Chance's sister is one of those poor babies that has struggled with ear infections on a continual basis since she was just a few weeks old. We had tubes put in her ears when she was just 3 months old since we know how this situation works. We have other children that have benefited tremendously from having tubes put in. They suffer greatly until we can get them some tubes to help drain their little ears. Number one, they don't have to be on a constant stream of antibiotics to get rid of the infections, and two, they can finally get some decent sleep. Ironically, Chance was not one of our children who had serial ear infections. No, his ears were just fine, until they stopped working one day.
Chance's sister has been struggling with ear infections again despite the tubes, so I took her to Primary Children's Hospital to our good doctor who has helped us out many times before with ear issues. Our Primary Care Physician suggested that we go see an Otolaryngologist (Ears, Nose and Throat doctor) since the infections were coming frequently again. I was sure that she had an infection when we took her to the ENT as all of the signs are there, and she has been tugging at her right ear.
There is no infection and the tubes appear to be working so far as we can see right now. The doctor suggested we get a hearing test done which I am glad to do with my babies just to make sure that all is well. The left ear was well. The right ear failed the test.
Wow. We've heard about a child failing hearing tests before haven't we? It is funny, but while we were in the booth, I just felt that her ear was not going to pass so when the audiologist told me I wasn't all that surprised. The audiologist had a new Nucleus 5 implant box sitting on her desk when I walked in, so I had asked her a few questions about it and that led to me telling her that I had a son with bilateral implants. I think the fact that she knew that I was experienced with hearing loss, made it a little easier for her to tell me that the right ear failed. There was no need to explain what it could mean and I didn't go into shock.
I was surprised though I must say. This makes things interesting. It may just be that the tube is malfunctioning and the doctor just can't tell yet since there is no infection in the ear to check how it is working. It could be scar tissue or just something else we can't weed out yet. It is more rare to have hearing loss in just one ear, but it does happen.
The plan now is for us to head up to the doctors office as soon as we suspect an infection so that he can check the tube. If the tube is not working, the doctor will go back in and replace the tube and do some hearing tests while he has her there. If within the month, there is no infection to check the tube, we will go in for an ABR(auditory brainstem response) test to check her hearing. This is the same test that Chance had that let us know he was deaf. The baby is obviously too little to raise her hand when she hears the beep in the sound booth, so the ABR is a good method to check her hearing.
How would I feel to have another child with hearing loss? Well, we have been there and done that. This is both a plus and a minus. We know what we are doing, but then again, we know the work that would be ahead. Actually, we are a lot more informed now and we know what needs to be done, so in that aspect, it would be much much easier should we enter the land of hearing loss again with another child.
It was interesting having her one ear fail the test. We just need to find out WHY she is not hearing in that one ear. Of course, now that we have this information, we as her parents have been testing her hearing. We call to her from both the right and left side to see if she seems to hear us. We look at her right ear a lot since we may discover some sort of clue by doing this:)
I told Chance that his sister wasn't hearing with her right ear and he then told the other kids that she was deaf like him. I think he was a little excited about that, to have a deaf buddy in the family.
Chance's brother came running down the stairs,'She's deaf?!" He asked breathlessly. "Chance says she's deaf!"
We cleared that up right away, and now we just wait to see what we can learn about what is going on inside of that little right ear.
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