Hi,
DD1 had glue ear and it was quite some time before I persauded my gp that she was having hearing problems and to refer her which meant her school work was affected (she's only 5 so it wasn't serious). She had grommits fitted and life really settled down for a good 6 months. Her sudden progress at school was noticed and she went from being clingy and very very whingy to happy, content and confident. The she had an ear infection which pushed both grommits out. It was like she changed over night going back to clingy, tearful and very very very moody!!! She can hardly hear anything at all and even in a quiet room when she's standing beside you you would have to raise your voice. At night when I sing to her I've taken to resting my chin near her ears so that she can sense the vibrations.
So.. Specialist wants to remove her adenoids this time round. My thoughts so far against this are:
- Not keen to remove parts of the body because I believe that they're there for something and I've seen too many instances of medical science getting it wrong to feel confident of everything that is recommended.
- Removing them does not guarantee that the problem will go away - but he does think she wont need as many years worth of operations
- Removal of adenoids is a bigger operation than simply inserting grommits
For:
- Removing them will probably reduce the number of operations she needs to go through and I'm keen to limit the amount of scaring that her ear drums will have to have because of grommits
- Its not merely the operation. We've had to wait a month (and that's with private insurance) for this operation and the entire family as well as dd1 has had to suffer this. Also its once again affecting her school work. I'm not keen to go through years worth of possibly 2 months in every 12 spent in this way.
What are other parents thinking about? If your child's had them removed what persauded you? If you decided to go with just grommits - why?