Fletcher

A couple of months ago, I got a call from Fletcher's preschool nurse, informing me that he had failed a regular hearing test that they performed on all the children in his class.  She asked me if I thought there might be a problem or if maybe he just had an ear infection or something.  I said that could be a possibility because he does tend to have them quite often, so she said she would just try the test again a month later.  The next month he failed the test again, and she recommended I take him to an audiologist to have his hearing tested.  So last week we went and saw an audiologist and she could not get a proper reading because he had fluid behind his ear drums, so she recommended that we see an ENT (Ear, Nose, & Throat) Dr. to see what they would recommend.  Yesterday we went to the Dr. and there was still fluid behind the ear drums and the Dr. said that we had 2 options... antibiotics and wait it out to see if it clears up the problem, or putting tubes in his ears which would bring his hearing back to normal immediately.  However based on the fact that Fletcher has been diagnosed with a speech delay, the Dr. said that was a good indication that the fluid had been there quite a while and could very well be contributing to the speech problem.  He strongly recommended getting the tubes in his ears.  So on Jan. 27th we have an appointment to have the surgery done to get the tubes put into Fletcher's ears.  I am so curious to find out if his hearing has been a main factor in his speech problem.  It would definitely make sense, but I had his hearing tested about a year ago, thinking that it may be a problem but the tests all said he could hear fine.  We will see!  I am also a little nervous about the surgery because I have heard it is very painful.  My poor little baby! I guess it couldn't hurt much worse than constantly having fluid behind your ear drums!