misdiagnosis

kay_lyn23's story

April 22, 2008

By Rhonda Salisbury

As a child the doctors misdiagnosed me and never did a good job at finding a corrective cure. I'd sit in front of the television watching, and my parents would be behind me telling me to back away from the T.V and I could not hear a word that they were saying to me . When I was in grammar school, I had skipped school for a day. I did not want to go to school because the teacher that I had was a mean teacher. Because I could not hear he teacher, I would be put into the corner like I had done something wrong when in fact I just could not hear what was being said to me. I also could not read correctly or comprehend what I was reading either. Then when I was in 1st grade I was sent to a special Ed classroom. During that time I was sent to see Mr. George Lowell, the school psychologist, for testing. He told my parents that I needed to see a doctor for a hearing test. He had also told my parents that I had difficulties in learning and my hearing. He had a suggestion that I be put into a class to help me learn in school. Tey agreed to put me into a disabilities class. As a child I also had been sick frequently with tonsilitis and reoccurring ear infections. I was also picked-on by the other students on a daily basis. Later, I was also put on a drug (Ritalin) for allegedly being hyperactive. The drug had the effect my making me sleepy al the time. This occurred when I was 13 years old.

While in middle school I continued with the (LD) learning disabilities classes. I had a new speech pathologist. The speech pathologist also determined that I had a learning problem and a hearing problem too. I was then referred to Dr. Grinsell, in Plainfield Pediatrics Center. Had sent me to see Dr Thomas Lesnik for more testing. Dr .Lesnik sent me to the University of Connecticut Speech And Hearing Clinic. There they did a series of test on me. At that time they said that I needed hearing aids to hear properly. While Uconn was performing these hearing tests, I could see what they were doing, so my dad told them to turn me around so I could not read their lips. The test that they did are as follows; Air pressure; a decibel volume test; word association and sound .

When I was in Junior high school I had two wonderful teachers. Their names were Mrs. Andrea Very and Mrs. Jean Emery. They helped me to understand what I was reading and to write a few paragraphs on what I had read that day. I excelled in many things while in the junior high school. Back then I liked to draw, play basketball, and play the flute. The flute was a major thing for me to learn. Due to the fact that I could not read music, I played by vibrations on the floor. Somehow I still navigated sounds of pitch to compensate for the loss in hearing. I did continue with the learning disabilities class until I graduated from junior high school. Just before I had graduated from school I had a

surgery on my ears. I found out that the bones in my ears where eroding from the inner ear, due to the chronic destructive effect of chronic destructive inflammation and infections (Diagnosis: "Chronic otitis media-quiescent ; r/o possible early Otosclerosis .")

I returned to school and continued with the same program of classes that fell in different periods through out the years. I stopped the classes in my junior year. My senior year I had all the important credits to graduate. I graduated high school and took some classes in college but didn't know how bad the dyslexia had gotten until I went to take an English composition class and they tested me on how much I could comprehend. Then the college told me that I needed to retrain the way I read to comprehend the words. Many trials have been made to help me hear more than before but the surgeries just don't last too long.

If I am lucky these corrective surgeries last for several years. The last surgery that I had may have lasted for 2 years. Now I have gone back to reading body language and lips. I have chosen not to have another operation on my ears . I can not afford to pay another huge amount of money for another that will only last about a year. And I still have the learning disability because the cause of it went undetected for too long.

Most people do not understand what it is like to live with the hearing problems or the dyslexia. I clearly "fell through the cracks" and would not wish all this hardship on anyone. A person diagnosed early in life with a physical disability that affects their ability to learn should never, ever be missed, since that wastes so many critical learning years. People with learning disabilities can compensate by using other areas of their brain.

I am returning to college for the third time. I know what my disabilities are, but I must struggle to relearn the things I missed during grammar and middle school that other children had access to while learning to read, namely phonics.

I will succeed in graduating in the spring of 2010.

References:

Medical Files of Rhonda Salisbury