Huh?

Fifteen months ago, "Huh?" was practically every other word out of Hannah's mouth. She had fluid on her ears that wouldn't drain and she ended up getting tubes. We couldn't tell a noticeable difference at first, but "Huh?" definitely disappeared from her vocabulary (thank goodness!).

We saw the ENT back in November and the tubes were still in but on their way out. He said to come back for a check in April. I completely forgot about that - they don't do reminder phone calls! However, Pete and I have both noticed Hannah saying "Huh?" a lot in the last few weeks. Now that her vocabulary is a bit more extensive, she also says, "What did you say?" So, last week I made her an ENT appointment.

We saw the doctor on Monday afternoon, and I was the one saying "Huh?" He looked at her ears and said that the tubes were gone. They tried to give Hannah a hearing test - key word: TRIED! She either A) wasn't in the mood and chose not to comply; B) didn't understand exactly what to do; or C) couldn't hear the instructions. Though the answer could be any of the aforementioned choices or a combination of all, I tend to lean toward choice A - it's a Hannah thing! Anyway, they did the little test to see if there was fluid in her ears and the test showed fluid. The doc was even a little surprised. He looked at her ears again and gave me the game plan. She needs a hearing test at Children's Hospital (she'll have to be a little sedated - whatever that means); if the test shows hearing loss due to fluid, we're doing tubes again.

This would be the point where I found myself saying, "Huh?" I knew something might be going on with her ears, but I was thinking maybe an antibiotic or something to clear the fluid and a re-check - not let's sedate her for a hearing test and consider tubes again - YUCK! This wasn't in the plan for this summer. I have a feeling there will be many more unplanned events as the summer progresses. I'll update when I know more about her upcoming test; they haven't called me back with a date and time yet.