'Ear, 'ear

We finally got Will to the otolaryngologist - that's a ear, nose, throat dr. for you low-brow types - and got a few answers. Unfortunately, they weren't entirely helpful answers.

Will has had ringing in his ears for the last 2 years, on and off. Mostly on. I've had him to our family dr. twice about it, tried some chiropractic, tried some OTC meds, and nothing has made the slightest difference. He's also had some problems with enlarged tonsils. Every time he gets a cold or sore throat, he feels like his tonsils are hugely swollen. I've been more worried about this, although I'm sure the ringing is really annoying.

This week we finally got an appointment with a specialist. I had high hopes that we would come out of the office with a date to get his tonsils out and a promise that it would mean the end of the ringing. Wrong both times. He looked at Will's ears and did a hearing test. His hearing is great and his ears look normal. So he couldn't really give us any help with the ringing. He said thousands of people have the same problem, and unfortunately, it's not easy to fix. Bummer.

As for the tonsils, he said they are a little large, and when he gets sick and complains that his tonsils are swollen, he's probably right. But they aren't so large that they should be a problem. And since he hasn't had a lot of throat infections, he probably still needs his tonsils. If they get larger and he starts having trouble breathing in his sleep or if he starts getting more infections, then we can take them out. But right now, everything is fine.

On the one hand, I am of course relieved to know that Will is perfectly healthy. On the other hand, I was all set for some decisive action. It's a little bit of a let down.

After all that, Will and I needed some lunch and I let him pick the place. So we went to The Spaghetti Factory and had a good time.

One funny thing - when Will say the doctor, he asked him if he knew Treebeard. You know, the ENT in Lord of the Rings? That joke fell flat! The doctor hadn't seen the movie or read the books and had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't really look much like Treebeard either.
Disappointing.