July 22, 2002
What did you say?
Last week, on Tuesday morning we had a scare with Trevor.
He was in the living room watching cartoons and I came in behind him and said "Good Morning buddy!", no response. Brushing it off as him ignoring me for the cartoons, I repeated my greeting with no result. So, I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder and said "Good Morning Trevor".
He jumped nearly out of his skin, turned completely pale and started crying. He said that he didn't hear me and that I had scared him. I picked him up and gave him a hug and told him that I was sorry. Through the tears he said to me "What did you say?". I repeated my apology. He looked at me with a frightened look and said, "Daddy, I can't hear you".
I immediately got Tara up and we tested and talked to Trevor, much in the same way that Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Holland's Opus did with his son, Cole. Trevor could not hear anything above a yell, and had no other symptoms that would indicate something else at work. I couldn't see anything stuck in his ears, redness, and he said that nothing hurt him.
We called the doctor's office immediately and scheduled an appointment for that afternoon, and in the meantime Tara took him with her to get some errands done. When she was able to get him in, they immediately looked into his ears and said that he had two bad ear infections and that was the cause of his hearing loss. They put him on antibiotics and within two days he was starting to regain his hearing and feel better.
For the 7 hours between finding out that he couldn't hear and getting the diagnosis from the doctor, had to be one of the most stressfull times that I have had in the last few years. Thinking that he might be deaf was a scary possibility. I know for certain that the three of us would have come together and overcome it, but it was still something that I wouldn't wish on anyone.
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