When Cade was two years I took him to the doctors for his 2 year old wellness check. During the visit the doctor asked me if he spoke 50 words. I said, 50 words? Definitely not 50 words. I wasn't even sure how many words he said...what could I count as a word? The few things he did say were less than a word and more of a sound that kind of seemed like a word. The doctor told me that if he didn't start talking more soon that I should refer him for speech. He just turned two, I thought. Im sure he will catch up.
Another year went by. I kept worrying. Why is he behind? What did I do wrong? Maybe I didn't talk to him enough when he was a baby...maybe something happened when he was born. He was so big when he was born and came out limp. Could that have caused the problem?
One day we were playing at the park and I could hear the other kids his age talking and I could see how apparent the difference was. I could see how his speech could start interfering with his relationships with his peers.
He was close to three now. I talked to the doctor and said I wanted to refer him to speech. The whole process was pretty smooth and straight forward once I got it started. The phycologist got a hold of me and I took him to her office to be tested. I stayed with him while she asked him questions and did puzzles. One thing I remember he had a hard time doing at all was asking questions and even answering questions. I worried maybe he had a learning disability. When she came back with the results it said he was average/above average intelligence, I was so relieved! Oh good. That rules that out.
It was such a mystery to me. What is wrong and why is this happening? I also started noticing that he was always breathing through his mouth and had dried cracked lips. It was so sad. It made me so sad too that he always seemed to have a plugged up nose. He would snore so loudly and breathe so loudly at night. He sounded like an old man.
When he talked it sounded kind of like a deaf person talking. Thats how it sounded to me. I felt like I needed to keep pushing forward for answers. It wasn't that his doctors didn't care but I definitely felt the responsibility to fix this problem. I had to solve this one and put the pieces together.
Another part of finally getting him speech therapy was getting a hearing test. When he was a newborn he had a hearing test and he past it so I didn't think much of getting another one. But when we went to his hearing test they told me he did have hearing loss. I was very surprised. It wasn't huge but he did have it and she showed me how the line should arch up but it only came up a little above the straight line.
When I went back to the doctors I told him what she said. He looked in his ears and said his ears looked good and some fluid but nothing to really worry about. He told me to give him allergy medicine and it should help. It was suppose to clear up any fluid in his ears. So we did that for almost a year I think. I didn't see a big difference. His talking didn't really improve. He still breathed through his mouth and always seemed plugged up. How long are we going to be giving this to him? I didn't like the idea of giving him medicine everyday. At some point we even went back into the doctors and I pushed for another test and again the line was kind of flat line and didnt arch high like it should.
I requested a referral to an ear throat nose specialist. It was very disappointing. He didnt really seem to have more info to help us and again said yeah theres some fluid in his ears and it could be his adenoids but we would have to put a camera up his nose and he wont like that. He wasnt a very good doctor and it was very frustrating.
Finally when we came here to Alabama I had had it. I wanted him to see a real specialist that was actually going to care! So we went to a doctor and I told him my worries and what he was experiencing. He looked at him and suggested tubes in his ears, adenoids, and tonsils out. He seemed to really care and want to help. He said that for kids like him it is like hearing underwater. I felt hope that maybe this was our answer.
I was so nervous the day he had his surgery. I knew it was going to be a hard recovery. I know throat surgery isn't fun. I just hoped that it was going to be worth it and they would take care of my baby. Brice took him in because he had to be there so early and I would come after he came out of surgery. He would take Levi and Ryan and I would stay with Cade. It was so hard to not go with him. When I finally came to see him I wanted to just hold him and love him...He didn't talk just pointed to his throat and opened his mouth big. I knew he felt like something was all in his throat. I looked in and it was black way back there. It was so sad. He didn't seem in pain. He was out of it a little but he ate his ice cream and popsicles. At some point I went around the corner and said Cade can you hear me? And he said yeah and kind of laugh a little. We did that a few times. It really seemed like something was different. Like the first time he could hear that way. I was hopeful at least that was true!! Then he started breathing really heavily through his nose as he sat completely still, breathing in and out, like the feeling of that much air through his nose was a whole new experience!
The doctor said he had some fluid in his ears but his adenoids were huge. They were so big they were almost completely blocking his nasal passage. I knew it! Something was not normal! Poor Cade. We later learned that adenoids can put pressure on the ear canal and cause hearing problems.
The next few days were completely miserable for him. I felt so bad. It was heartbreaking. He had to take the strong medicine every 4 hours..through the night...and he hated it. He wouldnt take his medicine..and if he wouldnt take his medicine he wouldnt eat...he just sat there drooling because he didnt want to swallow. We had to just force him and I hated to do it but he couldnt be reasoned with. There were many times I put the medicine in apple sauce just enough we wouldnt have him eat too much but that it kind of helped mask the taste. I would put on a show and persuade/beg him to take a bite...30-40 minutes later at 2-3 in the morning he would finally be done. Miserable.
Lots of stories I could tell about that time but that might be for another time. Slowly he got better. And we started seeing improvement pretty quickly. Within a month we could see he had improved on his own and our family could see too. They started commenting that he was doing so much better with his talking. They could understand more of what he was saying on face time as the months went on. It was so encouraging to hear them say that. As soon as he hit the 2 week mark after the surgery he stopped breathing through his mouth and sleeps without a sound now!! Just hearing him breathe at night so normally makes it all worth it!
It was been about 7 months now and as I look back it is night and day difference. He talks so much more. He sleeps without a sound. He is still in speech once a week at his preschool and has been doing that for a year. He is working on articulation, specific sounds, and simple sentences.
We are still plugging along this journey and hope he can be all caught up soon!
Love,
Em
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete