Sigh of Relief

I haven't posted about this because I was trying very hard not to worry too much until we found out what was going on.

For the past couple months we have been noticing that Seth hasn't been hearing as well as normal. It was kind of strange because it didn't seem to be consistent. One day he would hear me call him from the next room, and the next day he wouldn't hear me talking to him from 3 feet away. We really started to get concerned when other people started mentioning that they were noticing it as well.

So, Abby had a 6 month post-surgery appointment about a month ago, and I took Seth along hoping that Dr Clary would look at his ears even though he hadn't had a hearing test at that point. Dr Clary, being the wonderful, caring Doctor that he is, did look in Seth's ears while we were there for Abby's appointment. He said that Seth had quite a bit of earwax plugged up deep in his ear canal (sorry to be gross). He wanted us to put drops in his ears for several weeks before attempting to remove it.

Even knowing that this was most likely the cause of his hearing loss, and that it would be temporary, I was still worried. Having one hearing impaired child, I kept thinking what if Abby's hearing loss is genetic, and just now showing up in Seth at the age of 4 1/2. During the month that we were putting the drops in his ears, we also got a note from his teacher that he didn't seem to be hearing well....and just as luck would have it, his school had a vision and hearing screening in which he failed the hearing portion of the test. Talk about stressful!!

Well, today was finally the big day that we had our follow-up with Dr Clary. I told him about the failed hearing test and that the results were that Seth was hearing at about a 35 decibel loss. Thankfully Dr Clary was able to remove all of the wax from his ears and commented that the amount there was could certainly cause a hearing loss at that level.

We left the Dr's office with a HUGE weight lifted off of my shoulders for sure. As we were walking out I whispered Seth's name from behind him a couple of times, and each time he turned around quickly....he also asked me why the elevator bells were so loud as we got on the elevator. I have no idea how long his ears have been 'plugged' but I'm so thankful that this was all the problem was.

We still plan to schedule him a follow up hearing test, but I have no doubts he will pass it!

I think I have the "Flea"

We were leaving church today, when Seth Robert started sneezing several times in a row. After about 5 sneezes he says "Mom, I think I have the flea."

Knowing he meant the flu, we played it up with him for a couple of minutes...telling him he couldn't play with his dog or he might give him fleas...he couldn't go to school and spread fleas.

Finally we told him he doesn't have the FLU...something in the air was just making him sneeze.

What Next!!??

The last couple weeks have been full of stress and not much fun for our family. We certainly need to schedule something fun to make up for all of this.

1. All of us had a stomach bug (each about a week apart).

2. Boeing laid off 10% of their IT department last Friday. The days leading up to that were very stressful, but thankfully I'm not affected by the layoffs. This is the first time I've been through the possibility of layoffs in my 11+ years at Boeing. It is very sad to see peers and friends who will be leaving in about 2 months.

3. Abby got sick yesterday. A few weeks ago when we all had the stomach bug, Abby didn't have a very big 'case' of it. I guess she made up for that yesterday when she couldn't keep anything down for about 10 hours.

Now for some fun!

This week is going to be beautiful and I plan to get outside and enjoy it! I think a trip to the Park would do us all some good : ) Tomorrow is my grandma's 92nd birthday. Can you imagine living 92 years! We will go to Waterloo tomorrow to celebrate with her. It will be fun for the kids to see all of their cousins from my side of the family.

I realize I haven't posted any pictures here in a while. Maybe I can work on that this weekend too!!