On January 29, we took my sweet little 3 month old daughter, Bentley, to the pediatrician. This was just a usual 3 month old appointment, so we thought.....
We voiced a few concerns: no visual tracking or focusing, no response to loud noises, still very weak. We have been having concerns surrounding Bentley's reflexes and strength. Up until this point we attributed it to her "lazy" eating habits. Our MD was a little concerned too. He decided to schedule a series of appointments with a couple of specialists to get some things checked out. Ophthamology, audiology, ENT, blood work, genetics, and a couple more. Well, first stop was an audiologist at Children's South that Friday.
Thursday the 31st of January, 2013. The only significance in my mind as I woke up that mornnig was, "it is the last day of deer season. Maybe, after the appt, I could run to the farm and hunt this afternoon." That didn't happen.
We pulled into Children's South with some anxieties. Lindsay was very scared. I was excited to see what this place looked like on the inside. -We are very different when it comes to doctors appointments.- To make a long story short. They rechecked Bentley's hearing, the same way they do at birth. SHE FAILED. This didn't make a lot of sense. She had passed at birth. Maybe there was a mistake...They checked again, using a differnet type of test...SHE FAILED. Hmmmmmmmmmm. The audiologist was great. She made an appt for that afternoon at the Children's of Alabama HEAR Center, to do further testing.
No last day of deer season for me.
We arrived downtown for another evaluation. We met a great Audiologist, who was very sweet and professional. She hooked Bentley up to the ABR thing (I hope it was ABR, if not, don't correct me) while Lindsay held her. Bentley had a few electrodes hooked to her head, and they used something like a scotchbrite pad to prep for the electrode paste, NOT COOL. Well, just our luck. The machine would not work. DANG BLUETOOTH! It wouldnt connect. We tried multiple electrodes and two ABR machines. Nothing worked. We later learned they had a bad case of electrode pads. The audiologist could sense our anxiety and frustration and was kind enough to take us up the the big Children's and use one of their machines. At this time it was around 5:30pm. We get in the little room at Children's Clinic 2, I believe, and reattach everything. This time it worked.
As many of you know, when someone is running a test and it is not going well, they say a bunch of generic stuff. I get it, but dang, if I want to watch the monitor let me. I'm as curious as I am terrified. The audiologist finishes up and then says those dreaded words: "let me clean put this machine up and we will go over the results." Not "she's great she can hear, have a good night." or a variation of that. No, we knew it was bad.
Severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss was the diagnosis. Interesting, but not comforting.
So, we now know Bentley hasn't heard a word since birth. The hearing test at the hospital was most likely a false positive. Obviously they aren't as accurate as e.p.t.
I'm tired of typing, so that's it for my first official update. When I finally post it, it will have been a few weeks since all this took place. Sorry for the delay.
We voiced a few concerns: no visual tracking or focusing, no response to loud noises, still very weak. We have been having concerns surrounding Bentley's reflexes and strength. Up until this point we attributed it to her "lazy" eating habits. Our MD was a little concerned too. He decided to schedule a series of appointments with a couple of specialists to get some things checked out. Ophthamology, audiology, ENT, blood work, genetics, and a couple more. Well, first stop was an audiologist at Children's South that Friday.
Thursday the 31st of January, 2013. The only significance in my mind as I woke up that mornnig was, "it is the last day of deer season. Maybe, after the appt, I could run to the farm and hunt this afternoon." That didn't happen.
We pulled into Children's South with some anxieties. Lindsay was very scared. I was excited to see what this place looked like on the inside. -We are very different when it comes to doctors appointments.- To make a long story short. They rechecked Bentley's hearing, the same way they do at birth. SHE FAILED. This didn't make a lot of sense. She had passed at birth. Maybe there was a mistake...They checked again, using a differnet type of test...SHE FAILED. Hmmmmmmmmmm. The audiologist was great. She made an appt for that afternoon at the Children's of Alabama HEAR Center, to do further testing.
No last day of deer season for me.
We arrived downtown for another evaluation. We met a great Audiologist, who was very sweet and professional. She hooked Bentley up to the ABR thing (I hope it was ABR, if not, don't correct me) while Lindsay held her. Bentley had a few electrodes hooked to her head, and they used something like a scotchbrite pad to prep for the electrode paste, NOT COOL. Well, just our luck. The machine would not work. DANG BLUETOOTH! It wouldnt connect. We tried multiple electrodes and two ABR machines. Nothing worked. We later learned they had a bad case of electrode pads. The audiologist could sense our anxiety and frustration and was kind enough to take us up the the big Children's and use one of their machines. At this time it was around 5:30pm. We get in the little room at Children's Clinic 2, I believe, and reattach everything. This time it worked.
As many of you know, when someone is running a test and it is not going well, they say a bunch of generic stuff. I get it, but dang, if I want to watch the monitor let me. I'm as curious as I am terrified. The audiologist finishes up and then says those dreaded words: "let me clean put this machine up and we will go over the results." Not "she's great she can hear, have a good night." or a variation of that. No, we knew it was bad.
Severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss was the diagnosis. Interesting, but not comforting.
So, we now know Bentley hasn't heard a word since birth. The hearing test at the hospital was most likely a false positive. Obviously they aren't as accurate as e.p.t.
I'm tired of typing, so that's it for my first official update. When I finally post it, it will have been a few weeks since all this took place. Sorry for the delay.
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