took about 10 minutes!
Her actual ear drums were weakened from the amount of fluid that had been sitting in there. But they should strengthen back up. The tubes are meant to help drain the fluid from Kirsten's ears helping her to hear.
Kirsten woke up well. She even wanted to get up and walk around before the effects wore off. Which she wasn't physically capable of but she was determined. Kirsten did amazing! What a champ! You would have never guess the entire day that she had surgery that morning.
Here she is waiting to go into surgery in her princess crown the nurse gave her.
I am really hoping that this will help Kirsten. I love her so much and it is very painful to watch her struggle and fall behind with her speech.
Kirsten's 2 year appointment came up and she had just gotten over RSV , which apparently can cause fluid to be in your ears? We set her up for speech therapy and have been doing it ever sense.
Finally a friend mentioned that her child had an issue where she had fluid in her ears and couldn't hear normally. I put it on the back of my mind and waited to see what speech therapy would do.
It started to get the the point where Kirsten stopped learning new words. I kept thinking about what my friend said and thought just give it a little more time with her therapy. When Kirsten started to regress on her words, I got worried and took Kirsten into the doctor. I asked the doctor if Kirsten could have what my friends child once had and what do you know... she did.
What Kirsten had was fluid in her ears. There is a little tunnel that lets water drain from you ears... Kirsten's was swollen shut so that the water was not able to drain. What does this mean? This means there was so much water in her ears that Kirsten couldn't hear correctly. She heard like she was under water. "Hey, how are you?" would sound like "A, Ow au oo" Which explains alot If you have ever heard Kirsten speak.
The doctor tried some medication for a month to see if it would help unswell the tunnel. We also did a hearing test and determined that her hearing in general was good. She could tell where sound was coming from and look in the direction in which it came. The medication did not work so we were refereed to an ear specialist.
This was the only pediatric ear doctor in the treasure valley. She is very hard to get into. However, they were able to see us in a couple days due to a cancellation. The ear doctor suggested immediate ear surgery to put tubes in her ears. Once again there was a cancellation. They were able to get Kirsten into surgery fast. How fast? The NEXT MORNING!!! Whoa huh!
Kirsten did really well. They gave her lots of little trinkets to play with while we waited. When they came to take her she didn't fuss. The nurse began talking to Dustin and I about after care for the surgery. They brought Kirsten out before the nurse was finished! The surgery only took about 10 minutes!
Her actual ear drums were weakened from the amount of fluid that had been sitting in there. But they should strengthen back up. The tubes are meant to help drain the fluid from Kirsten's ears helping her to hear.
Kirsten woke up well. She even wanted to get up and walk around before the effects wore off. Which she wasn't physically capable of but she was determined. Kirsten did amazing! What a champ! You would have never guess the entire day that she had surgery that morning.
Here she is waiting to go into surgery in her princess crown the nurse gave her.
I am really hoping that this will help Kirsten. I love her so much and it is very painful to watch her struggle and fall behind with her speech.
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