Update on Ben

Ben had another ENT appointment today to evaluate his hearing and speech. We received mostly good news! First, his ear drums in both ears are not moving in the normal range...but that could be because the tubes are coming out (or are out and sitting in the canal) and could be disrupting the reading from the little machine they use ~ I can't remember what it's called :o) The doctor thinks his ears look healthy, so he seems confident that that is the case. Also, his hearing test was much improved from the last visit on April 23. The bad news is that Ben's speech is still delayed ~ he isn't as articulate as they would like to see for a two year old (he isn't getting most consonate and vowel sounds correctly) and he still talks really loud (a sign that he isn't hearing as well as he should be) . So, we are now setting up appointments with a speech therapist. They will evaluate him further and decide how much, if any, therapy he needs at this point. He hasn't been on antibiotics since I took my leave of absence from work and pulled him out of day care~ that is a big victory for us ~ and serves to reassure us that we made the correct decision. Sooooo, we are very optimistic that Ben is on his way to good health. I have extended my leave of absence to September 30 ~ so I am technically still employed until then :o) :o) ~ and we can give him several more months to catch up on his speech.