It's amazing how FAR you have come! We are three months without any medicine, cutting out just about everything that we know was causing you issues, and here you are, almost 50 words and becoming more than a helpless toddler. Today we had a bit of a set-back, but I am hoping that it won't be too big a burden.
We had your ear tubes follow-up today (which should have come in October, but between all of James' things and your therapies, we have been busy). I got you squeezed in today, one of the last days before our insurance resets.
We went back to our same pediatric ENT doctor that we started with, who had horrible bedside manner and in all, made it a very pleasant experience. However, I went because he was the one who put the tubes in, so I thought it would be better if we went back. I am happy to say it was a much different experience, although when I brought up that the U of I mentioned you should have your tonsils out, he scoffed at it. So I let it go. Especially because we now know what we know and when we visited the U of I, we had no idea.
Your right ear looks great, the tube is still in it's place and you can hear well out of it. Your left ear is another story. The tube fell out and the hole closed, which is the good news. The bad news is that there was fluid behind your ear drum, causing some hearing issues.
I shared with Dr. Schulte my concern with waiting the recommended three months to see what that ear does (more ear infections? the fluid just clears out on it's own?) because you are so far behind in your speech. How will your speech development be affected if you can only hear out of one ear?
But alas, we wait. I am hoping that ear infections don't resume, but with your track record, I can almost bet they will. I am hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised and the fluid goes away on it's own.
There's been a lot of "hoping" going on for you, little girl, but again, at least it's only this. We have figured out the majority of things for you, and I am hoping (there it is again) we don't go down a terrible path. We've been down so many, I really need this to stay positive.
As for the rest of it, your speech therapy is going really well. Apparently, the goal for any 2 year old is to have 50 words by the time they are three. Once they hit 50 words, they are considered on the low end of speech development, but still within the "normal" spectrum. So here you are. It's been a joy to hear you talk, and you babble on and on and on so much sometimes, it's a little grating on our souls, but for the most part, I am incredibly happy that you are moving forward.
In other news, I have had no less than 5 people contact me about the effects Zyrtec had on your development. Sometimes, I can't help but be incredibly passionate about it, and I am sure that is overwhelming. Most of the time my response is: "GET THEM OFF THAT MEDICINE!" it's scary to think there are that many people noticing reactions to different medicines and all the while, doctors prescribe it like candy.
We have taken to treating the kids as naturally as we can. Drew had a nasty fever a few weeks ago (103.6 - scared me to death!) and we threw some Motrin at him. He didn't seem to have any effect, so that's refreshing. However, we try to let illnesses (and there have been a ton in our house recently) make their way through the system without any intervention, especially anti-biotics.
Oh, how thankful I am that you are progressing, little girl. Here's to hoping (again) that it stays that way!
