can you hear me now?!?!...

Finally, after 3 years of not listening to me, or what I thought was him "ignoring" me, we find out that Corbin failed his hearing test at Vanderbilt last week. He has had fluid hanging out in his ears for 3 years now, which has been causing all the ear infections and febrile seizures. They put these devices on him to bypass the fluid that's in his ears, to see if he has permanently damaged his hearing. Luckily, there is no hearing damage, he just hears like he is under water. the devices they put on him, looked like those hearing aides that are implanted behind the ear. Its a bummer I didn't get to go due to Strep Throat, but Allen did get a couple of pictures. But they may be too small to see.

After they checked his ears, they moved on to the Tonsils and Adenoids.  So apparently they measure the size of your Tonsils from 1-4.  A 1 being your Tonsils being very small, and a 4 being so enlarged that they are touching, and the airway being completely obstructed. Corbin's measured out at a 3 1/2. They are pushing up on his Adenoids, which are pushing on the tubes in his ears, which also makes it complicated for him to hear. We were told by his speech therapist that his tonsils are whats making it difficult for him to speak, which is somewhat true, but the hearing is the main concern.

So February 21, 2012, say special prayers for my little fellow. He will be going to Vanderbilt to undergo surgery. They are going to cut a hole in his eardrums, drain the fluid from his ears, leave the drains in, which will eventually fall out on their own, then they will put tubes in. But before they can do all that, they are going to remove his tonsils and adenoids. After that he will be admitted to the PICU to recover and hopefully if all goes well and he is able to eat and drink and use the bathroom through out the night, he can go home the next day. So, after all this Corbin can run again, without getting out of breathe, sleep with out snoring, HEAR NORMALLY, and speak without people having to ask me what he said.

We also told them about his breathing at night. He tends to stop breathing, and then 1-3 seconds later he lets out a LOUD noise, and gasps for air. So he more than likely has sleep apnea, which might be corrected after the tonsils come out, so after all is said and done, he has to go back for a sleep study, to see about a C-PAP machine at night. (LETS HOPE NOT!) I wonder if it has anything to do with him being a preemie? Cause he did come home on an apnea monitor when he was a baby.

Sorry this blog was a little long!

Erin