Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Hearing test

Today we have confirmed hearing loss at 4000 Mhz.  Our audiologist, Lisa, did the hearing test that we had done in June/July?  and repeated it again today with a couple other pieces of equipment.  She checked and rechecked just as Courtney did yesterday and, yes, Adam has significant hearing loss in his right ear at 4000.  The good news- it's such a high range that it doesn't really have any impact on his everyday hearing.  He can hear quiet sounds, just not this frequency.  At one point, Adam said "That sounds just like the squeak in my ear!"  I think she was testing his left ear at that point and she said that it is pretty normal for the tinnitus to be the same frequency as the loss. Once the hearing comes back, the tinnitus goes away.  Interesting! I asked if she thought he would regain the hearing or if the tinnitus would go away but she said she didn't know.  The weird thing is that when tested using "the headband" which went behind his ears as opposed to in, he could hear fine.  She showed me on a graph how it dipped way down when he had the earplug headphones in his ears but how it stayed in line with the other frequencies with the head band.  Apparently this is not the norm. I think she said that the headband tests the function of the sensory organ and that it is not damaged.  If it's not damaged, then why the hearing loss?  Soo.. she has referred us to an ear doctor (Dr. Ryzenman) who may be able to give us an idea why and maybe do something to help regain hearing. Then we need to get his hearing tested periodically just to keep on eye (ear?) on it.

(PS - Jen - Dr. Willett was on the list of ENT's but she recommended Dr. Ryzenman because he specializes only in ears and she's had a lot of success with him. AND he's 5 minutes from our house).

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

In the neverending saga...

As you all know from my posts on Facebook, Adam has not been a happy camper going to school.  He seems to always have an excuse for the meltdown - today it was that he wanted another hug - but he never says that when he's hanging on me.  It's always after I pry him off of me and leave (or hide on the stairs listening).  I told him he needs to tell me so that I can give him the hug or kiss he needs to go to class but he seems to forget. Mrs. Tucker took him downstairs today and distracted him with a clock.  She told him Mommy would be back at 3:00 and set the clock to 1:00 and asked if was time for me to be there.  Adam knew it said 1:00.  They did that for a couple more minutes then he went back upstairs!   He was so happy with himself for calming down quickly today and said he won't cry at all tomorrow.  Let's hope!

Remember the squeaky dog toy incident?  Adam still complains of tinnitus and asked his speech therapist to test his ears.  She did a screening today and sure enough, he has hearing loss at the upper ranges in his right ear!  She tested at 25-30 decibels and tested again to be sure - he couldn't hear until 45 decibels. Sooo..we have an official hearing test with the audiologist tomorrow and can talk with her about the tinnitus.  Maybe she can give us an idea if the ear is healing, if he will eventually get that hearing back, if the tinnitus will go away completely, etc.  Fun, fun!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Sugar = BAD!

Today, Adam and I went over to Bumma and Pa's house for a quick visit.  Adam raided the "magic basket" and turned into a jerk.  Then he was good for a little while.  Then he snuck back to the "magic basket" and scarfed down a pixie stick right after having a popsicle.  It was time to go and as we were heading to the car, he started begging for some Smarties that were in my purse that he was supposed to save for later.  I told him he wasn't being very nice at Bumma and Pa's and that he had enough candy for the day, so NO, he couldn't have the Smarties.  As we're driving, he threw a shoe at me, then a sock hit the dashboard, the other one didn't make it past the middle storage thing. He screamed most of the way home and I had to just ignore him.  That's when he started spitting. Then he curled his toes up around the door handle.  He said he was going to open the door and climb into the front seat to get my purse and eat the Smarties (ya, know, while I'm driving! OK stunt man!).  Right before we got home, he called me "Stupid Mommy" and he said he was going to kick me in the face so he could grab my purse!  Oh my!! Finally home -  I grab my purse, get out of the car, and leave him strapped in while I bring up the garbage cans.  By the time I close the garage door, he has managed to get out of the car.  We go in the house, say a quick hi to Dave and then Adam heads up to his playroom, turns on his radio and starts playing - never mentioning the Smarties again.   Moral of the story?  The boy can't handle his sugar.

On a positive note, I went to Parent Orientation at his school tonight.  They have changed to a new "creative curriculum" but said it isn't much different from the play curriculum that they had been doing.  It sounded like it was maybe a bit more child led instead of strictly theme based. They no longer have a separate music class (they do music in the classroom everyday anyway) but a Spanish class instead.  So on Tuesdays they go to muscles class (gym) and Thursdays they go to Spanish class.  Recess on M/W.  Snack policy has been changed so that you can only bring in something from "the list" - even on birthdays.  Thank goodness because there were A LOT of cookies and donuts being passed out last year.   One of his teachers is Mrs. Allen who he had as a teacher in summer camp.  His classroom is in "the penthouse".   It's upstairs and is actually 2 rooms - one room with their cubbies, sink, and a bathroom; the other room has all the learning stations and tables.  They have class pets - 2 finches named Oscar & Felix.  They get to go on 4 field trips this year - 1 to either the apple orchard or pumpkin patch (they haven't decided yet), 1 to a library, 1 at the end of the year to the zoo, and one to be decided.  Graduation is on Wednesday May 8th and then they have a luau on the last day (Thursday May 9th).  This year there will be 16 kids in the class - 12 boys and 4 girls!!

Dave had just finished reading to Adam when I got home.  I told him all the things I learned tonight and he is FINALLY excited to go back to school! 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Just a bad day.

So here's the post-traumatic hair cut (I know you probably saw it on FB).

After lunch, we went over to the Worthington Mall after hearing they had a new play area for kids.  He ran around the tree house/slide 50 times!  He did well walking around the mall seeing if there was anything else new.  (We haven't been there since he quit piano lessons in December. It looks really nice!)

He said he was really tired so we headed home. He wanted to finish a puzzle that we started yesterday in Dave's office.  We brought it upstairs and then he decided it was too hard for him and wanted me to finish it.  While I was trying to work on it, he was running around harassing Olive - kicking and hitting her - not hard, but still....Then he started kicking a ball in the house.   I made him go up to his room again.  He came down when Dave was done with work and started kicking the ball again.  Dave told him to go outside.  He swung a little and played with Olive again until Olive got tired of being teased and she came in.  We heard him playing with one of the dogs squeaky toys and screaming along with it but didn't think much of it.  He came in for dinner and said he had a high pitched sound in his ear.  He had the toy RIGHT in his ear when he was squeaking it..and it wasn't just a couple of times.  GAH!!  You would have thought that it would have hurt and he would have stopped but noooo (the screaming was because he likes to scream, not because it hurt).  We told him about the damage it could do and how he should never do something like that again.  We told him to tell is when the ringing stops since it was still going on at bedtime.  Hopefully he didn't cause any permanent damage!

Free haircut

JCPenny was offering free back-to-school haircuts so I signed Adam up.  It was today at 11:30.  He always says he hates haircuts and that cutting his hair hurts. He usually ends up being just fine for the cut.  I explained that JCP had better tools and that he'd be fine.  He sat in the waiting area watching Madagascar but eventually sat under a chair to hide.  The hairdresser finally came out and I had to pull him out from under the chair and we talked about how we just shave him so it's quick and easy.  We get to the chair and Adam starts wiggling around and every time she tries to put the cool monster cape thing on him, he bats it away.  I have to restrain his arms to get the cape on and continue holding them and tell him to be a statue to get the haircut started.  I tried to distract him with a game that wouldn't load in time on my phone.  He catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and starts SCREAMING!!  He hops out of the chair but she still needs to even up the sides and back.  I am trying to restrain him in the chair and have to keep putting my hand over his mouth because he keeps SCREAMING.  Oh. My. GOSH!  Then he's complaining because it's itchy but he won't stay still or quiet enough to wipe all the hair off.  I pick him up and he SCREAMS all the way out because he HATES his hair!  Everyone is staring!  I want to give the poor girl that cut his hair some money but Adam throws off his shoes and goes running through JCP! And he's screaming about hating his hair and haircuts.  I get his shoes back on, carry him back to the salon and wait behind some old lady who's picking through her change purse...screw it...throw some money to the lady behind the counter and tell her to please give it to the lady who cut his hair for her patience.  Adam walks out of the mall quietly under the assumption that he's going to get to play the game I downloaded when we get back to the car.  Ummm...nope!  Bad boys don't get fun things.  So I get to spend the car ride home with him screaming at me to give him my phone.  I keep saying no.  He said he's going to kick me in the head 160 times!  WTF?  We get home and he runs upstairs to where Dave is still in bed and locks the door, screaming that he doesn't want to spend the day in his room. I unlock it and explain to Dave what happened.  He tries to talk to Adam and Adam is just being crazy.  Adam says some very unpleasant things that I don't wish to repeat here.  He gets a Daddy spanking and sent to his room.  All over a damn free haircut.  Guess we'll stick to Cookie Cutters....

Monday, August 13, 2012

The first step...

is admitting you have a problem.  After a long weekend with Dave out of town and Adam basically driving me crazy,  I finally called Adam's pediatrician to get started on seeing whether or not he is ADD/ADHD.  They will be mailing us some Vanderbilt Assessment forms that Dave and I each have to fill out and then his teachers will have to fill out and we'll go from there. 

Thursday, July 12, 2012

First speech therapy

Adam had his first speech therapy session on Tuesday.  I watched him through the 2 -way mirror and he was having a lot of fun and was cracking up his therapist Courtney.  They worked on L's this week.  Unfortunately we will be taking the next 2 weeks off because I had forgotten Adam has camp in the morning. We were given a bunch of homework to keep him busy.  I had brought a couple of pictures of Adam pre-tongue reduction just so she had an idea where he started.  It was nice to hear that she actually did some research and looked up BWS and hemi!  The 30 minutes flew by and I don't think Adam wanted to leave.  He was having too much fun playing games with Courtney.  I am soo glad he liked it!

This week was also another round of Sporties for Shorties.  Adam has kind of attached himself to a little guy named Caleb but not in the crazy obsessive way he did with Lucy last time.  There are 2 other boys in the class that can't keep their hands to themselves.  Sometimes they push Adam around saying he cut in line (which he didn't), tickle him, poke at him to annoy him, push him as he's running for the ball, and tackle him as he's sitting like the coach asked them to.  Adam has been doing so well listening and then they go and bug him!  At one point today I couldn't take it anymore.  I got up, walked through all the kids, and told the 2 to keep their hands to themselves.  It worked for a little while until one took a basketball and threw it at Adam's head.  He also threw it another kid's face.  There are 3 coaches and somehow they all missed it.  Annoying!