Eardrum Surgery

I took Shaling back to see Dr. Huang (the E.N.T. specialist) yesterday so he could examine her eardrum that has a hole in it. If you follow the blog fairly regularly, you might remember this post: Follow Up With the E.N.T. from April when we confirmed that surgery was inevitable.

Though I am one that would like to just get the whole thing over with yesterday as soon as possible, I did ask about restrictions following the surgery. She will not be allowed to swim at all (not even with ear plugs) for two months following surgery. She is becoming a stronger swimmer and is really enjoying it. She recently learned to hold her breath and put her face underwater. I didn’t want to rob her of the majority of her first summer here by doing that to her.

So, her surgery will be Thursday, September 8. The doctor believes her ear canal is wide enough that he’ll be able to insert his tools through it (and not have to make an incision behind her ear to get to it). However, she will have a small incision behind her ear, because he’ll take some fascia from underneath her skin and use that to repair the hole in the eardrum. She’ll be under general anesthetic and the surgery will take about an hour.

I noticed at the appointment that she only interacted with Dr. Huang in English, not Chinese at all. That was bittersweet – it’s great that her English has come so far, but I hate to see her lose her Chinese. She also kept popping out of the chair, assuming prematurely that the doctor was done examining her. She insists her ear is fine and that she doesn’t need surgery. I’m guessing she doesn’t realize that she has a partial hearing loss in that (her right) ear. The doctor says that should return after surgery, but it could be up to 4 months for it to appear. He also says the surgery only has a 90% success rate, so there is a 10% chance that the hearing will not return.

Speaking of her improved English, I was impressed earlier this week with the way she spontaneously started a conversation with a stranger. Her softball team was getting their team picture. The photographer’s wife was setting out sample items on a table. Shaling pointed at a little girl’s picture on a large button and asked, “Is that your daugh-ter?” As I’ve done numerous times the last few months, I got ready to explain what she’d asked. However, the woman understood her perfectly and said, “No, this one is my daughter,” while pulling out another picture. Her grammar was correct; it was an appropriate question; her enunciation was clear. Not bad for 5+ months in America.