Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Confusing Hearing Test No Longer So Confusing

Liam got to visit Dr. Peters today. (CJ did, too, but there isn't really any news there. Honestly, no news is many times good news, right?) We discussed his hearing test from Monday that left us a little baffled about the results.

Monday's bone conduction test showed that Liam might only have a mild/moderate hearing loss rather than a severe/profound loss. We weren't sure what to make of that then, but I feel better about it all now. Dr. Peters reminded me that children with Mondini issues (damage to the formation of the cochlea) may sometimes have hearing that ebbs and flows. In his opinion, it's not a question of if Liam will need a cochlear implant, but when. He is far more inclined to believe the three ABR's Liam has already had.

To be honest, I feel MUCH better about this than I thought I would. I think my heart already knew that Liam is Deaf, and my heart loves that. I love that he is precisely who a loving Father in Heaven meant for him to be. Rather than mourn Liam's and CJ's hearing loss, we'd already reframed so much of it in our minds and learned to embrace and build upon it.

So, we are waiting two weeks to see if his ear infection in his left ear will clear up and then we'll see Dr. Peters again. At that point, we can discuss where we go from here. So, I don't really have any big news. Like I said before though, sometimes no news is good news.

7 comments:

  1. Both of these latest posts make me smile big! I didn't realize that Liam is no longer on full time Oxygen. YAY Liam! YAY!

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  2. It is good that you got some clarification on Liam's testing! The ABR tests are a good thing to go by, since they're totally objective and you've had several consistent ABR's.

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  3. Did Mondini issues show up on a CT scan? It's amazing that his hearing could fluctuate that much.

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  4. They both have mondini problems that are very visible on the CT scans. CJ also has enlarged vestibular aqueducts.

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  6. I am glad that you are no longer confused with the hearing test. It took me while to figure out why the avg test showed I have mod-severe and I am completely deaf severe-profound for about 6 months now showing on my audiogram. I am glad I just found your blog. I will be adding you to my list. Feel free to read my blog. I was born deaf and at age 2 I was hard of hearing after many surgeries. I was mod-severe my entire life ( the only one in the family hard of hearing, and I struggled tremendously). Im now 24 years old and Im profoundly deaf. Smile-Hugs

    Danielle

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  7. Hi I just found your blog by googling "Hannah Anderson hats hearing aids". Your youngest sounds a lot like my little man - he's 15 mo old with lung disease and bilateral hearing loss. I will be reading along. God bless.

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