The Importance of Listening: Hearing Loss, Lifeguard Rescues & tooth Fairy adventures

I guess my life is fairly unusual. I realized it when I was talking to some people at church today and they asked how my summer was going. The words that popped out of my mouth were, "well Ian almost drowned yesterday and Samuel knocked out a tooth. Both within 30 minutes." They looked alarmed. Oh, is that not normal?

We took Samuel to the audiologist on Friday. He had a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG hearing test and it was determined that he has significant hearing loss in his right ear. His left ear also showed significant hearing loss but we need to discover if the wax in his ear is contributing to the significance of the loss. So we will go back at the end of the month and have the ENT (ear, nose, throat) suction out his ear and then re-test the left ear.

On his right side though it's confirmed that there is actual nerve damage (likely due to chemo) that is permanent. Once we determine whether or not both ears are damaged we can go from there. If both are he can probably get hearing aids. If he has one good ear then he will wear a special amplifying device while at school and the teacher will speak into a little microphone for him so he can hear.

Yesterday we had a fun day of being with friends. After a full day of eating snacks, bouncing on the trampoline, and watching movies and then a fun dinner of pizza we decided to go swimming. My friend is a member at her community pool. We went and it was fun. The kids splashed in the kiddie zone and it worked out well... until.... they wanted to go over to the big pool. After some time of it going so well, why not? I held Michael's hand and had Peter in my arms. I was gathering stuff to walk over.

I walked up to a lifeguard blowing a whistle at Samuel. This was our first time at this pool. I told Samuel he had to wait his turn before he could go down the slide but that he wasn't allowed to go on the slide because it took you into the deep end and he couldn't swim. Lifeguard was listening as I explained that it was our first time here and my kids didn't know the rules and I'm trying to explain that I have five kids I'm trying to navigate.

Well, what I didn't know was that Samuel wasn't the only one interested in the slide... Ian had snuck ahead of us and gotten on the slide before Samuel.

So another lifeguard shouts at the lifeguard I'm talking to. He turns and dives in the water and lo and behold he's pulling out Ian! Ian had gone down the slide and was under. So the lifeguard rescues Ian and is hitting him on the back to get the water out and Ian throws up on the sidewalk. I'm in shock. All I can think is "Great. Pizza throw-up."
So then the lifeguard has to go and report it and find a way to deal with the vomit. So the head guy comes back with him. He's ranting that he needs to see the mother and the child and I say, "I'm right here." He sees me holding Peter and freaks, "You let this child go down the slide?!"

"No! My five year old. And I didn't let him. I had no idea he was going to do that!" and I point to Ian. It was kind of crazy. Of course I wouldn't let my two year old go down this slide. It's a huge slide!I wouldn't even let my other boys. I had not given them permission. I had no idea they were going to do what they did! I was so upset and bothered. I had no idea the boys would try to go on the slide. I was just trying to get them to the section that was 3 feet deep. He helpfully tells me, "You need to keep an eye on your kids." and I kindly inform him, "I was watching the one who has cerebral palsy." Because Michael had almost drowned in Florida....

So I go off to file the report and I have to give my information. When I give him my address the lifeguard who rescued Ian responds, "Hey, that's Ballahack Airsoft!" I explained that my brother and dad own the company.... and invited him and his brother to a game on us. His brother was the other lifeguard on duty.

I had Ian come and say thank you to the lifeguard. I tried to explain to the older lifeguard that we hadn't been around water much as a family because Samuel had cancer and had a CVL and we couldn't go in the water. The gentleman showed me his arm and said he's a melanoma survivor.

So five minutes into being back into the baby pool, after I finished the report and my adrenaline is just starting to slow down a little Samuel walks up... with blood on him. "Um, Mom?! I knocked my tooth on the chair and it popped out." His front tooth is missing. Oh my gosh. It's a bloody mess. I freak out. This has to be an adult tooth, I'm thinking. I mean he had the two front teeth missing and this was there....

So my friend looks up what to do and I call in an emergency call to our dentist. I try to put the tooth back in the socket and I struggle to get five wet kids out of the pool and into the car so ee can save Samuel's tooth. We have an hour before it dies. I'm freaking out a bit. We are in Virginia Beach and the dentist is at Chesapeake.

I'm trying to be calm and breathe in and out but not succeeding. Adrenaline is coursing through my veins and I feel like a wet, crazy mess. We rush to the dentist. Thankfully my friend follows behind me and hangs with the kids at the dentist while Mike meets us there. Samuel and I talk to the dentist. Samuel says with a gleam in his eye, "Do you wanna know what I did?" the dentist politely tells him, "Not yet, let me look." So it doesn't look good. We can't see the root. Oy. He does an x-ray and low and behold... there's an adult tooth growing in. I don't know how that worked out but praise God. Here I'm thinking he's knocked out his adult front tooth. Thank you Jesus! A visit from the tooth fairy is way better than a lost adult tooth.

Sheesh.

Adrenaline enough for one day. We all head back to the house. My friend and her kids came along. We celebrated with some home-made ice-cream while the kids watched a movie. It actually turned into a sleep-over which was super fun.

Today, on our way to church Ian said: "Can we go to the pool this afternoon?!"

I emphatically told him, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then he said, "Remember when I was in the deep water and I was yelling, "Help! Help!"

And I told him, "Yes. But Baby, you couldn't even yell "help, help" because your mouth was full of water!"

Ian: "Yeah. Let's go back to the pool."