Hearing test

I took Zadie to get a hearing test on Friday.  Her ENT at CHOP wanted it done, and rather than trekking all the way to Philadelphia, we were able to visit their specialty center in Princeton.  

The audiologist checked the placement of Zadie's ear tubes first.  The left one was in place and unblocked.  She could see the right one in her ear, but it's either blocked or not in place.  Therefore, she has some hearing loss in that ear (which is hopefully temporary).  

I talked to the ENT's office, and we are going to try to unblock the tube by dropping hydrogen peroxide into her ear 2-3 times a day for up to a week (or if she starts showing signs of pain, we will stop sooner).  Once we are done with that, we will be dropping ofloxacin drops in her ear for 5 days.  Hopefully this will unblock the tube.  We are seeing the ENT in June anyway, so by then, he'll be able to look in her ear and see what needs to be done.  

In other news, Zadie is doing great wearing her Passy Muir valve.  She wears it all day while she's awake (we take it off for naptime) and she's even building up the time that she wears a cap (which completely blocks the trach and forces her to breathe only through her mouth and nose.)  Since she's been wearing the Passy Muir so much, she's been vocalizing a lot, and is really building up her vocabulary!  I'm hoping that by the time we see the ENT in June, she is wearing the cap all day and we can schedule a sleep study to see if we can get rid of the trach!