I haven't updated Nolan's blog in a long time. Primarily because I now work outside the home (and have little time for writing), and also because things have been going "hunky-dory." There is some exciting news on the home front: Nolan is growing on his own and we will be able to remove his feeding tube later this month. This is a wonderful development and we are absolutely thrilled. He'll never be a giant, but he is growing and otherwise thriving.
He plays soccer and loves it. He plays the piano and is flying through his lesson books - he has a natural talent and his fingers fly over the keyboard. He does wonderfully in the academic arena and is excelling in his third grade class.
His hearing, however, continues to deteriorate. This past spring, we had his PE tubes (grommets) removed and paper patches applied to try to heal his eardrums. Unfortunately, the right ear is stubborn with its infections and he had an infection in the recovery period. The paper patch didn't "take" in that ear.
The ear infections continue in that ear. It is a catch-22: they won't do a tympanoplasty in that ear until it is "dry," but the infections are not likely to stop, particularly since he has such a large hole in that eardrum. The nurse practitioner estimated about 15%-20% of his eardrum is missing. We had a hearing test done in an infection-free time and found the following:
The right ear is now in the severe range from 1000 Hz-8000 Hz. He does hit moderate at 500 Hz in that ear, but all other frequencies are in the severe range. The left ear is doing better, at a moderate-moderately severe level across the board. The conductive component is still there. The ENT does not believe it is due to the hole in his eardrum, though we cannot be sure. Our current ENT has decided to ignore the right ear and simply focus on the better ear. His better ear (the left one) is aiding to 25-35 dB (the "As" on the audiogram above). Our current audiology practice does not test the aided ears separately, so the worse ear is not evaluated.
Unfortunately, we are seeing some signs of speech "slippage" from Nolan. His high frequency sounds are less clear. Words like "kits" are becoming "kiss." He currently has (yet another) ear infection in the right ear. Buffalo cultures it each time, delaying the treatment time and causing that ear to continue to degenerate.
Since the audiology practices locally don't test the aided ears individually, it is hard to tell what, if anything, the right ear is perceiving. When we do the Ling 6 test with the right ear aided (taking out the left hearing aid), he only detects the "AH" sound.
I am concerned about the right ear "dropping off the map," so I contacted Cleveland Clinic for a second opinion. The audiology practices in Buffalo are not practicing according to the current best practice guidelines for pediatric audiology, and Nolan is not aided as well as he should be.
Cleveland Clinic is amazingly responsive and have a plan in place. We have an appointment for December 21 with audiology and the ENT surgeon there: we will see if there is anything that can be done for the right ear (since there is a perforation in the eardrum) and we will see what can be done with his aided hearing results in the sound booth. Cleveland does real-ear testing (Nolan has never had real-ear testing) and will test each aided ear individually. There are several options available to us, and the ultimate goal is to allow Nolan to hear better. It is possible his hearing aids can be cranked up to allow him to access more sound, or we may need a technology change.
In any case, there is our update (hey, it's only been nearly two years)!
