Miss M's hearing

The preschool tested the kids for vision and hearing in the middle of October and I received a letter at the end of October from the Early Childhood Coalition stating Miss M failed her hearing test. I tried not to freak out but immediately freaked out internally.  It was quite a blow for me b/c I never in a million years would have thought Miss M had any hearing difficulty.

We proceeded with calling the pediatrician.  She determined Miss M had a mild double ear infection and that was likely the reason for the hearing loss during the test.  We gave her antibiotics and went back to the pediatrician to get clearance so we could go to the audiologist.  

We were in a sound proof room for an hour during the audiologist appointment.  I didn't think much of it bc I was sure the ear infections were gone and all was clear.  They did tests that measure the wave length (I guess) through the ear and while her left ear came back in the appropriate bell curve her right ear came back flat.  Minimal to no curve at all.  The resident (pictured) told me that it could be due to fluid in her ear or her ear not working. They wouldn't really know until they tested her.  

 Right ear results.

They then set her up with the audiologist sitting next to her and the resident behind the glass window. The audiologist had on headphones to know what/when Miss M would hear beeps/words.  They put headphones on Miss M and tested hear ear.  They also put a special headphone on her to test her cochlea directly to determine if the loss was due to the fluid or the cochlea not working.

They played games where every time she heard the noise she was supposed to hear she threw beanbags in a container.  They played five or more games b/c the audiologist could tell when Miss M was getting bored. It became difficult to watch her struggle.  She was getting frustrated.  She was also getting bored of it.  She couldn't hear the beeps/noises in her right ear when I could hear them sitting three feet away from her.

They ended up coming back in the room and telling me that there was definitely fluid in her ear but when they tested the cochlea directly it was not functioning properly and there was "severe and permanent" hearing damage.  While sitting in the doctors office trying not to cry b/c my heart was so sad I did remember that hearing loss is far from the worst thing that could happen.  It didn't stop me from being sad.  So we went to the Rainforest Cafe to cheer us (me) up.  It was fun. She got a 32 oz icee in a gorilla cup.  She was so thrilled. She drank it in 7.4 seconds and didn't eat any of her food. The food was awful.  Straight up disgusting.  But it was worth the $75 we spent to make us (me) feel better.

Andrew ended up being able to take a cab to join us for dinner but then he went back to work and we went home. I dropped her off at home b/c I was mentally and emotionally drained (read: I didn't want to put the kids to bed) and headed to Starbucks for a bit.

 Graph of earring test.

We talked to Adam a lot since he's our family hearing expert.  He worked at Sears for a few years and understands the charts and procedures.

We got into the ENT's office a week later. Poppy went to the appointment with me which was helpful.  They told us the first thing we had to do was put tubes in her ears and get the fluid out.  Once we get the fluid out then they can rerun the hearing test to see where the actually falls with regard to hearing loss. I had scheduled the tubes procedure for December 30 but after thinking about insurance deductibles I rescheduled it for January 13.

And we'll go from there.