Christmas Songs at School

Christmas party at school

Here is a video of Adam's class singing some Christmas songs.  Adam's lips are bright red from a chocolate and red sprinkled covered pretzel.

 

 

 

"Rudolph" Lego that he made without any directions

Olive right before she fell off the couch the other night.

5 yr check-up

Adam had his 5 year check-up today.  I brought in my assessment forms that his 2 teachers from school, his speech teacher, and Dave & I filled out.  Apparently he is pretty good at school. The only problems they have are him occasionally disrupting class and sometimes leaving his seat.  At speech, he never sits down but he gets his work done.  Based on their reports - no big deal.  Based on Dave and my reports, Dr. Niland would classify him as ADHD.  BUT - since it isn't across the board for everyone, she suggested going to counseling. Adam did display a lot of his "best" behaviors for Dr. Niland.  She said something to the extent of "this is a little more active than normal".  As I was trying to talk to her, he kept trying to jump off the exam table into my arms.  When I moved away, he started yelling at me and threatening to jump.  (Actually, I think he said I'm going to f-ing jump.  I told her how he has been into the f-bomb lately). She said, "Go ahead! It's only a 2 foot drop and if you get hurt, I'm a doctor!"  He jumped and was fine.  Then he stripped naked and she told me to ignore him because it was just attention seeking behavior.  Then he started to hit me.  At one point I was holding him trying to just get him to be quiet so I could hear Dr. Niland and he unzipped my sweater (I had a t-shirt under it) and he started kissing my boobs!  WTF?  So...she got to see a lot which I was actually grateful for.  She doesn't start discussing meds this young so we have a list of counselors to choose from.  Fun!

Another F-  story:  Yesterday, Adam and I were playing Shoots and Ladders.  After one of his turns he quietly said, "I really wanted to say freaking fucks."  I said, "WHAT?"  thinking I misunderstood.  He said it again, "I really wanted to say freaking fucks, but I didn't."  Well, Buddy, you just said it twice.  Maybe you should just keep it in your head next time.  I'm telling you, we do not say that word very often around here! 

Disney

We had a fun time at Disney last week.  I'm slowly weeding through the copious amounts of pictures and it's making me tired all over again.  The Magic Kingdom was open until 1 am every night but Friday (midnight) and Adam stayed up until at least 1:00 pretty much every night.  He was NOT happy to have to leave. As we were packing up our stuff Saturday morning, he said "I hate you Fucks!"  I had to turn around really fast so he couldn't see me stifle a laugh.   Thankfully Dave kept it together and gave him a stern talking to.  More on the trip later...

The Ear Doctor

Yesterday I took Adam to the ear doctor to see if there was anything we can do about his hearing loss.  The appointment started off with another hearing test.  When the audiologist finished, she said that the loss at 4000Hz was still there.  (Adam had said that the ringing had gone away almost completely so I was hoping the loss had too).  She said that Columbus Speech and Hearing had thought the loss was conductive (which would have meant there was some kind of blockage or something more physical causing the problem) which didn't make sense with his history of being noise induced.  I said that is why we were there because Lisa (the audiologist at CSH) said things seemed kind of weird.  Well, after doing her couple of tests, this audiologist said that it was sensory - meaning nerve damage and most likely permanent.  Great! 

We had to wait a little bit before seeing Dr. Ryzeman.  That gave Adam enough time to jump all of the couch and play with the chair that goes up and down in the exam room and just get crazy!  Once the Dr. came in, Adam started freaking out and putting his hands over his ears and wiggling around.  I had to restrain him so the Dr. could check his ears and heart.  Then I handed over my phone so the Dr. could talk to me with out a bunch of whining in the background.  He basically said that if we had come in soon after the noise exposure, he could have given Adam some steroids that would have stopped some of the inflammation that caused the damage.  Being nearly 2 months out, steroids wouldn't do anything now.  There's nothing that can be done for it.  His ear might continue to heal on it's own but it would be slow and could take a year. We are to follow up with our audiologist in 6 months and a year to keep an eye on it.  As for the tinnitus - Adam will just have to habituate to it.  He already has to an extent since he said he doesn't really hear it anymore at home but could hear it in the super quiet hearing test booth. 

Thankfully, the loss is only at 4000Hz and not the whole spectrum so there's no need to worry about hearing aids or anything like that.  We feel a little stupid for not taking him to the dr. right after but we both figured it would be like when you go to a concert and the ringing goes away shortly after.   Live and learn, I guess.

Smart Kid!

A couple of weeks ago, Adam got to spend the night over at Aunt Brelle and Uncle Stefan's house while I got to spend the evening at my 20th high school reunion.  As I was unpacking his backpack, I found a rock (well, actually I wasn't sure what it was at first because it didn't look like your usual rock).  I asked Adam if someone had given it to him.  He said, no, that he snuck it into his backpack!  I told him that that was stealing and we had to tell Aunt Brelle and find out (what and) whose it was.  I sent Brelle a picture and asked if it was something important because from Adam's initial description, it sounded like it was from a warmer or something. I later got out of him where he found it and Brelle figured out that it was part of Evan's rock collection.  Adam asked if he could keep it.  I said, no - you stole that - but asked anyway because you never know, ya know?  Nope- Evan wanted it back.  I was going to bring it to the going away party for Alex but had put it out of Adam's view (and mine) so I forgot it...and kept forgetting it.  That is, until I got a reminder from Stefan last night. So I put it in my purse and got out a card for Adam to write an apology for his thieving ways.

This morning I told Adam we needed to drop off the rock and he should write that he's sorry.  I left the card on the table and went upstairs to go get dressed, thinking Adam would just eat some breakfast.   When I came back down, Adam was writing in the card.  I was all like, "Nooo!  Waaaiit!"  and then I looked at what he had done.  He had run upstairs and grabbed the "SORRY!" board game  and wrote SORRY all fancy in the card!!  How smart was that?!! 

The picture he drew was kind of funny.  It started off as his usual stick figurish guy.  Then he added big circle hands and feet with 5 fingers/toes each and some hair.  He wanted to add clothes because it was chilly out so he colored on a long sleeve shirt and pants.  Then he covered the big feet with some big brown shoes and the hair with a big blue hat.  That's probably the first fully clothed guy he's drawn!  Usually he just draws a belly-button.  Ha ha!

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).

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!