AUDIOLOGIST: An audiologist is a healthcare professional specializing in identifying, diagnosing, treating and monitoring disorders of the auditory and vestibular system portions of the ear.
I have been anticipating this appointment for a few weeks now. After figuring out Brody can't hear whispers and the months he has been working with Early Intervention and Speech Therapists, we finally headed to Children's to repeat his hearing test, for a third time.
Folks I was seriously losing sleep over this. I just wanted it to be over and done with. I wanted answers. Most importantly I want Brody to get the right kind of help, the kind that will put him on the path to clear speech, and self confidence in speech, and no insecurities, and no fears on my end of inevitable playground/school mocking of his voice, because y'all know kids can be cruel.
So the day came, and if you need back round click here, which has even more links, to past happenings, and Brody and I headed in. The first thing they do is a thorough ear check, which includes an air pressurized test. Looking in his ears, she said they looked great. First ear read through the air test with a perfect "peak" which means it was great. Second (left) ear, read with a big fat straight line, which means it was bad. Basically either he has lots of negative pressure behind that ear drum, or fluid behind that ear drum. He'll probably be getting medicine for an ear infection in the next day or two, as her bet was fluid. (This means the tube debate will continue, I am sure.) She explained that even when you have ear infections, you lose some hearing. If you have constant negative pressure and back to back to back infections, hearing can be muffled. Think Charlie Brown's mother "whomp whomp whomp whomp."
Brody miraculously approved of wearing headphones and going through a quite extensive hearing test, to reveal basically exactly what the woman explained above. He heard almost perfectly in the ear that tested well, and heard poorly in the ear that flat lined.
What does this all mean? Well it means that for most of Brody's life, since he has had a long run of either negative pressure, full blown infections, and three perforations, he has been listening to a fuzzy, not so clear world. He may have moments of clarity, even weeks if he is lucky, which explains him being able to say anything at all, but for the most part it has been a world with muffled sound for him.
In light of these developments we have decided not to give him the go-to-sleep-brain-wave test. It seems unnecessary because if he has no ear issues, he has no hearing issues. We will now go back and consult with his pediatrician and his ENT, and he will be closely monitored by the audiologists (every 3-6 months) because despite their findings, long term ear issues and namely multiple perforations can cause permanent hearing loss.
That is where we currently stand.
Well that and I think it is a sign (this is so off subject) that I need to force Keira to stop nursing (yes she's STILL nursing) because I didn't notice that she bit me so hard that I was bleeding yesterday until she had stopped nursing. Yeah, ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I have felt it every second since. Why won't this baby give up the boob? Why?
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