The Earwax Episode

Today was a busy day. I took Mateo to the doctor at 8:30 and then rushed him over to daycare just in time for my first class to start. I skipped my prep hour and walked into school with no time to spare as my students were already in their seats waiting to start class. Then after school I let my last class out a minute early so I could buzz out of school to pick up Mateo and take him to the elementary school so Mateo could get the hearing in his right ear tested. Good news! His hearing is fine...

Back up two weeks ago --I took Mateo to ECFE preschool screening and discovered he had almost no hearing in his right ear. I had a feeling it was a wax problem because of a history of waxy ear problems. We scheduled another hearing test in two weeks. I went home and covered up Mateo's good ear, the left one. Lo and behold, he couldn't hear anything that I was saying with his right ear. I put Debrox in his ear that night and the next morning. By the next day, I could already tell he could hear better. Since I figured it was a wax problem, I made an appt. to have his ear cleaned out. So, one week after his failed hearing test, he went in for the cleaning. The nurse worked at it for a while, but not much wax came out. The doctor told me I would have to continue the Debrox for another week in hopes that it would help dry out the wax. So another appt. needed to be made. Seeing as how I had already scheduled the second hearing test, but I needed to maximize the amount of time getting the drops in, I was fortunate to be able to schedule his second ear cleaning the same day as his hearing test in hopes that he would be able to take the test with a wax-free ear.

Good thing everything is close together in a small town because my time frame for everything was pretty tight. I was hoping the 8:30 doctor's appt. wouldn't go too long because I didn't plan to have a sub for my second hour which starts at 9:23. We didn't get in to the doctor until after 8:40 and then the doctor and nurse worked on shooting water in his ear for about 25 minutes. Just as Mateo was at the end of his rope, and I was nervous about the time, a bunch of wax finally came gushing out! Hallelujah! I was beginning to envision weekly visits in ear cleaning attempts. So we hustled out of the doctor's office, I dropped off Mateo, walked into my room at 9:20. Perfect timing! And as you know, from the beginning of this blog, the story has a happy ending.

This evening when I asked Mateo if he could hear better, he looked up and said very loudly, "Yes!" Poor guy. I wonder how long he was deaf in one ear!