She's getting ear tubes

We have been trying to get Anna evaluated for speech delays.  She seems to hear fine, and she follows directions very well.  But, she is not adding words to her vocabulary, nor is she stringing words together like she should be.  We visited a speech therapist through the hospital, and she agreed that Anna is delayed.  She asked if we have had her hearing checked, and I said no, that she seems to hear fine.  She suggested we get it checked, just in case.  So, we visited the audiologist, and she looked in Anna's ears and noted that there was a lot of wax in them.  She put a sensor in Anna's ears and ran a series of tests to determine if the nerves in the ears were responding.  There was no response from about half of the frequencies.  She felt maybe the ear wax was interfering, so we made an appt with the ENT.  The ENT looked in her ears and agreed that there was wax and that they could remove it.  So, they strapped her in a papoose and pulled out the ear wax using a special light, magnifing glass, and tweezers.  She did AMAZING in the papoose, as long as I held up the ipod with Mickey Mouse playing on it!  The ENT asked if their audiologist could check her ears again after having the wax removed.  Their audiologist used a tool to check for vibration on the ear drum on which she scored low.  The audiologist said that usually indicated fluid behind the ear drum.  We then went into the sound proof booth, and Anna sat on my lap while they played sounds out of the speakers on the right and left of us.  I noticed that she did not respond to the left with low sounds.  Her favorite part of that was the light up Mickey Mouse that she got to see when she responded to the correct sounds.  The ENT feels that she has fluid in her ears resulting in conductive hearing loss.  I thought that since she hasn't had any ear infections that this wouldn't be a problem, but I was surprised to hear him suggest ear tubes.  He is going to place tubes in her ears next week, and we will see if that helps with her hearing and hopefully also her speech.  Along with all that, she has been evaluated and accepted into the Babies Can't Wait program which will provide her with speech therapy until she is 3.  This is great since our insurance won't cover speech therapy that is not a result of surgery or injury.  We know she is making great strides in development, and we hope with a little help she will be completely caught up with her age!