Seville's Hearing Update

I wanted to get everyone an update on Seville’s hearing. She had a sedated ABR (auditory brainstem response) test on Friday and it went pretty good. They put her to sleep with Scott and me still in the room, which was horrible, and they ran the tempanogram with us in the room as well, which she did not do well on, and then they sent us out to the waiting room, so the whole time I was worried because the one test they had done was not good! The only thing keeping me positive was the fact that she had been turning to more sounds lately and had even started babbling earlier that week. The tempanogram checks for pressure and/or fluid in the ear, and last time she had one she had negative pressure in both ears, but this time she actually flat lined the test in the right ear, meaning that it wouldn’t even run the test and that she had a lot of fluid in her right ear. This fluid is the kind of fluid that I guess doctors cannot see…it is much deeper. The left ear still had negative pressure, but the right ear is the really bad one. Anyway, when they came out to get us after the full test they said that everything else went really well and that she does NOT have any permanent loss or damage in either ear…PHEW!! We were so thankful!! She does show some loss at all frequency levels in her right ear, but they think and hope that is just due to the fluid, and that hopefully it is starting to resolve itself. They asked how many ear infections she has had and I said NONE!! With that in mind they said it was probably best to take a “wait and see” approach. If she had multiple ear infections then they would suggest tubes. I talked to her speech pathologist again today and everyone is just so happy with her progress this last week (I mean we have gone from a silent baby to gabby gabs a lot all in ONE week) that she also recommends a “wait and see” approach for a month or so to see how she progresses on her own. We also have an appointment with her ENT next week to discuss the results of the sedated ABR and whether tubes would be a good idea at this point or not. It is hard for me to understand why we would want her to continue going around hearing things as if she is under water, but maybe he can shed some more light on that. Hopefully they can also run another tempanogram at that appointment and we can see if anything has changed…I have a feeling regular tempanograms will be in our future for quite some time (luckily you do not have to be sedated for them!) So…thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers these last few months! We are finally hearing our baby girl speak and oh how sweet it is!! Her favorite phrase right now is “yayaya”…probably for “yeah, yeah, yeah…I knew I would start talking when I wanted to…big sister will just never let me have a word in edgewise!” Also, just incase you are wondering, Seville did just great with the sedation and woke right up and had a bottle and they got us right out of there!

I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures of Seville. It was taken in July when she was 4 months old! What a cutie!!