{Can You Hear Me now?}

I took Finn in for his hearing test (ABR-more extensive hearing test) and got the results back immediately after it was done!  And the verdict is:  He Can Hear!!!  His right ear tested normal; hears fine out of it.  His left ear was diagnosed with mild hearing loss.  Huge relief for me.  I thought he had moderate/total hearing loss in his left ear.  Whew!  So thankful it's just mild.  What's mild?  On the test 25 (decibles?  not sure what the label is here) is normal hearing range.  He had to have it turned up to 40 so he could hear it normal.  A 40 scores in the mild hearing loss range.

As of lately, I could tell that he was hearing.  BUT prior, from birth to the end of July I knew he wasn't/couldn't hear me.  He failed two newborn hearing tests before doing the ABR test, which was really discouraging to me.  When I took him to do the ABR test, they did another newborn hearing test and he failed again.  Which surprised me, because the ABR confirmed that he could hear.  The audiologist told me that the newborn test is strictly just a pass/fail test, the ABR test detects ranges, pitches, and wavelengths and is more concrete.  There are a few factors that can cause failure of the newborn test.  If the probe is hitting the wall of the ear canal, wavelengths don't get to the eardrum and that will cause it to fail.  If there is fluid in the ears, it causes blockage so the wavelengths don't vibrate in the eardrum like it's supposed to.   So although he failed and at the time made my heart sink, it was kind of misleading and I stressed for nothing.  Funny, right.....  I wish someone would have explained why babies often can fail the newborn test.  When he failed twice, I told myself that I wasn't going to freak until it was time to freak.  So glad I didn't freak out, it would have been for nothing.  I was very concerned and stressed a little.  But I am glad to know that the time to freakout isn't/won't be coming.

From birth to the end of July when I knew he wasn't/couldn't hear me he did have fluid in his ears.  Which when you have fluid in your ears it's like hearing when you're underwater.  You can't.  It's not clear, it's muggy.  And this explains why he wasn't/couldn't hear me during that time. 

Tubes and a hearing aid could be coming in the future.  Not sure yet.  We will be visiting a pediatric ENT to check for fluid in one month and then he will do another ABR test to make sure it coinsides with the first ABR.  And then we'll decide where we go from there.  For now, we are happy to have crossed this hurdle.