Coming up...

All of Pinky’s health issues are coming to an end. I have to say, I’m a little sad. I’m thrilled of course that she’ll be normal but will miss being called ‘baba’ instead of ‘mama’. Those of you who don’t live so close might not know the extent of it, here’s the lowdown.
Pinky has had issues with her speech since she was able to talk. She was always very nasal sounding, as if she were plugging her nose when she talked. She also isn't able to make some letter sounds. For example, being called ‘baba’. There are several other sounds she can’t make as well.

I didn't realize this was a medical problem, I just assumed how she talked and I loved it. People would make comments, but I ignored them.
It wasn’t until her teacher this year informed me she thought Naomi would benefit from some speech therapy. Her opinion was that Naomi wasn’t progressing in speech and everyone had a very hard time deciphering what she said. Even the teachers themselves couldn’t understand what Naomi would say to them. What, really? I guess because I'm her mother I understand her perfectly and don't get how others can't!
I considered speech therapy but then decided it was worth a shot to try an allergist first. Since part of the problem is that her nose is stuffed up 24 hours a day. From the time she was a baby her nose was either stuffy or runny for no reason at all. Since Allergies run strongly in Eric’s family, we thought that surely must be the problem. She’d get on allergy meds, her nose would clear up and her speech would be just fine.

Well, she was tested for all sorts of things and surprisingly has zero allergies! BUT the allergist said that he thought she was a shoe in for enlarged adenoids. The dead giveaways were the nasal talking and the fact that she mouth breaths (because she can’t breathe out of her nose...)
So, off to the ENT we went, who X-rayed her and sure enough he said her adenoids are as big as they can get and can't get any larger. They are 100% obstructing her ability to breathe through her nose. She also had no airway from the front of her nose (nostrils) to the back of her throat. AND her ears were all messed up from the adenoids as well. Her hearing is a little below normal and is full of what he described as 'airplane glue'. Yikes!

So, all this time she has hasn't been able to smell. This is funny, because I used to take her to Yankee Candle with me and she’d want to smell the candles I was getting! I guess she just saw me doing it and wanted to try, but she actually couldn’t smell anything! Also, she has mouth breathed her whole life. I’ve never really noticed. But since getting a diagnosis, I’ve watched her and it’s true, she can only breathe through her mouth. Poor thing!

This unfortunate circumstance will soon change when on April 5th she's going into surgery to fix everything. She is getting her adenoids taken out (that will then create a clear passage way from the back of her nose down), but there’s still the problem of the front of the nose air passage. For that, the doc will take an instrument and basically create an artificial airway into her nostrils that then connect to the newly created passageway in the back of the nose, make sense?
Then to top it all off... she getting tubes in her ears.
So, all in one day she's getting the ability to hear better, talk better, and smell better!
Think good thoughts for my little 4 year old going under the knife on April 5th!