Funny looking face from Makenna...
And again, another quirky look from the girl. She looks so skinny in this one but she is packing on the pounds, no worries there!
We had Kaylee's latest checkup for her right ear (every 6 months). So we went through another hour of games with her having headphones on and telling us when she hears a noise (by slapping our hands). By the way, these appts suck to say the least. The poor little girl is never in the mood for it, but I must say, she did super this time around. The results were pretty much the same as the last go around. Hearing is greatly reduced in her right ear. The next step was to figure out if it was the bone behind her ear, or if it is the ear itself. So they put a headphone piece behind her ear on the bone to see if it was bone/nerve damage. The bone/nerve test came back great, she was responding to all the sounds. So that was excellent to hear since that is the major area of arrival of sound to an ear. So basically that tells the doctors that it's the ear itself that is causing the issue (small ear canal, and landmarks inside the ear are not all there or fully developed from birth).
So what is the next steps? Well, we just wait it out for a few more years, and see if she is able to actually tell us more with the tests. Since she is so young (and shy with others), it's hard to communicate to her with things like "Ok, can you clearly hear noises in your right ear?" She never seems to have a problem with us and her speech is excellent as well as her singing (yes, that girl LOVES to sing, takes after her Grandma Carol!). Anyways, the doctors were telling us of a few hearing aids that we could consider in a few years. One of them being a screw they implant behind her ear in the bone. So she would have a screw coming out of her head permantley for the rest of her life, and a hearing aid screws onto it. Not really something we want to consider, and not something we were wanting to hear. The other option would be a typical hearing aid like others you see. Again, not something we wanted to hear! Like the doctor said, nothing "has" to necessarily be done. When he started "doctor school", if you had normal hearing in only one ear, that was considered good enough, and they didn't worry about operating on the other ear. Nowadays though, the train of thought has changed and they push for normal hearing in both ears to have best quality of life possible.
So we'll just have to see how things progress with her over the years. You would never know she has muffled hearing in one ear, and even daycare has said they never see an issue. Heck, her new main teacher didn't even know she had a bum ear until I told her the other day we were going in for a checkup. So we are hoping that no hearing aids will ever be needed, but we'll just have to see where the road takes us. Crossing our fingers and saying prayers for our sweet little sassy girl... :)
