I left work early today to take Smiley to the ear specialist. He'd had wax just pour out of his left ear for the umpteenth time and he still isn't hearing right, seven months after the tubes went in his ears.
[Lisa is volunteering all week at Girl Scout camp with my oldest girls, otherwise she'd have taken him]
Well, it turns out his left ear is infected, the eardrum doesn't appear to be moving right, and he'll need to be seen again in two weeks because there's a possibility the tube is damaged.
Swell.
I did have the doc check to see if he was tongue-tied, since I went to school with a boy who was, but it appears he's got full movement. Good of course, but disappointing too - it would be wonderful to have a solution to his lack of speech.
[Later in the day I'd learn that coincidentally our infant niece, the daughter of my wife's estranged brother, is tongue-tied and will need surgery to even allow her to eat properly]
[One positive: he did say "One more choo-choo' while playing with some trains in the waiting room. I was caught off guard and asked him to repeat it, and man was he happy to see how excited I was]
Some misc. Smiley notes:
1. I was happy and proud to see him quickly decipher how to, uh, transform a Transformer. He did it quicker than I could.
2. He went twice to the bathroom at the Dr's office, the first time aiming up instead of down and power washing the wall behind the toilet. At Lisa's insistence, he's been trained to clean up such messes and he did so, but in my heart I object: it seems to cancel out an integral part of being a boy. :)
3.He's developed some more signs in place of speech. I'm not sure if they're 'real' and taught by his teacher or something improvised. A quick palm-up gripping motion seems to mean 'I'm sorry', while his name continues (incorrectly) to be signed by a quick brush of a finger down his cheek.
4. At the cell phone store he objected when the clerk took my phone away for repair, reacting with alarm at what he perceived as a theft of my property.
5. He often unbuckles himself mid-ride, forcing us to pull over and make a big to-do about putting his seat belt back on.
6. Despite his lack of speech he seems to be quite the charmer among the ladies, using that grin of his to woo them. Let's hope he has the same success 15 years down the road :)
5 comments:
Glad that you go to the bottom eof all the wax. It is such a wrorry for us when our children are not as perfect as the world would want them to be...but never mind yourgorgeous wee fella will gow into a great young man and hopefuly will make the world sit up and take notice. Love sybil xx
I think smiley will come around, but slowly....
I too have problems with speech and just the other day at the dentist I was asked where I was from because of my speech....:( I hope things go better for him than me...
Give him a hug for me,
Jeanne
As I'm a fairly new reader of your blog, I did not realize that Smiley had a speaking problem.
Knowing there's a great deal of difference between can't and won't, I was just reminded: there was a boy in my son's kindergarten class who WOULD not speak in public. Kip's words were reserved for family and close friends. The kindergarten class was part of a project to teach college students how to deal with "gifted and talented" and the other exceptional (read: emotionally, mentally or physically challenged) students. One of the things they did was to award Kip points for initiating a conversation. The other kindergarteners got points for getting Kip to respond to them verbally. These points were eventually exchanged for ice cream.
I know you're glad to see any evidence that Smiley is improving, even slightly. I wish ice cream would fix more than attitude.
;^) Jan the Gryphon
With all the problems with Smiley's ears could it be a hearing problem? My youngest brother had a speech impediment until they realized he couldn't hear the words. He sounds like a real charmer despite not talking. (Hugs)Indigo
(("sorry" is signed with the right fist (the sign for A) circling counterclockwise over the heart, as if saying your heart hurts ...."name" is the first 2 fingers of each hand pointed out, then you cross them over (right over left) to make an X (people who couldn't sign a name wrote an X) and push them forward, away from you ...."smile" is 'pinching' the corners of your mouth and drawing them upwards like you're making a smile)) ...and if Eli can't quite make the right sign, he improvises and makes one very close to it..just like talking, we understand what others might not.
...lol @ unbuckling himself. ugh, Pey used to do that all the time...I hope Eli skips that one ;)
I hope that things aren't too complicated w/ Smiley's ear...maybe just a correction with the tube. I was talking to a neighbor who's daughter had to have tubes reinserted 3 times until they were right. But she hasn't had an ear infection since. I sincerely wish y'all the best with it, it's so hard to feel helpless for your child.
~Bernadette
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