Grant had an appointment this morning with the pediatric ENT. Same office Henry had to visit 4 years ago, same doctor, same time of the morning. Same reasons – noisy breathing (he purrs); he sleeps too much (sometimes 16+ hours a day); he stops breathing while he sleeps (apnea); he doesn’t speak much or well.

He tries to communicate, but probably his most successful area is animal noises. Cows say moov, dogs say uhf uhf, and for months cats said ming ming. He’s gotten closer to “meow” (and also thinks that squirrels meow), after quite a lot of practice. And it’s no surprise he’s not getting those noises quite right – he has a 35 decibel hearing loss, so he’s missing nearly everything that is going on around him. It’s not so much he’s sitting in silence; think of it more as he’s sitting next to a noisy box fan all the time – normal conversational tones are very muffled.

And ultimately, Grant had the same result as Henry; he’s going in for surgery on October 8th. He’ll have to stay overnight at the hospital because of his age. They need to make sure he comes out of anesthesia ok (something both Henry and Eleanor struggle with), and make sure he can swallow/drink fluids. He’ll have a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and have ear tubes put in (or an earfluidectomy, h/t Spittle), and he’ll have a miserable few days/week. But I hope that within a few weeks he can sleep peacefully and recharge quicker, that he can kick this cough he’s had since October last, and finally hear all the interesting things around him.