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!

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!