Tonsils and Family Math

I spent Thursday morning at the Ear Nose and Throat Specialist with Gabriel. Our family doctor sent both of us to see the ENT for a variety of reasons. I am still having trouble with my right ear - it hasn't been right since my ear drum ruptured last Thanksgiving. I no longer have ringing or hissing in that ear, but, it still hurts and I cannot hear things correctly on that side of my head.

Gabriel has had a runny nose, basically, for six months. And he snores like a lumberjack, which is weird in a slightly underweight child. So, off we went to the ENT.

The ENT looked in my ear and told me that I need to take sudaphed 3 times a day for the fluid in that ear and I should be fine. Also, he scheduled me for a hearing test.

But, he looked in Gabriel's throat, and he said, "Oh MY!" And I said, "Are his tonsils unusually large?" And the doctor said, "By unusually large, do you mean, "large enough for me to write a journal article about them?" or "Large enough for me to find them surprising?" Because they are not quite going to make the next issue of JAMA, but, they are surprising in their size."

He did some other stuff to Gabriel's head, and announced that his ears were full of fluid, because of the size of his tonsils and his adenoids. (At least, this is what I understood he was saying. Then, he sent him for an "immediate" hearing test, because he was concerned about how much fluid was in his ears.

Anyway, it turns out that Gabe has so much fluid backed up behind his eardrums that he has "no timpanic function" on his left side, and "minimal timpanic funtion" on his right side. His coqulear function is fine. But, because of the fluid, he has hearing loss on both sides of his head. This means that they are "probably" going to put tubes in his ears when they remove his tonsils and his adenoids, but, the doctor won't know for sure about the tubes until he is "in his head". Oy.

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In adopt-y type news that made me all verklempt, I found a homework paper in Gabriel's backpack called, "Family Math."

The paper had pictures of an eye, a foot, and a hand, and underneath it said,

There are __ eyes in my family.
______ has __ eyes
_______ has ___ eyes
_________ has __ eyes,

etc. etc., and the same for HANDS and FEET.

This is what I found, it actually brought tears to my eyes:

There are 8 eyes in my family.
Daddy has 2 eyes.
Mommy has 2 eyes.
Gabriel has 2 eyes.
Lene has 2 eyes.

There are 8 hands in my family.
Daddy has 2 hands.
Mommy has 2 hands.
Gabriel has 2 hands.
Lene has 2 hands.

There are 8 feet in my family.
Daddy has 2 feet.
Mommy has 2 feet.
Gabriel has 2 feet.
Lene has 2 feet.

It was just too too adorable.

Now I clearly need to teach him how to spell his sister's name.

LM