Wondering

[mapsedge]

My son is almost completely deaf now.  It's reversible, and indeed will be on Friday morning when the ENT puts in new tubes and cleans out the gunk behind his eardrums.  With each passing day he becomes more and more disconnected from his actions on the world, becoming harder to control because he simply can't hear.  In his frustration at not being able to understand us and his sister his behavior has turned negative, even violent. 

There are words he recognizes, I think more from how they feel in his head than by how they sound: mommy, daddy, Katie, Kent, Kevin*, and amusingly, chocolate milk.  Everything else is just noise.

He listens to the cd player with the volume turned up loud and his head against the speaker.

We have to augment our communication with him with pantomime.  To really talk to him, you have to speak into the trumpet of his ear, though you have to be careful not to breathe too much, or you'll lose him to giggles as the breath tickles his ear or neck.

Friday morning, though, he will have his ears cleaned out.  I am interested to see what will change when suddenly the world makes sounds again. 


* which ought to give something away, if you know us well.

Comments

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

The clinic is through St. Luke's and is AMAZING. When we had him in for tubes the first time, he didn't just wake up in recovery: he woke up in recovery being held by one of the nurses in a big easy chair. He's a little big for that now, but the level of care is astonishing.