Glue ear - it's time for grommets

For months now we have known that Oliver has glue ear, turning the tv up high, not doing as well as he could be in school, ignoring us and getting told off for it all led us to believe something was wrong with Oliver's hearing. Then one day he come out of school and told me that one of his friends said that Oliver had 'snot' coming out of his ear. I took him straight to the doctors after school and he said that Oliver had glue ear. Oliver had 3 hearing tests over the months and didn't do so well on them, so after waiting 3 months from consultant appointment to another follow up appointment it was decided he will have grommets fitted in both ears. More than half of all cases of glue ear clear up by themselves but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

Why treatment is required for us - Oliver can hardly hear at all when he's got a cold it's terrible, the rest of the time I'm shouting or repeating myself or making him look at me so he can see my lips and put the peices together of what I'm saying. It's causing significant problems with his learning and speech development, he is actually starting to have speech and language therapy as he struggles with S and Z. S often being replaced with F and making perfectly innocent words sound like swear words.

What  are grommets? a grommet is a small tube which under general anaesthetic is inserted into the ear through a small cut into their eardrum, it's designed to help drain away fluid in the middle ear and maintain air pressure. General anaesthetic is scary when it's your child having it! But it only takes around 15 minutes and the fact they do this so often makes me more at ease.

I have just got his letter to say that he will be having his pre op in May and he will have his grommets fitted on 1st June - which is much quicker than I had thought it would be on NHS waiting list so I'm really greatful that my little boy will be able to hear properly soon, especially before starting year 2 at school.

I'm going to put together a little bag for him to keep him entertained while he's in hospital - you know how boring these places are and without a doubt there will be some sort of delay... anyone suggest anything he might like to take with him?

Mary-Kate, x