Well check

Today I took Emma in to see her pediatrician for her 5-year old well-check. She weighed in at a whopping 39.5 pounds and ranked at 50th %. She ranked at 97th % for her height! Long and lean, the nurse said. They tested her eyes and she has 20/20 vision. They tested her hearing and there we had some troubles. They used a hand held machine that looks a lot like an ear thermometer that emits a series of high-pitched beeps that she is supposed to hear and raise her hand to indicate when she hears the beep. She tested her left ear several times, thinking she didn't understand the instructions, or that maybe the ear piece wasn't fitting right. She consistently missed 3 of beeps. The nurse left to exchange the ear piece and came back in to test the right ear. Same thing, she consistently missed the same 3 beeps with each testing. Then she rechecked the left ear with the same results. She then did a tympanogram to measure the movement of the eardrum, and it normally shows as a high arc on a line graph. Both of Emma's ears were a flat line. The doctor looked in her ears and said there was some fluid trapped in there, but there was no redness or infection, but she prescribed some antibiotics to clear anything up, just in case, before we see the audiologist and ENT doctor that we've been referred to. We have noticed sometimes that she doesn't repond when we talk to her, but have figured it was selective hearing. Although, even this morning at the doctor's office she had gone into the play area and still had her jacket on so I called to her to bring me her jacket and I had to call her name several different times before she responded to me. So we have seen some subtle hints that there could be a problem. The teachers at school didn't mention anything about hearing at her parent-teacher conference, so I'm assuming they haven't noticed any problems. We go to the audiologist and ENT doctor on March 13 to have her ears checked out. Emma has HUGE tonsils, but doesn't have problems with frequent strep throats, so the doctor hasn't been concerned about them. However, with them as big as they are, it's possible that her adenoids are also enlarged which could be related to her hearing problems, so we may have to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out in the near future. We'll have to wait and see what the doctor says. I'm quite sure they will have to come out. They are the size of large marbles in the back of her throat. Gage also has enlarged tonsils, so I may have to have him checked out as well, and maybe I'll luck out and they'll be offering a two-for-one special? HA! We also had to provide a urine sample to make sure she doesn't have a urinary tract infection. That was quite an intesting task. Emma didn't want to pee in the cup, and after much coaxing and promising to go to Barnes and Noble and to McDonald's for lunch, she reluctantly agreed. Let me just say I didn't know she had that much force when peeing, and me telling her to "pee hard" after a few trickles of urine initially came out, was a bad choice of words! I hope they mop the floors every night, because I'm quite sure I didn't get all of the splatters wiped up with the paper towel!!!!