Casey has always had chronic fluid in his ears.  When he was little, they tried to do a hearing test, but he has a flat tympanogram (sp?) because of the fluid, so the test could never be completed.  They told us to treat him like he has a mild hearing loss--looking at him when you speak with him, being close to the front of the room in school, etc.  I'm sure his hearing is pretty darn good, because he always knows when someone comes in the room even when he's turned away from the door...

 

Anyway, when he was having some issues in school last year, we decided to investigate his hearing and vision a bit more to rule out a physical issue.  We decided to try tubes.  They had been offered to us before, but we didn't want to have him under the anesthesia if it wasn't totally necessary so we opted out.  Casey had had a few ear infections, that we knew of, but not really bad ones. 

 

He got the tubes in mid-December.  He did need anesthesia because they cut the ear drum (or some ear part, LOL!).  Since he has the trach and vent, he already was able to be put to sleep 'safely' so that was less of an issue than with a bipap kid. 

 

We were amazed at how quickly he was finished.  We had settled in to a room with snacks and books and before we had cracked a bag or a book, he was done!  Yes, he was cranky afterwards.  The nurses told us that coming out of the anesthesia was the worst part of the whole thing.  I guess the little ones are the worst because they want to thrash around and are disoriented.  Not the case with our kids but it was still something that Casey had to work out of his system.  We were able to feed him juice-a little bit, right afterwards.  The nurse recommended us to go slow since he may be feeling a bit naseous. 

 

Since that time, Casey has had at least one BAD ear infection.  We were seeing drainage and we were thinking that drainage was good because the fluid was coming out but NO, drainage is bad.  He got antibiotics after seeing his ear guy.  He also is to use the Ciprodex drops for a week ANY time we see drainage.

 

We see drainage a LOT!  It seems like every 3 weeks or so we're back on the ciprodex.  Sometimes he claims his ears hurt, but I think he may just be complaining to complain. 

 

In July, I think, he had a BAD ear infection so we went to see the doc, etc.  We could see some weird gunk in his ear.  Come to find out that he had a bad infection and that the tube had migrated out of where it should be and was stuck-thus the infection (?) 

 

So, that tube is out.  That is always his problem ear.  That's the one that he says hurts and does get drainage a lot.  I'm not sure what we'll do from here.  Maybe if Casey ever has to have another surgery we'll do double duty and get another tube put in.  It only lasted about 6 months.

 

Our doc never told us to take any precautions with his ear.  He said he doesn't think it's necessary.  I'm not sure that I agree with him.  Since our guys can't shake their heads or put their fingers in their ears after a shower or whatever, I think that the water could kind of sit there and 'stew'. 

 

We have the wax stuff that we usually use when he has a shower or a bath.

 

OH, when they did a special test after his surgery they said his hearding tested very well. 

 

We also had done a test in a booth type thing and they could tell which side was impaired a bit.  Even though Casey is non speaking, they could tell by his eyes, face when a sound was heard in the side they had put a sound to....