Mummy, I can't hear

When my son turned 3, he developed problems with his hearing. This in itself is unremarkable. It is very common for young boys to have problems with their hearing. Many of my son's friends at the time were submitted to hospital after being diagnosed with glue ear and had gromits inserted into their ears to make them hear better.  

As we lived in London in UK at the time, we took 'A' to our local GP. We were sent to see a consultant who gave me steroids to squirt into his nose. I refused to use the steriods after researching into their side affects and realising that they would not solve the problem. At the next 6 monthly hearing check, I informed the hearing test operator that I would not be giving my son steroids and she wrote something in my son's notes. We returned about 4 times to have my son's ears checked. He became bored by the tests and irritated by the tightness of the special headphones he had to wear. We were told his hearing was borderline and I decided that I would prefer not to have an operation as the thought of having my son subjected to a general anesthetic unless it was absolutely necessary terrified me. I was told, 'well, if you're not willing to authorise an operation, there's nothing we can do except keep testing his ears'.

We moved to Amsterdam in October 2013. Again, my son had his ears checked as part of a general assessment. We were told he had a problem with his hearing. We went to a very intense hearing test, where my son was placed in a sound proof capsule and did a series of tests. We were told that his hearing was perfect and he would not need an operation. 6 months later, my son was still not speaking clearly and I didn't think that he could hear me when I called him.  This was very worrying as he is learning to read, write and speak in Dutch. We went back to our local GP for a reassessment.  This time, our local GP looked in my son's ears. 'There's something in his right ear', he said.

This is what he found.

My now 6 year old son recalled when he was in nursery, (he must have been about 3 years old), finding the room very noisy. He tried putting his fingers in his ears to block out the noise, but it didn't work, so he stuffed a piece of paper in his ear. Ever since then, he couldn't hear very well. He just turned 6 years old, so he has been walking around with a piece of paper stuck in his ear for THREE YEARS!!! Shame on all those ear specialists who didn't notice that there was an obstruction in his ear. We are very grateful to the AMAZING doctor who checked his ears properly and removed the piece of paper. My son is like a different child.