Microtia

Within 24 hours of the delivery, the doctors noticed there was something wrong with Marcus. He had a deformed left ear that was a little lower-set and a bit smaller than the right ear, which appeared normal. The medical term to describe the appearance is "microtia", which just means "small ear".  Before leaving the hospital on the third day, Marcus failed his newborn hearing screen on the left side, but passed the test for the right ear.

Now, your typical parents might flip out to discover that their first child is already deformed and imperfect before even leaving the hospital, but fortunately for us (sort of), I know a little bit about microtia because I've got the same problem. My right ear is a little lower-set, smaller and a little deformed (though not nearly as noticeable as Marcus), and I'm functionally deaf in that ear. For me, the imperfection is not disfiguring, and I've learned to live with the deafness. So I had an idea of what might lie ahead for Marcus, and I wasn't to concerned.

We've now taken him to see a specialist for this microtia problem, and he failed his hearing screen again with the audiologist there. We're going to try a BAER test this coming week, which is another type of hearing test where you measure brain activity after giving an auditory stimulation, basically to see if any sound is getting into his brain at all on that side.

Regardless of the result of that test, the doctor told us there isn't much to do, considering it appears his right ear is fine. If the appearance of the left ear is significantly deformed, we can consider surgical options later for cosmetic reasons. And if it turns out that his auditory nerve is intact and only the middle and outer ear are dysfunctional, it may be possible to restore hearing surgically, but not until at least age 5 or 6.

So far, the ear seems to be growing with him, and while it certainly doesn't look normal, I'm not so sure it's going to be so bad cosmetically that it requires surgery. We'll see, I guess. I'd be interested in restoring his hearing at age 5 or 6, but honestly it's not that hard to live with deafness on one side. A little inconvenient, but you're really perfectly functional. Language skills develop normally, and even musical skills are essentially unaffected. I'm hesitant to subject a child to elective surgery that isn't *really* necessary. But we'll see.