Jan 6th - failed 3rd test with new testing equipment (16 weeks)The new audiology equipment arrived a couple weeks ago so we went in for the third time and again, Isaac failed the hearing tests. He's now been officially referred to the next level and needs to be medevaced out of Spain for a sedated brain test. The audiologist showed me a detailed poster of the middle and inner ear and explained that from what he's tested, the middle ear is intact so the possible hearing loss is probably due to the inner ear, cochlea, connecting nerve, or in the brain. He seemed very concerned and apologetic for what he predicted to be the problem. When asked if I had any experience with hearing loss or deafness, I explained that my first cousin, Craig, was born profoundly deaf. Although I didn't have too much interaction with him as we were growing up, our families went camping together every summer so I know he wore hearing aides, lived with a host family while attending a deaf school during the school year and I had seen his family signing with him. Now as an adult, I understand that he is married to a woman who is also deaf with children of their own and doing very well in life. That's very vague but that's all I can relate to in the deaf culture. Travis doesn't have any deaf family history on his side that he knows of. Maybe I'm totally naive to what this testing might reveal but I think if Isaac gets hearing aides, he'll be okay. I don't know. I think I'm more nervous about where we need to go to get the diagnosis and how we'll work out the details of getting where we need to be, etc.
The Navy has an audiologist in Italy who has previous experience with pediatric audiology and the hospital in Naples has the facilities to perform the ABR test so in about two weeks, we are heading over there. They'll be doing an auditory brainstem response (ABR) test. We just received our flight itinerary yesterday and are now planning out our "trip". Since we'll be in Italy, at the Naval Hospital, we were able to extend our time a few days so we can do some sightseeing. We've decided to take the whole family since Travis and I both want/need to be with him and we will be away longer than we are comfortable leaving our 3 older children with someone else. I wish we were going under better circumstances though. Prayers for my baby's hearing, testing and future are welcomed and encouraged. We are trusting the Lord in this and resting in the fact that He won't give us more than we can handle. In fact, we are grateful to have this early testing and diagnosis at the beginning of his life.
I've started looking around on the internet for information on infant hearing loss and have found that if we can get him diagnosed and fitted for hearing aides (if necessary) before 6 month of age, it shouldn't be too difficult to catch him up to the milestones of normal hearing children.
