It's Selective

I big thank you to everyone who prayed for Micah today through his hearing test. And the results? He has incredibly selective hearing. He can hear perfectly, but obviously chooses to ignore certain people at most times. I'm pretty sure it's a gender thing.

And speaking of gender, the hospital called after we got home today. They have him on record as being, well a HIM. But the insurance has him on record as being a her. Now this is not the first time he's been seen there, nor the first time this insurance has been billed through them. So now I've gotta spend a day on hold waiting to tell the insurance company that we have only one daughter, and her name is not Micah.

Yeh, it's SO not the first time we've been there. The Children's staff gave us the Frequent Flyer badge today. How sad is that? They're starting to recognize his name. Out of all the thousands of patients they must see on a weekly basis, they remembered him. Of course it could be his lack of cooperation that they remember more so than his wonderful self. He does not like surgical procedures, doctor appointments, or even doctors for that matter. He fusses and wiggles just having his heart listened to. When they tried giving him that wonderful stuff that we so fondly call "happy juice" he spit most of it out onto the poor nurse. Mind you, Sam was holding his arms and legs and a nurse was holding his head still while the second nurse was dosing him. Me? I was laughing. I'm that kind of bad parent. I just have been down this road so many times and have learned to find the humor in it all. I'm so sure the parents behind us in the hallway were horrified at my parenting skills. Or lack thereof. It didn't help matters that after we wiped him up he was seriously hacked off and bit his lip thrashing in a temper tantrum, producing enough blood to choke on. I know the same-day surgery staff are all wishing a much more cooperative child would be in the Frequent Flyer program.

But there is an up side to being there so often. The staff have learned that we know our child better than they do. The first thing he does when he comes back to the land of the living is fuss about the I.V. and finger monitor. This is the very first time they took them off immediately upon my request. And the first time he's stopped fussing so quickly. They also took note when I said he wouldn't drink anything, no matter what was offered or what it was offered in. So they simply discharged us. No waiting games, no bribing him, no monitoring constantly (read, yet another doctor is touching him and he's getting more angry by the minute). It was almost a pleasant recovery experience.

I don't know what to think about his excellent hearing. It's been 4 1/2 years of not knowing for sure. He has no speech. It would have been a great excuse for the extreme delay. But neither did I wish for him to have a hearing loss, nor to wear aids or have implants. I'm thrilled that he can hear, and hear well. I'm disappointed that there's no "quick fix" to help him talk. But all good things take time and I know a day will come when I'll have the pleasure of saying "Micah, can we take a break from talking for a little bit?"