Marcus' Ears

It has been an interesting, worrisome and thought provoking couple of days. Yesterday morning I took Marcus to the doctor for his 9 month check up. I didnt really think anything of it. Right before I left I got my 9 month questionaire out of my files and filled it out. The questionaire has 5 different sections: communication, fine motor, gross motor, physical and Social. Each section has 6 questions that help you evaluate their development in each individual category. Everything seemed to be very normal except communication. Here are some examples of the questions that he failed...

1. Does your child say words like dada or gaga? (using constanants)

2. When you make a sound to your child, do they try and immitate the sound?

3. After playing pat-a-cake or hand clapping and then you ask your child to do the action without showing them what to do, can they do it by themself?

4. Does your child speak 3 or more words (they may not sound like words that you would say, but it is repetative each time they see something)

Those are the questions that I can remember.

So, after talking to the doctor about those issues, he decided to refer Marcus to get some hearing tests done. Today I took him down to the Speech and Hearing Center at UVRMC where he had 3 test done. The first one tested the nerves in the inner ear. His righ ear passed and his left ear failed. Then they put him in a room to see if he would find the sounds when they played them. He heard most of the sounds, but couldnt figure out what direction they were coming from. Then they did a tymphanogram which test the ear drum. That was flat in the left ear and curved in the right ear. So, the doctor decided by the testing that there is fluid behind his left ear drum.
That means that he has another ear infection! ARG! So we are headed to the Pediatricians office today. We will talk about getting tubes put in to solve the ear infections. Then in a couple of weeks when the ear infection clears, we will have all of the test redone to make sure that there is nothing permenantly done to his ears from all of the ear infections.
So, I have been very grateful for my perfect little son lately. I love him so much and I hope that we can figure out if anything is wrong. Hopefully the health of each of our family memebers with continue to escape problems.