Say What? Continued ...

Thank goodness the weather cooperated and Sammy was able to have his much anticipated hearing test and ENT appointment today. The weather forecasts showed that it was supposed to be below freezing all day and icy roads would have prevented us from being able to drive across town to the medical center. After much prayer, I was thrilled to find the temperature above 32 so we could safely drive.

The first test Sammy had was a tympanometry test which measures the ear drum's flexibility. I'm not exactly sure if it's air or sound or both that they use to do this test, but whatever the case, you can see a visual of the results below.

The bell shaped curve is normal in children to cross through the lower dotted square (it is normal for adults to cross either dotted square). The lowest curve is showing hearing impairment.

This is what Sammy's graph looks like for both ears. Flat as a pancake.

What this means apparently, is that Sammy has so much fluid in his ears that his eardrums can't flex at all. The effect on Sammy's hearing is a loss of about 35 - 40 db. Wearing a set of earplugs like the ones below cancel out about 30 db. Imagine walking around with these stuck in your ears and picture Sammy's hearing being even worse than that!! Can you blame him for not learning how to talk? Poor kiddo! The second test they did was to put us in a sound proof room facing one corner with a speaker to the left and the right. I was instructed to keep Sammy focused on a toy in my lap facing forward while the test administrator would call Sammy's name over one speaker or the other and slowly turn up the volume on the speaker until Sammy looked in that direction. The guy was pretty much yelling at Sammy with the volume turned way up before Sammy would look. This comes as no surprise to me as we've observed his lack of reaction to sound at home since he was born. It's great for his sleeping, not so great for communicating. When I had the test results faxed to the speech therapist's office the receptionist said "Oh my, you weren't kidding about him not being able to hear!" Not the words a parent ever really hopes to hear. Sigh.

The good news is the ENT believes all of Sammy's hearing loss is temporary and caused by fluid buildup. We won't know this for certain of course until after the fluid is drained and his hearing is retested. Sammy is scheduled to get tubes in his ears this Monday morning and will have another hearing test in a month. This might be the first time in Sammy's 18 months of life that he's ever been able to hear clearly. I'll have to make a conscious adjustment to talk to him in a normal voice as I'm so used to talking to him like he is hard of hearing. I've never seen him startle from a loud noise, but I suspect that will soon change.

The procedure is extremely common and takes 15-30 minutes total, but since the kids have to be put under using anesthesia, it is a little concerning. I'm sure he'll be totally fine and I'm not feeling anxious at all, but prayers are always appreciated!

Funny side note, according to our fridge repair guy, Sammy's most commonly used word is the exact pronunciation of "big brother" in Cantonese. LOL!!

Say What?

Okay, it's a little late for our family Christmas photo, but I've been too busy to post anything for awhile.

At Sammy's 18 month checkup, the pediatrician said he wanted to get Sammy in for a speech evaluation and possibly for some speech therapy as his verbal skills are behind schedule. Not surprisingly, he did not pass his hearing test again at his 18 month checkup (that makes 4 "failed" hearing tests). Unfortunately, an appointment with an ENT took longer to get, so he had his speech evaluation before he could get his ears checked out by a specialist. The speech evaluator said although Sammy is behind schedule in talking or babbling, he shows absolutely no sign of learning impairment and seemed to understand her and followed multi-step directions very well. She said determining and fixing the hearing problems would likely solve the problem and he might just need a limited amount of speech therapy to get him back up to speed once his hearing is normal.

There is always the possibility that Sammy could have permanent partial hearing loss (inherited from his father) and we're not afraid of dealing with whatever the result is. My belief is that it is probably just fluid in his ears and tubes might clear that up. If it is permanent, we all get to embark on an exciting adventure of learning more sign language. Johnny is always enthusiastic to teach Sammy new signs, which has resulted in our using some non-traditional signs because Johnny ends up teaching Sammy a made up sign. At least we understand each other. ;)

Prayers are always appreciated. We know that God's grace is sufficient and that He will provide for all of our needs. No one is worried, we're just doing our best to address things as early as possible. The ENT appoinment is scheduled for this Tuesday morning.

Just out of curiosity ... if you have babies ... do you notice them staring at your mouth a lot when you talk (reading lips)? Sammy watches my mouth a lot and I was wondering if he's just trying to figure out how I'm forming the sounds, or if he can't clearly hear what I'm saying.