The big day! Today's appointment was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Again, Mikaela is supposed to be asleep through the entire two hour test. With nursing her, that's about all I get! Plus it takes so long to get her burps out with the acid reflux and all.... How was I to feed her, burp her, drive to Philly and keep her asleep for two hours?
I had a plan! If we arrive at CHOP by 9 or 9:15, I could nurse, burp and get her back to sleep for 10:30 - hopefully!! Then she would be full enough to sleep for the two hour test. My mom was coming by 8:00 so we could leave by 8:15 and my plan would be a success. Kurt, however, had his own plan. We ended up leaving here after 9 a.m. and Mikaela ended up falling asleep on the ride over. Her feeding schedule was all off....oh, well! We just had to go with it. (Of course I was really not thrilled at the time.)
We arrive at about 10 and Erin, our audiologist, takes us right in. We start the test immediately since she was already sleeping. They hooked her up to the same test that the hospital has. After a few short minutes, Erin suggested hooking her up to the ABR machine since she wasn't getting response from the other. Well, at that moment, by having the need for the other test, she confirmed we definitely had some degree of hearing loss.
The electrodes had to be changed and miraculously, Mikaela stayed asleep! I knew she must be getting hungry. How much longer did we have? The other machine was had tubes in her ears and a computer screen where Erin would change the pitch and volume while Mikaela's brain waves showed on the monitor. After a while, Mikaela did start to move while she was sleeping, so I took that to mean she must be hearing something....That the noise must be disturbing her sleep. Erin said that, yes, she was getting some responses. Oh, good! We asked her what exactly she was looking for, and she showed us a peak and a dip in the waves. That indicates the brain responded to the tones.
So the test wrapped up and Erin says, "Your daughter's hearing loss is in the Severe range." I didn't hear - or just can't really remember - too much of what she said after that. I didn't really know what that exactly meant either - I just knew that "severe" is never good. It was a blow to the gut! I was not prepared and quite shaken.
Kurt had said some time earlier that he was expecting the worst and was okay with that. He tends to prepare himself that way and if it's not as bad as expected, he is pleasantly surprised. I tend to expect the best and when it doesn't happen, it takes me a minute to adjust.
We then tested her Otoacoustic Emissions (Oae) which measures the sound coming back out of the ear and it revealed: Absent OAEs at all frequency regions tested. Then the Tympanometry which measures the function of the ear drum. This can be an indicator of fluid and/or wax build up as well. Right ear: Consistent with normal middle ear status. Left ear: Consistent with low middle ear compliance. Results should be interpreted with caution due to Mikaela's movement during testing. I found this to be particularly peculiar since she has more hearing in her left ear than her right ear. However, the ear drum seems to function correctly in the right and not in the left. (I later learned why this could be so.)
By the end of the appointment, we understood better what Severe hearing loss "looks like". We were shown a graph that indicates the "speech banana" and other sounds by their decibel and pitch. It shows what Mikaela can hear with a 70 decibel loss in her left ear and a 90 decibel loss in her right ear. Here is a link to the site that has it:
http://edschool.csuhayward.edu/departments/ted/instruction/howe/5500/AAL-speechbanana.html
If it doesn't come up for you, just google "speech banana" and you will see what I mean.
As we concluded that appointment, I was anxious to call family and let them know. Everyone has been praying so hard! As I made my calls, I said, "We are taking a different path with Mikaela. She has Severe/Profound hearing loss and things will be different than expected." Hence the name of the blog - Mikaela's Path.
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