Medical Update

Most people don't have to title a weblog post with the word "medical". But hey! We're not most people! Haley seems to be doing well. We have now gone nearly three years without a shunt revision. Not bad considering we were one a year there for a while. She's taken the year off from formal schooling (her birthday was just a couple of days before the kindergarten cutoff), and we just felt better about keeping her home one more year. However, Kelsee has done a good job of helping Haley stay busy. They do workbooks, crafts, "field trips", etc. Haley has started weekly gymnastics with a really good instructor. It's like physical therapy, just cheaper. She has been having some behavior difficulties, as well as ongoing headaches. She had a couple of seizure-like episodes over the summer, and is being monitored by a neurologist and a developmental pediatrician. She just recently began taking a new medication and we've seen a definite improvement in her behavior. Kelsee is trudging along. She having to deal with the fact that she may have seen all the improvement there is in her mobility and issues with her back and legs. She still experiences consistent numbness, frequent tingling, and decreased mobility. Just like Haley, she gets tired quickly during the day. But, of course, she refused to slow down. I've been dealing with a new medical issue--hearing loss. Actually, I've had hearing loss for a while; however, it was just easier to chalk it up to "selective hearing". Anyway, it had gotten bad enough that I was beginning to get frustrated having to ask everyone to repeat themselves and feeling like I was missing things. Kelsee was just about at wits end with me, and Haley had begun to emphasis how she wished I could hear better. Anyway, I finally went to the ENT, and here's what transpired in a nutshell:

1. Went to ENT. Had hearing test, met with doctor, had tubes put in my ears. (Yes, they do that with adults! Leave me alone.) Anyway, the test showed potential conductive hearing loss (seen as mild in the lower tones), which can often be eliminated with tubes. Though in this case, I feel like they put tubes in to meet their procedure quota.
2. Right ear (my better ear) got an infection. Spent a month, three antibotics, and lots of money trying to zap it.
3. Infection cleared up, but hearing didn't.
4. Went back to ENT. Had hearing test again which now showed mild hearing loss in the higher tones as well as the lower tones. It was worse in my right ear (formerly known as my better ear) than my left, but both showed mild impairment. Audiologist recommended hearing aids; ENT recommended meeting with their hearing guru. Whatever.
5. Hearing aids cost from $1000-3000 each, and aren't covered by insurance. Isn't that lovely?
6. Met with audiologist to discuss hearing aids. Left audiologist without hearing aids.
7. Will instead carry cone shaped hearing device and say, "Eh???" whenever anyone talks to me.
8. Will blame my "selective listening" on my mild neural-whatever hearing loss.

They say you are only as old as you feel. I'll be celebrating my 85th birthday next year. You are all welcome to attend.