My daughter has “significant hearing loss”

A couple of months ago my daughter started saying “what?” a lot. At first we thought she was being a smart ass (yes, they start as young as four) and then we thought she was just choosing to hear what she wanted to hear. And then, finally, we thought, “shit, maybe something is wrong.”

It took five weeks to get an appointment for a pediatric hearing test at a well-respected hospital near us. In that time my daughter’s hearing seemed to get better, so we thought maybe it was a fluke — or whatever was wrong had passed. In retrospect, her hearing didn’t get better, we just talked to her differently.

In the four and a half years I’ve been a parent I’ve been lucky, in that I haven’t had a lot of drama. My kids are generally well behaved, funny as hell, and have had no physical or learning delays. So today when I was sitting in a room watching my daughter not respond to beeps — my heart just sunk. And then, when the tester came in and told me that my daughter had significant hearing loss in one ear and minor loss in the other, I tried not to panic. My first question was “Okay, so what do I do next and is this something that we can fix?”

Although the tester was not an ENT, and not authorized to diagnose anything other than what she learned from the tests, she told me that this sort of thing can be common; kids get ear infections that never fully go away and fluid forms, blocking the ear drum from hearing properly (at least, that’s what I think she told me). If, in fact, this is the case, then antibiotics should clear it up… and if that doesn’t work they can put temporary tubes in her ears (also very common). I am hoping the medicine does the trick.

My biggest concern now is getting her into the right ENT. This is my kid we are talking about. I don’t want to go to the pediatric ENT down the block. I want the best of the best… but I’ve already been told by a couple of doctors that I’d have to wait until February to see them. Apparently good doctors are either in very high demand or they are golfing too much to actually see patients — or maybe some combination of the two.

Update: It turns out that my daughter’s hearing loss was, in fact, due to fluid in her ears (likely caused by an ear infection never completely clearing up). She took antibiotics for two weeks and aced her next hearing test. My lesson learned: If you can’t get an appointment with the doctor you want — have a different doctor call to help get you in. Also, always go with your gut!