Ears and Reading

Hurray, the day of Logan's doctor appointment FINALLY arrived and taking him to Gene's and my family doctor worked exactly as I had hoped. Well, except I had hoped the doc would do his "sucky worst" and blow us off and recommend Logan to an ear, nose and throat specialist. I was apparently remembering my childhood family doctor, because this doc was extremely helpful! He first scoped Logan's ears and then used some thing to measure the vibration of his ear drum. Doc left the room for a minute and brought back a printout of the vibration test. He sat down and showed me on a piece of paper what a normal printout would look like- pretty much like a single heartbeat on a heart monitor- sort of an upside-down V. Both of Logan's ears were flat lines. Doc said he took a while getting the results because he initially thought the device was not working. Anyway, that probably means there is fluid or other blockage prohibiting Logan's ear drum from vibrating, which is a necessary component to hearing well. Off to the specialist he will go!

This doc did a great job helping me understand what is wrong but wouldn't speculate on whether something as simple as tubes will fix the problem. Logan did NOT have ear infections at this visit so hopefully he'll somehow stay well until the specialist visit. I had completely forgotten that I chose this doc because when Kaylin and I saw him at a prompt care before he started his private practice, he took time with us, listened and was NOT an arrogant jerk! When we got a letter in the mail that he was starting his own practice, I immediately called and signed both Gene and myself up. I absolutely loved Kaylin's pediatrician at the time and Logan wasn't born yet. I think I still have a horrible opinion of family doctors because of the idiot I saw my entire childhood through young adulthood. I could go for YEARS without a visit and then go in with nasty bronchitis and he would act like I was a total hypochondriac wasting his valuable time. The visit I was soooooo sick and walked up to the receptionist to pay, a nurse noticed how sad I looked, questioned my symptoms and gave me a bag full of sample meds (all while rolling her eyes in disgust at the doc's ineptitude) was my final visit. I went the prompt care route until my current doc started his practice.

It's funny- I love my podiatrist and my OB/GYN. I loved two of the kids' pediatricians and the Kaylin's ENT. I like my family doc (haven't seen him enough to "love" him...) And yet, my opinion of doctors is completely skewed because of the one idiot. I mean, the guy was such a jerk and always made me feel so bad about myself. Even as a small child, I NEVER faked an illness or injury! If I was at the doctor, there was a GOOD reason. Dr. Jerkwad ALWAYS treated me like I was a faking pain in his butt, wasting valuable time he could be seeing REAL patients. Idiot.

Whew, I digress! We are supposed to be receiving a call for an appointment with Logan's new ENT. I'm sure it will be months before anything is accomplished, but I'm thrilled the ball is rolling. Meanwhile, we're working on reading and comprehension. He's doing better, but still just shuts down and doesn't even try when he encounters a big word he doesn't know. I've always hated the pointless SRA books that are apparently the major part of reading at school. The stories are horrendous and boring. They were hard to read and comprehend when all the words were simple. Now every other word is a "big" word and the nonsense stories read like a technical manual. This system of reading is incredibly unfortunate. I love reading but hate these stupid readers. The kids who don't love reading are almost screwed. I mean, when you're already struggling with just the reading and then you can't understand a quarter of the words because they throw in "impoverished" as an example of the short o sound... The whole state testing prep curriculum is alarming and stupid! How can the teachers who have been around for years and years go along with this crap? Are they totally brainwashed? I don't get it! I can help my own kid, but what about the many parents who can't or won't? These kids are doomed!