Hearing Test

At Rachel's Crainofacial Team Appointment the end of January, after talking with the ENT, it was decided to have Rachel's hearing retested in 6 months. Her P.E. tubes had both fallen out and we wanted to stay atop of her hearing as it can affect her speech.

She really should have had her hearing tested in August, but with school starting that month, etc, it just slipped my mind. But now that we've gotten the ball moving on getting her speech through the school, I wanted to follow through with getting a hearing test so that the results could be passed on to the speech therapist and to her teacher.

She had her hearing test today and it came back 'normal'!!! Whoo Hoo! No need to see the ENT at this tube for possible tubes!

She did well for the first part, the part where they check the pressure and sound waves bouncing off the ear drum.And for the second part of the test, they took us into the sound proof room (aka the panic room for those that are claustrophobic, etc). She and the assistant sat down, the hearing test started, and things were going well. And then all of a sudden, Rachel stopped putting blocks in the bucket every time she'd hear a sound. She just stopped. I got concerned, cause I heard one or two sounds and I didn't have the ear phones on and yet, she wasn't putting blocks into the bucket! How could she possibly not hear that?!?!? And then the assistant put on a special set of ear phone looking things. I'd never seen these before and it concerned me even more. And then Rachel resumed back to following directions and putting blocks into the bucket.When the test was complete, the audiologist came into the room and we talked and he said that he'd gotten to a point in the test where she just stopped. He was making sounds as loud as her volume in talking and she wasn't picking them up. He said he got concerned for a moment, and then looked at her face and she must have just zoned out for a few minutes because she got back with the program and did it and passed it. LOL. The special ear phone looking thing he had the assistant put on, was to test the nerves in her ears, seeing how she wasn't admitting to hearing anything. LOL. That test too turned out normal.

So it's been proven, she can hear. Now if we could only get her to listen!!! LOL.

Hearing Test

I don't think we could have asked for any better results of Rachel's hearing test! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

First of all, this was the BEST audiologist we've ever had. I'm writing his name down in my "Rachel's Medical Book" for any future testing. He worked well with Rachel and obviously loves children. Which really helps if you want them to cooperate.

He did a pressure test on both Rachel's ears. And believe it or not, the ear with the tube out was better than the ear with the tube. He thinks that perhaps the tube is either on it's way out of the ear drum, or is out, but we can't tell for sure because of all the wax that is surrounding it. So that was the first great news!Then it came time for the actual hearing part of the test, whereas we go into a sound proof room (can you say claustrophia?), and they do play audiometry on her. She wore ear phones and had to follow his directions that he was giving from the other side of the double paned glass. She also had to drop a block into a bucket every time she heard the birdie chirp, which they do at different decibels to test her hearing. She was within normal limits on both ears for those tests!!

This is the best results after a hearing test she's ever had! We see the craniofacial team on the 26th, and that includes her ENT, so we'll see what he has to say then. The only concern then might be that she's had two ear infections in the last month.

4 Year Well Check

This morning Rachel had her 4 year well check, a little late, but better than never.

She is 40.5 lbs (90th percentile) and 40 1/2 inches tall (just below the 50th percentile).

When I looked in her ears a month ago, the tube in her left ear was out and laying in the ear canal. When Dr Berry looked, it's not even laying in the canal anymore, it's gone. However, the tube in her right ear is still in place. Weird how one is out and the other still in. Dr Berry thought it best to have a hearing test, which I agree with. A few weeks ago I called Rachel's ENT and asked about a hearing test since her tubes were out, they said it was needed once a year, or if there were any problems. She had her last hearing test in August 2007, so it's time to have one. The nurse scheduled it at their facility but I think I'm going to cancel it at reschedule it at Loma Linda where all of Rachel's other hearing tests have been done, and can be compared to, etc. Her ENT who does her tubes is there, etc. Rachel is also familiar with that place, so in the long run I think that'll be better.

The nurse also tested Rachel's vision with one of those charts you cover one eye and then the other, etc. Rachel struggled with the last two lines, but truthfully, I was standing right next to her at her level and there was such a glare on the chart, it was hard to see. And by then Rachel just wasn't in the mood for cooperating.

All in all, a great visit. She's all caught up on her immunizations until her kindergarten check up next year!

ENT Post Op

Rachel had her Post Op visit with her ENT's office this morning. The nurse practitioner checked her ears to see if the tubes were placed and doing okay and they were. She asked a few questions about whether or not I thought she was hearing better, etc, and then we were out of there, less than a five minute visit. :)

Rachel's Hearing

It's almost been a week since Rachel had tubes placed in her ears (where does the time go??) and I think she can tell a difference in what she is hearing.

For example, yesterday afternoon, she got into the pumpkin candy jar on the coffee table and the lid rattled. When I came out to make sure she'd not broken anything or eaten all the candy pumpkins inside, she said "it too loud, it hurt my ears". The clanging of the glass pumpkin lid was so clear that she might have been hearing it for the first time, either that or she was afraid she was going to get in trouble for playing with the lid in the first place. LOL.

Another example is this morning was when I was vacuuming, she covered her ears and once again said "that too loud, it hurt my ears".

Defiantly something to remember to tell her ENT at her post op appointment on the 22nd. I'm not sure if they'll do a hearing test in the next couple of months to see if her hearing has improved or not. But for now, I do think she's hearing things differently.