Friday, May 27, 2016

Up next, ear tubes!

I took Arron to see a new specialist today at Seattle Children's, an otolaryngologist. (Commonly known as an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor.) Our eye Dr had mentioned a possible diagnosis that could explain some of Arron's various symptoms and that at some point we should have him evaluated for it. Of course the name of it escapes me now, 3 months later & somehow I didn't write it down anywhere. At any rate, we thought he was going to start walking any day, but as that didn't materialize, I decided to call & get an appointment & I'm glad I called when I did. There are only 2 or 3 OTOs that work with the craniofacial team and their schedules are BUSY! 



So anyway, he said the number of ear infections Arron had last winter would qualify him as a candidate for tubes. And, on inspection, he still has a lot of fluid behind the right eardrum and almost done behind the left. He said it's absolutely possible that it is impacting his balance. His torticollis also has him tilting right, which only further stacks the deck against him. So while he can't say for certain that it will help, he wouldn't be surprised if he started walking shortly after the tubes go in. I am anxiously awaiting the call from his scheduler. 

He also mentioned that he is 1 of 2 providers at Children's that can perform a procedure through the nose to fix Arron's tear ducts if they become an issue again. It's about a 2.5 hour surgery, completed by him and our opthalmologist as a team. He doesn't think it is necessary at this point, but wanted to put it on my radar as an option in the future, if needed. I believe it's called an endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy.