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.

Last Friday was probably one of the worst days of our life with kids. Michelle's update was accurate and factual, and left out all the squishy stuff...my reaction, in other words. I haven't written about it...needed to put some space between that day and me.

It should be noted before we go on that the boy is doing much better. The ITP responded to the treatment, his platelet count more than doubled overnight, and there's hope that we're done with this round of Jami's Amazing Medical Mysteries.

Onward.

( Really emotional stuff snipped... )