This has been a busy week. On Monday, both Gavin and Tysen had appointments with our ENT. Tysen's appointment was to recheck his hearing and based on the results, determine whether or not to get tubes. Gavin's appointment was in reference to the discovery our dentist made during his last cleaning that his tongue appeared restricted. Since he's been having speech difficulties, we wanted to follow-up on that to see if he needs surgery to fix that problem. After examining both boys, I was surprised that the doctor decided that he wants to do surgeries on both of them- on the same day. Tysen's hearing test was a complete failure in both ears...again. It still appears that he has fluid behind the ear drums, although it is difficult to tell on an infant if they do not have an infection because it's not bulging. Dr. G is recommending that we have the tubes inserted in both of his ears and then while he's still under anesthesia, he wants him to have an ABR (auditory brain stem response) test that will help give us more answers to the type of hearing loss that Tysen has. Hopefully once they get the tubes in and the fluid out, his eardrum will be able to function properly and he'll be able to hear for the first time in his 6 month life. If he still doesn't pass the ABR, we'll at least know how to better treat his hearing problem. Dr. G also wants to reinsert Gavin's ear tubes. Gavin had his first ear tube surgery when he was 13 months old. They typically last on average 6 months because as the child grows, they fall out. One of Gavin's had fallen out and was still sitting inside his ear canal. The other one appeared to be in place, however Dr. G said that Gavin still has fluid behind his ear drums so the tubes are not functioning properly. He noticed that Gavin's adenoids were enlarged, so he wants to surgically remove them as he believes that they are blocking his Eustachian tubes and preventing the fluid from draining. We had a difficult time getting Gavin to cooperate with us when it came time for him to stick his tongue out so that Dr. G could examine it. He wasn't able to get a great look, but he feels that it is just a mild case of ankyloglossia (tongue-tied). He doesn't think that it's severe enough to be the cause of his speech problems, but he's going to clip it a little bit during surgery to see if it helps. Then Dr. G is also ordering an ABR for Gavin, just to be certain that his hearing is normal. Dr. G wants to do the surgeries at Children's Hospital because Tysen is still so young and his risks with anesthesia are higher. I just got the phone call today and the surgeries have been scheduled for Friday, July 29th. Matt and I will both take the day off work so we can give each child one-on-one attention (Alexa will go to preschool like usual). Then both boys will have the weekend to recover before we have to take them to daycare on Monday. Dr. G assured me that by Saturday they'll be feeling normal again.
On Tuesday, both boys had back-to-back appointments again. Gavin had his speech therapy, which went well. I talked to his therapist and we decided that we are going to take a break from therapy until after his surgeries. We are only allowed a certain amount of therapy sessions from our health insurance and I don't want to use them all up if he's going to need therapy after his surgery. Then we had to go to see our pediatrician for Tysen's 6 month wellness check-up. He's doing fantastic. He now has two teeth on the bottom. He's nearly crawling already and able to sit by himself with the help of his arm (called tripod sitting). His growth has slowed down a little bit but our pediatrician assured me that is so very common with breast-fed infants. Here are Tysen's 6 month stats:
Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (50%)
Height: 27.5 in (90%)
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