One doctor appointment down ...

Well, I suppose we got good news from the ENT doctor yesterday. Riley's ears are both full of fluid, but he doesn't think Riley needs tubes again. After taking the hearing test, they found that Riley wasn't hearing in the acceptable range in his right ear (which we knew) and he was at the low end of the acceptable spectrum with his left ear. But, at this point they don't think that he has any permanent hearing loss and that it is mostly due the large amount of thick mucus/fluid that is backed up behind the eardrum. It appears that this is occurring because his adenoids are enlarged. When this happens, it doesn't allow the mucus to drain as it should. The enlarged adenoids can also cause him to feel a tickle in his sinuses/throat area which causes him to sniff quite a bit. This causes any mucus to back up further into the sinuses and then the ears. Sooooooo, next week we are off to the hospital for an adenoidectomy. Poor little guy will be sore for quite a bit and will be out of school for a whole week! We'll give him lots of TLC and soft foods during that time. Once he is healed from the surgery, we will go back to have the fluid drained from his ears and do another hearing test. Hopefully with better results. Also, once those big ol' adenoids are gone, our little Riley will no longer snore as loud as a lumberjack sawing logs. I think we'll all be thankful for that one! Please pray that everything goes smoothely during surgery and our little buddy has a quick recovery. Thank you = )