DD had her follow up today. Last time she had glue ear, moderate hearing loss and a charming ear infection. There were two audiologists last time, let's call them Ms Great and Mr Rubbish. I had a fair amount of trouble understanding Mr Rubbish and Ms Great spent a lot of our appointment correcting him and his technique. So I was a bit disappointed to see he was the only audiologist this time, with an assistant to help engage DD during the tests.
Anyway, he was actually a lot better this time, but I walked in there knowing that DD can hear much better right now than she could eight weeks ago because she hasn't had an ear infection, a cold or tonsillitis since then. She does however have them regularly and my major concern is that we do not know how her hearing fluctuates and how much she has ears full of fluid. So I wasn't surprised when she did much better on the tests this time, or when the timpanogram showed a much better result for both ears. The fact that she has suddenly started following directions, using three word sentences and making verbal requests in the same eight week period sort of tipped me off 
.
I explained that my concerns about whether her hearing fluctuates quite clearly I thought, and basically got told that it was improving and her hearing wasn't bad enough to interfere with speech development. Well not now it isn't. But what about previously or next time she gets a cold or tonsillitis? Because she still has a hearing loss in one ear, he said that we could come back in four months. Which is better than go away and never come back, but... So I was wondering about taking her to a private audiologist/ENT. She has mahousive tonsils all the time anyway, a history of chronic ear infections and she snores like a hog most of the time. Does anyone have any experience? Is it worth it, or should I wait and see what happens at the next appointment? I don't want to sprint into the private healthcare system and have unpleasant operations because I'm desperately looking for reasons for her to have a speech delay which aren't ASD related, but I can't help but feel fobbed off.
I also mentioned her recent and obnoxious sensitivity to raised voices as well as her inability to distinguish speech in noisy environments, and he did agree that she didn't appear to be able to hear noises as well if someone was talking nearby, but then he told me that was because she was ignoring it because she had lost interest. but if we stopped talking, she was responding again. ack. and then he told me there are three reasons for someone to be sensitive to loud noises - profound hearing loss, which she doesnt have, just one of those things that normal children grow out of , or in DD's case, she's probably autistic. A diagnosis he is of course well qualified to make because someone in his family has Aspergers. Sigh. I've disregarded that bit of the consultation, and it didn't make it into the notes funnily enough. What kind of sucks about that little gem is that DD was fricking amazing during the consult. She was interacting really well with the assistant, talking loads, following instructions and let them shove things in her ears without grumbling at all. She even read them a book. I stuffed her full of chocolate buttons on the way home 