Glue ear trials and tribulations

March 4, 2005

We have discovered that Oliver has glue ear in both ears this explains a lot of his behaviour over the last few weeks or months. This means a lot of the time I thought he was ignoring me, but he couldn’t actually hear. Once I had figured this out, I started to speak to him face to face and have started using sign language again. I have to tap him on the shoulder and get him to look at me when I want to talk to him.

He does this to me also, if my back is turned and he wants to tell me something, generally I respond even if not looking at him but he will come over to me, and take my face in his hands and turn me to look at him. He will repeat his question and watch my mouth for a response, when I have responded he is happy and toddles off again. All this has helped hugely, he is much happier and although he can’t really understand or say new words, he has my attention and understanding in a positive way. I feel hugely guilty for the way I have been handling him during all this, he was just in pain and really couldn’t hear me. He also had an ear infection, by the end of the antibiotics course he was jumping around and not waking up screaming from sleeps.

Merille came to visit for four days last month (11-14th Feb) and it was during that time that he was finishing the antibiotics and nose drops. Merille as usual was a fount of knowledge and help, just as she was when she visited us in NZ. I was able to really have good chats with her and get lots of pointers of what to do. Hugely grateful to her.

I commented to her when we were leaving sa that I was very lucky to have a cousin that was such a good friend, she said in return that we were good friends and just happened to be cousins. That described our relationship, that we have been corresponding since we were 10 is testament to this.

We now have to tackle the glue-ear the doctor doesn’t seem to be too bothered about it, believing the wax will naturally make its way out but the infection needed to be cleared up with antibiotics in the mean time.

I had a coffee morning here last month (11th Feb) for In Touch mums. A woman who lives in our suburb, Vera, came and we talked about the glue ear thing. It seems to be such a common complaint amongst small children and the general course of action seems to be grommets. When I asked the doctor about this he dismissed it as unnecessary. Rachel’s little one Jamie has had grommets in lately and Yvette’s son Jake has also had grommets in. Another little fellow at mums and tots has had them in recently also.

Vera mentioned that her husband was an ENT specialist (or KNO in Holland) and gave me his number to call and see him directly. She said I did not need a doctor referral. What a relief but I really need to do it before we leave for NZ, the cabin pressure will burst his eardrums.

I also read in a toddler magazine that Les had sent over an article about ear infections and glue ear and what you can do about it. It mentioned Osteopathy as a good option for helping to clear out the eustacian tubes, Les asked if I wanted to make an appt for our osteo in Wellington. I wondered if it was this good I should take him while still here and have made an appointment for a local Osteo next week also (at a whopping $250NZ). Anything to make him comfortable on the flight I will gladly do, I hate seeing him in pain and he is really difficult to handle also.
So with time really running out, I called the specialist and managed to see him last Thursday at Ijselland Hospital, Elizabeth looked after Benjamin for me so I could concentrate on Oliver. He said that yes it was glue ear and based on my info about his repeated failed ear pressure tests in NZ and a failed ear pressure test with him also, the only solution was to have grommets in and we couldn’t really fly without it happening. I was relieved to hear that he would do the procedure on Monday morning.