Can You Hear Me???

Over the last two weeks, Eli and I started to slowly pick up on the fact that Matthias hasn't been hearing us as great. About two and a half weeks ago, he had an ear infection in one ear (which actually might have ruptured), and we had to take him in on a Sunday morning. The doc on call - who I will never take my boys again to - couldn't see because of the wax in his ears. He always has too much wax! So, he dug in to clean it out. Traumatized Matthias, who was screaming bloody murder, and actually made Matthias' ear bleed because he was too rough. The next two hours my little boy's ear was oozing blood. I was not a happy Mama.

Anyway, we did our 10 days of antibiotics, but we started noticing that when he was facing away from us, he wasn't responding quickly when we said something to him. And then there was the "little" hint several days ago when Eli was sitting on the couch, Matthias was across the room. Eli said something him, and Matthias looked up at him and said: "Say it again Daddy, I can't hear you."

Two days ago he came into our room fairly early, and we let him snuggle with us for about 15 minutes before we had to get up. He was laying next to me, but facing away from me. I decided to experiment. Whispered "I love you, Matthias" to him. No response. And he nearly always responds back with "I wuv you too, Mama" to me. I said something else quietly. Nothing. When I raised my voice louder, he finally turned his head to me.

I decided we weren't going to mess around with this, and called the ENT that morning to get an appointment in. He went in yesterday. Failed the hearing test in both ears, although one was much better than the other. BUT, there was SO MUCH WAX in his ears, that the doctor couldn't see past it to see if there was a lot of fluid build up or anything else to be concerned about! Options??? Pin him down while he screamed and flailed (because of past trauma with ear stuff) and try and clean it out; put him under and clean it out; or have us work the next month with softening medicine and a water syringe to clean it out and go back and see if he can see in there. We took option 3 = )

So, all our baths will involve squirting water in the ears to try and get junk to come out, and I'm being more deliberate in my communication with him. I don't want to get to yelling point, and I don't want to give him the easy "out" in obedience because he might have trouble understanding. He can hear, I just need to make sure he is looking at me when I talk to him, and I speak clearly.

And we're praying that it is minor. We haven't noticed this in the past, so hoping it is a lot of wax issues and maybe some fluid that needs to be drained somehow!