Ear Update

After spending a couple of hours in the ER they could not get the jewel out of Olivia's ear and they told us to go to an ear nose and throat specialist because they have very small tools to work inside of ears with and they could get the jewel out. Monday the appointment was at 1:00 pm in Dr Martin's office and it should have been a few min with her knocked out and then bam done. Well once the doc took a look at her ears he said it looked like she had so much fluid behind her ear drum she should get tubes in her ears and given her history with bad ear infections that never go away they decided to remove her adenoids as well. So then they scheduled her to be operated on at the hospital at 4:30. They did all of the above and also removed the jewel and the doc came out and told us that based on what he saw of her ears in surgery she is probably more hard of hearing than we thought. Her left ear could be almost not functioning. So she will start a round of auditory tests soon. She was born deaf and then after a few surgeries we were told that as her ears clear out her hearing should improve. She speaks very well almost better than some of her peers so I thought it was getting better. Some times people are quick to label a child as special needs and give them a crutch and an excuse the rest of their lives. I am willing to accept her disability but I will not let her go out with out a fight. Allot of people have mentioned home school but I have very strong opinions about home school. So that is not an option. After we got home and I had time to think about it I felt better cause I know I can work with specialist and make a situation that will work for her and not have to fit into other peoples version of how they think I should do things. So often people need to put you in a box and they get defensive when you show signs of not fitting into their definition of your situation due to their own insecurities. Allot of people don't understand why I have not taught her sing language if I am fluent in it and that is because it would be too easy. I graduated from high school early and then taught at the school for the deaf. Some of the young deaf kids had siblings that were hearing and they were using sign language too often and not using their words to communicate. In other words they were not mastering the language they speak they were resorting to some thing easier. They were testing below average for their reading and writting skills because of it. Allot of moms teach their small children sign language. I am not sure why for the most part they have no education in cultural, social and mental aspects of being deaf but I guess they must think its cute or whatever. It is easier for your baby to sign a word, but thats the whole point. Its easy! They don't have to make the effort to form a word if they can just sign it to you. And since its not their primary language its setting them back from developing communication skills. I always told my babies if you want that then say "juice". Say it! I am thankful for my background with deaf people cause I also knew the deaf community wouldn't accept her if she could hear even a tiny bit. Its very hard to wrap your mind around but a group of completely paralyzed people don't relate to the guy that lost part of one leg in a car accident. To them he still has one working leg and can use the other one with a prosthetic. Same thing with deaf people. they don't even accept deaf people with cochlear implants. So my choice for Olivia was to be mainstream and talk fully and lip read and she is doing really well. I plan on spending the next few months working out what and how much we need to do for her but she would never have gotten this far if I let her play the victim so think what you will and watch her keep defying the odds! Who would have thought that her goofing off and putting something in her ear would lead us to such a big outcome. It was sobering and sad to hear the news about her hearing. But I had my cry fest and now its time to get to work.


This is the tiny little jewel that brought us to all of this.