Speech and Sound

Yesterday Teagin and I both went to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist.  I went to have my ear that was infected checked due to some hearing loss I’ve had.  Teagin had her tongue looked at. 

It seems my hearing in my left ear has been affected.  They gave me a hearing test and it came back normal.  In my right ear, it came back above normal.  According to the doctor, many people would love to have my ability to hear as well as I do.  So I have lost some hearing due to the infection.  I should say, due to the fluid that’s still present.  I’m hoping that will correct itself when allergy season is over.  He also felt that was the cause.  I hope I get my hearing back.  It’s really annoying to not hear as well as I used to!

As for Teagin, I had mentioned in an earlier post that we felt she had Ankyloglossia which is also known as tongue tied.  Our family doctor had examined her and confirmed that she is tongue tied.  What we didn’t agree with was how to treat it.  He felt that she could get by with it either stretching or tearing.  That was almost a month and a half ago.  I didn’t agree with this.  And lately, I’ve noticed she’s been having some issues.  For instance, she’s been choking on Gerber Puffs, are a Cheerio type product, with flavors such as banana and sweet potato, geared towards babies.  We’ve found that she doesn’t have the ability to manipulate her tongue around the food to prevent the choking.  The doctor told me that she’d most likely need to have therapy to teach her to eat solid foods if we left the tongue untreated.  She’d also need speech therapy.  So, because of the eating issue, she definitely needs to have it, the lingual frenulum clipped (for those of you who don’t want to Google the term, it’s the piece of skin attaching the underside of the tongue to the bottom of the mouth).  If done fairly early on in life (like in the first 4 months), it’s a simple office procedure.  For children older, it means surgery.  What could have been a simple office procedure is now major surgery simply because she’ll need general anesthesia.  She won’t be under long, only 10 minutes or so, but she’ll still be put under.  She’ll need a couple of stitches too. 

Who’s this going to be harder for?  Teagin or her mommy and daddy?  I’m betting on mommy and daddy.  She’ll most likely not remember this.  Which makes me happy.

I know we need to have it done.  I really don’t want to pay someone to tell us that we need to have the procedure. 

So, next Monday, before most people even go to work, Teagin will be experiencing her first surgery.  Hopefully, she won’t need another one….ever!