I haven't quite decided whether its a good or bad thing when you don't have to sign in at the doctor's office because the office staff all recognizes you...
The ENT had a look at Nolan's previously-leaky left ear. Turns out there is still a decent amount of fluid and she wasn't happy about that. We got to take a fun trip to the procedure room and have his ear suctioned out (turns out he dislikes this even more than having his eyes dilated)! She added some Ciprodex drops. We were on our last day of Oflaxacin drops (day 7), so tomorrow we start the Ciprodex and continue that for seven more days. The Ciprodex has to be given 3x per day, so that ought to be loads of fun! Darn those leaky ears.
We go back in three more weeks to check on his ear and to schedule an MRI. I haven't consulted Dr. Google yet as to why they run an MRI vs. CT scan, but I'm sure there are reasons. I do know that MRI's can visualize the soft tissue structures of the inner ear and the CT scan (fancy X-ray) gets the osseous structures. For a quick recap, his CT scan was totally normal and he is negative for Connexin 26, Connexin 30, and the common mitochondrial mutations.
So we find ourselves questioning how much longer we will pursue the cause of his hearing loss. I don't want to put him through countless medical procedures for no real gain. On the other hand, if we missed some syndrome because we weren't vigilant... I can't even imagine how I would feel. We will proceed with the MRI and any additional genetics work that might be valuable, but we are also preparing for the possibility (probability) that we will never know the cause.
I did manage to remember the necessary prescription for his booth test on the 15th of May. I'm rather fortunate that my friend has the day off and can watch Matthew on that day.
Laurie tagged me for a meme, unfortunately Christian's Mommy tagged me first! I'll just post the link to my original response here, since I'm not that interesting and little changes in a few weeks, lol. I like reading blogs by adults who are hard of hearing or deaf, since they give insight to what it is like to have hearing loss.
3 comments:
Thanks for trying the meme. . .I didn't see your earlier post but found it! It's fun to learn about new people.
RE: CT scans vs. MRI's. I think CT's can detect more things than MRI's. Plus, they are cheaper. . .I think. I think the Dr. is probably looking at the formation of the ear and parts, etc. to see if they can detect the reason for the hearing loss.
When I was your son's age, I had multiple exploratory surgeries to find out the cause of my hearing loss. Doctors determined that I had nerve damage. . . but that was not the case when I received my CI's! There was nothing wrong with my hearing nerve but was a convenient term for doctors to use in the 1960's.
Hello! I know you don't know me, but I'm Drew's Aunt Angie. I was able to get to your blog through Drew's and just needed to finally comment on how BEAUTIFUL your children are! Really, they are just absolutely adorable, and everytime I check Drew's blog, I keep meaning to write you -- so I'm FINALLY doing it! BEST WISHES to you and your family! :)
Awww.. thanks Aunt Angie! Drew is pretty adorable, too!
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