Eureka!

Our beloved son is almost four years old. He is bright, active, and kind. Just last night he gave his father a brief (and respectful) talking-to about how Daddy should be nicer to our dog, for example. He gets additional suckers for his sisters when he goes to the barber shop.
He also has a diagnosed speech delay. It's his articulation, his "expressive language." What does that mean? He doesn't make all of the sounds in the words he uses, making him difficult to understand. ("Papa" is Ahpa, "popcorn" is op-orn.) I get him most of the time--in context with familiar words when I'm completely alert. But if he starts trying to tell me about a bad dream he just had, I get nothing. And I'm with him all day! It's worse for Daddy and forget complete strangers most of the time.
Daddy and I have suspected he wasn't up to par speech-wise for more than two years. Various advice-givers weren't terribly helpful. He's a boy, he's a second child, you're just comparing him to Madeleine who's way ahead (she had a working vocabulary of more than two dozen words before her first birthday. I made a list.) We knew better. We did the ISD thing, where he regularly passed the hearing tests but had flat tympanograms. Usually he'd been diagnosed with an ear infection a few days before, and those appointments are a bugger to make, so we just chalked it up to illness.
Now at almost four he's in speech through our local school district. I love his therapist; she adapts to whatever the circumstances are (uncooperative child, extra siblings) with grace and a sense of humor. I just have had the feeling that he's not making the progress he should despite her expertise. There was something more going on. I knew it.
So when we went in to the pediatrician last month, the nurse commented, "Wow, his adenoids are huge!" I had a Dory moment. You know, where she recognizes Nemo and all of her memories come back? That's what it was like.
Adenoids? Those are in your nose, not your throat. She must mean tonsils. Your brother had his adenoids out when he got tubes for his hearing and he snored like your son- becausetheyblockedtheEustachiantube-yourhusbandhasnotonsilsandhegottubestoo-couldTHISfinallybewhatiswrongwithyourlittleboy? EUREKA!
Wait, wait. Maybe they're just swollen because he's ill. Let's not jump to conclusions.
The next week, when my four-year-old son was trying to explain something and I wasn't getting it, I was in tears. When Daddy came out of their bedroom and all was calm, I said, "I'm tired of not being able to understand my son."
His reply? "We have the insurance. Call the doc and get him to an ENT."
So I did. What happened at the ENT?
1. He passed the hearing test but had a flat tympanogram. Again.
2. The doc and intern saw his "huge" tonsils--a 4+ on a scale of 1-4.
3. They did an x-ray and saw his enlarged adenoids. (And showed me.)
4. They peeked in his ears and, while they didn't see an infection, there is evidence of "mucosal fluid" in there.

Result? When his secretary gets back next week, she will call us to schedule the surgery to remove his adenoids and tonsils, and if he finds fluid in his middle ear, tubes too.

While I don't relish the thought of my son under the knife, I'm tired of not being able to understand my son. It's time for him to be understood.