Our little boy

Our little boy
Our Little Miracle

Monday, January 24, 2011

Picking up what we are putting down

Little Man's hearing test was today. Results are in, and we will cover those soon, but the story must be told leading up.................

We got to the University around 1:00 and we were escorted into the testing room. What you would think is that we were going to a classic doctor's office. You would be dead wrong!

We were taken into a blank room dimly lit with a recliner and 2 small wooden chairs and a computer on top of a 3 drawer file cabinet, both of which were right out of the late 70's. The computer might have been the one used for Judy's programming in Revenge of the Nerds.............yeah it was that old.

The room was grey and there was only 2 sources of light. The lights were attached to the walls and looked like the shells of lava lamps with no top. There was also a window.........one of the "one way" variety, though you could make out faint shadows and outlines of the testers in the other room.

Oh, and it was surrounded by about 2 feet of steel to make the room soundproof. The door was like a freezer door and was about 5 inches thick and steel as well. Trust me..........It had all the feeling of either a bunker interrogation room or a neuclear fallout shelter. CREEPY!

Little Man had some electrodes hooked up to his skull in the front and behind each ear. Then they snaked a device into his ears to administer sound to. Once the sounds were made, they would monitor his brain activity and make their assesments.

They did the right ear first, then the left. He was asleep for the bulk of the test, which is how they want it to be. He did great and his Mom did awesome too holding him and comforting him to fall asleep.

It lasted about an hour and we were then taken to a different fallout shelter which had more light and more seating. There the results were discussed.

Ideally they are looking for a child to hear at a level of "0" which means that the child is hearing every sound they give him/her. 0-20 is considered "normal" and anything outside that range might need more information or more development.

Mason's right ear is at 0 and his left ear at about 5 or so. Thank you Lord!

They gave us some ideas what to look for in case things take a turn and some ways to help him progress as well. They also gave us reasons the previous test (the one he failed at low pitch/low volume) might have not yielded the same results.

The most logical explanation would be the existence of the feeding tube at the time of the test. The feeding tube can make a child more "stuffy" and that drastically affects the ears and the hearing. Imagine it like you have a cold that stuffs up your nose and sinuses...........do you have trouble hearing? Is it like you are in a tunnel or there is a bit of an "echo" when you hear things under those conditions? Now make yourself 5 or 6 pounds and see how similar conditions effect you.

At any rate, we are so blessed and he is so watched over. Thank you again God for all your blessings on this child.

I wish I could upload the photos I took of the room. They are on my phone as we forgot to bring the proper camera.............if I can figure it out I will load them and add them later.

Take care everyone and thanks for all the support!

4 comments: