When babies are born in the state of Florida, maybe everywhere actually, they are screened for hearing problems while still in the hospital. Most of the time the baby passes on each ear and that's it. Sometimes, however, they fail. They don't actually say "fail," they say "refer," but you get the idea.
Liam passed on his right ear and got a big fat REFER on his left.
Five. Times. In. A. Row.
Stressful. There's no history of deafness in either of our families, so we were sad and confused. I was worried. Once we left the hospital 3 days after he was born, we had to come back and have the test re-done a week later with a more rigorous screening process.
He failed on the left side that time too.
That meant we had to make a special appointment to see an ENT and have a very in-depth hearing screen called an ABR done.
If he didn't stay sleeping or still/quiet enough for this test they'd have to sedate him.
SERIOUSLY.
It's crazy, if your child fails the tests in the hospital, you get these letters from the state saying "Your child did not pass his/her infant hearing screen."
"It is VERY important to have this test re-done."
It's like your kid has smallpox!
Anyway, because of Liam being 5.5 weeks early, they had to schedule his ABR pretty far out so that he'd be more developed. The appointment was today at 8 am.
You have to deprive them of sleep and wait to feed them at the clinic. Obviously these people have never driven a 2 month old 45 minutes at 7 am. No amount of foot tickling was keeping this boy awake.
Regardless, he was awesome, and passed right away. The doctor said there was some pressure in his ears, which suggests that there may have been a build up of fluid in them previously. His left ear canal is slightly more narrow than his right, so that explains why his right was passing and his left was getting "referred."
I'm so happy. Not that hearing loss is something terrible, or something that we wouldn't have adapted to and embraced as part of raising our beautiful son, but I'm very thankful that it won't be an issue.
Is parenting full of these types of scares? Crap I hope not.
2 comments:
Remember when Braden had to have his ear tubes put in because he kept getting ear infections? The most common procedure EVER and I was beside myself freaking out about it... It's always scary when it's your own kid, and seems 10 times worse. But somehow they always turn out to be perfect, no matter what the outcome is. Kids are bomb. =)
They just come up with more creative ways to scare you as they get bigger. :-) (Alex climbs. everything. I have minor heart attacks every time I catch him 5 or 6 feet off the ground.)
I hate that they do hearing screens right after birth - SO many babies still have fluid in their ears at that point that it just ends up freaking parents out for no reason. Alex failed his too and we had to go back.
Post a Comment