A's Ears

You asked so I will try to answer as fully as possible without boring you to death. Baby A's hearing test did not go so well. We were taken into a room with a speaker placed on either side of us. I held him in my lap on a chair while sounds and movements projected from the speakers randomly. The only stimuli he responded to were the ones that could be seen. His little head didn't turn even the slightest bit when only noises were made. It made me sad, but I wasn't surprised.

After the brief test, the audiologist told me that while the results weren't great, they also weren't entirely accurate either due to his age. She took a peek into his ears and said the eardrums seemed to be working and so that was a good sign. The ENT (ear, nose, and throat) guy encouraged me to continue testing with more reliable information. The next step, I was told, is to have the ABR administered to him. Because of his age and inability to sit still for the procedure, he will have to be put under anesthesia. Of course, this is super scary for me. Initially, I said that I wasn't going to do that. The doctor then told me that there wasn't much else he could do for him so I asked him if he thought I should go ahead with the test and he said, "If it were my kid, I wouldn't hesitate to do this."

I thought about it on the drive home and the old saying knowledge is power was the message I kept returning to. If he does have hearing problems, he needs help now. We need to learn and teach him sign language, etc. No point in waiting.

So I suppose we're moving forward with this.