Update On Owen's Ears

Owen had a check on Tuesday with the ear surgeon to see if the patches that were placed in September did the job. Left ear-great, we can treat like a regular ear, no more hole in his eardrum, he can get it wet now. Not the case with the right ear. The patch is still intact, so there is still a slight chance it may still heal, but doc said he could still see the hole underneath. Also, Owen's hearing in the left has improved and is fine and the right still shows he is unable to hear low tones. He is able to hear the frequency of speech just fine, it's just the lower tones, which might come back some even if the hole is still present but smaller. He goes back in a month to re-eval and discuss options. Right now though, my thinking is that we leave it alone, use a plug if he goes swimming, and maybe in 5 years they will have a better way to correct it. I don't know much about tissue transfer type of patches, but I'm thinking there would still be some hearing loss due to the flexibility or thickness of alternative materials. Right now he can hear us just fine out of both ears and his left is completely normal. Seems good enough to me. And since he can hear human speech normally I don't know if there's much to be gained from another procedure. If that's even what the doc suggests in a month. He really didn't even address options this time. On the other hand, I don't know how much better it is for him to have a direct hole into his head for infection to enter. The saga continues...