Kateri

Just to catch everone up on Kateri's ear appointments I thought I'd post some info here. I just went today to pick up the records from her first test so I can take them to her appointment at Children's Hospital next month. So I got to read the doctor's notes as well. They should just give you a copy as a standard practice. Then you wouldn't have to go back and drag four kids with you to sign a form that gives permission to realease the records to yourself. I would have just faxed it but the machine is out of ink.

Anyway, I took her in last month after expressing some concerns with her speech with our regular doctor. I asked for a referral to have her hearing tested so DR. Josh gave me a name to call. The Otolaryngologist- that would be a great Scrabble word-wrote in her report that Kateri was a pleasant, well-developed, well-nourished, alert, oriented, and conversant 4 year old. I was very releived. She also asked if I'd taken her in for speech evaluation at the local school district. I'm not sure why I find that so irritating but I did.

Then they did the hearing test and discovered she has mixed hearing loss in her right ear. Her speech reception threshold level for her left ear was 10- which is normal- and her right ear was 40, which puts her in the moderate hearing loss range. They called it mixed hearing loss. I am not sure exactly what that means. That it is mechanical as well as something else that I forgot. So they referred her to Children's. She got tired of the tests- it was 2 hrs long-so hopefully they won't have to repeat all of it at Children's. I don't know how it translates to what/how she actually hears. I have to say I felt a little vindicated when reviewing the test with the doctor. She mentioned they may want to prescribe a hearing aid for that ear.

It has made me mor conscious of how I talk to Kateri. I was whispering to her in Liturgy to do something and then realized I kept talking into her right ear. Not that that is the reason for all the delays to do as she is asked but it could be a contributing factor. I'll update after her next appointment on Nov 12th.



Kateri thought it would be funny to wear Pippin's PJ's . So I put hers on him. They thought it was pretty funny.
Sometimes I wondered if it was just hard to hear through all that hair.

Last night she was telling Shane how she wants to go to Hatteras again and to go to the "hairport" to go on a "hairplane". I think her head could be a "hairport."