Our Life

Friday we were finally able to have a confirming ABR (auditory brain response) hearing test completed for Addison. She failed her newborn hearing screening at the hospital, which is actually quite common it turns out. On Oct. 14th we had a follow-up hearing test and ABR done at Boys Town and expected it to turn out just fine but it did not. There was fluid in her right ear but her left ear had no fluid in it. Her right ear showed mostly normal hearing on the ABR and the OAE, however, her left ear showed that she had mild to moderate hearing loss. This is called a unilateral hearing loss because it is of course just in the one side. We were suppose to have a follow up ENT appointment and ABR right around 2 months (early Dec.) but Addison got her first ear infection at that time. They of course could not do the ABR while she had fluid in both ears and an infection. Addison started her antibotics right away and also was set for a surgery date for having tubes put in both her ears. Of course it was aggresive as far as treatment goes for ear infections (only 1) but since she has a permanent hearing loss in one ear the conductive (fluid caused) hearing loss just compounds the problems and it is very important that we keep her ears as healthy as possibly. She had tubes on the 17th of Dec. and did great with the procedure. We still had to wait a bit though for the confirming ABR and of course needed a post-op follow-up with ENT. So last week we had the post-op follow-up appointment and everything looked great as far as the tubes went. Addison also had another OAE done at that time and the results looked like they had in Oct. so we scheduled an ABR - but she had to be sedated for this because she was older and more wiggly. So today was the day for the ABR. Other than Addison being upset before she got her sleepy medicine because she was hungry and wasn't allowed to eat (this is devasting for her even if she has to wait 2 minutes so she really was not happy with it) she did great and was all smiles throughout the morning. Even with sedation though she was squirmy and the ABR took over 2 hours, then it was the 30 minutes of being awake, being able to eat, and waiting for discharge. The ABR went well though and confirmed that she does have unilateral hearing loss in her left ear. This time the results were a bit "worse" and the numbers indicated that she has moderate hearing loss across all the frequencies that they test for. Many people have asked if her hearing loss is permanent or if it will get better - there is of course no 100% answer but everyone from ENT to audiology is 99% sure that it is a permanent congential hearing loss. We don't know what the cause it as this point and we may never really know. There is also no way to know right now whether her hearing loss will remain the same or change as she grows, frequent hearing tests though will help us monitor that and make sure she is getting the aid she needs. Since the ABR confirmed the hearing loss, we also had a mold taken of her left ear. It is pretty interesting, there was essentially a little blue plug put in her ear and it had a tube that came out of her ear, then a compound was mixed and used to fill her ear. It looked like her ear was a frosted pink cupcake. After 5 minutes it was hard and pulled out of her ear. The mold will take about 2 weeks for the mold to come back and then we will have a fitting for her hearing aid. To start we will use a loaner hearing aid and then will secure one of her own. It should be fun trying to keep a hearing aid in a 4 month old, especially with 2 very curious older brothers! We are still learning about how a unilateral hearing loss will affect Addison and what tools we'll need for Addison to continue to thrive.

Addison sleeping during her ABR (automated brain response) hearing test. There are little ear microphones in both ears and then pads behind both ears and on her forehead. The microphones send noises into each ear and the pads measure whether her brain responses to them. Amazing what they can do now adays, huh?

still sleeping and listening

Addison was getting close to being done in this picture. Results confirmed what the earlier ABR had said and were pretty much the same, so after they were done with this part of the test, the audiologist put a plug of sorts in her left ear and then filled it with some compound stuff that almost looked like pink frosting to take a mold of her ear for her hearing aid.