Living without Listening

The good news is that only one of Hadley's ears is infected. We're back on track with the drops her ENT wants (over-the-counter clotrimazole; quite different than what the pediatrician's office recommends), and Hadley should have a healthy ear in a few days. The better news is that Hadley's other ear just needed to be cleaned (even though it was just done six weeks ago). The bad news is that her healthy ear is still sore from the debris. She couldn't tolerate her hearing aid yesterday, and today is just the same.

I'm trying to remember the last time Hadley was without both hearing aids for an extended period and the answer, I think , is never. This is a hearing, listening, speaking kid; she doesn't like to miss anything. The last day has been challenging and exhausting for her. Although she is an excellent (self taught) lip reader, it's tiring and she expends a lot of energy in the process. She crawled into bed early last night and was asleep within minutes.

Hadley woke up disappointed this morning that her ear still hurt so much (I took a peek with my otoscope; it appears that the skin is a little irritated from the wax that was removed yesterday). She misses her friends. She's annoyed that she completed two school projects early and now is absent on the day they are due ("They're going to think I stayed home because they weren't finished!"). She's bummed that our downstairs television doesn't have captioning that works, but doesn't want to go upstairs away from people.

Surprisingly, there hasn't been a single complaint yet this morning. Hadley's doing the best she can while we wait for the ENT office to open. While I'm not certain there's anything we can do other than give her ears some time to heal, it's worth a co-pay to have that confirmed by someone who actually went to medical school. (This is definitely one of those times when I wished Dan and I had made different grad school choices!)

In the meantime, we'll stock up on library books and do some math. You don't need optimal hearing to practice math facts!