Are you saying his hearing has improved?

After two hours in the hospital waiting room Zack and I finally get to meet the elusive ENT (Ear Nose Throat) consultant as well as our usual Audiologist consultant, to discuss Zack's middle ear problem.


ENT man discussed the use of grommets and suggested that it may be worth waiting until Zack was a little older to see if the glue ear went away of it's own accord. He also suggested that we increase Zack's hearing aids by 30% to see if they make a difference.


Sometimes in appointments you don't feel like you have time to think, to digest what is being said, a lot takes place and you need time to reflect. Some discussion went on between the two doctors about testing Zack's hearing again with and without his hearing aids. Suggestions of sedation was also mentioned. Then the lady that makes Zack's ear moulds for his hearing aids comes in and another suggestion is made of getting Zack's moulds redone (the plastic bit that goes in the ear for the hearing aid).


We follow ear mould lady into another room and she disappears for a minute. I have a think. Wait a minute......this isn't right. The lady comes back and I say to her that I don't understand why we are increasing the hearing aid volume when there is no difference in Zack's hearing with or without the hearing aids. His hearing is good, it's not that he can't hear, he can hear. She looks at me and says so are you saying his hearing has improved? Yes I say. Well that's not what they got in there. Hang on I say, they think I am saying his hearing has got worse and even with his hearing aids in it isn't improved? Noooooooo I say, that's completely wrong, he can hear, he hears me creeping into his room, he hears his little music box, he listens to me on the phone. What is wrong with these people I have been telling them this all along. So there is not point in increasing his hearing aids. Oh for the love of God.


The lady disappears again. Comes back. Yep, definitely not what they thought you were saying (I love how I get blamed for this). Oh and the audiologist has gone but but ear mould lady will get hold of her this afternoon.


That afternoon I get a phone call it's ear mould woman again. Well they all thought you were saying that his hearing had got worse. No I said for the umpteenth time, it's improved. So she suggested I can either try and get his hearing re-tested or come back to the joint clinic. I did say I didn't see what the point of that would be as the doctor was more or less suggesting no grommets as A) a G.A can be quite dangerous for a small child and has risks associated with it and B) They only last about 6 months. 


We then discussed if I might be able to get Zack to sleep at a required time in the day so they could test his hearing. I'll try I said but I can't be sure if he would go to sleep. The lady on the phone asked me how long it might take for me to get him to go to sleep. How the hell should I know. In the end I just said send me an appointment for this hearing test and we'll try to get him to sleep on the day at your required time. Losing the will to live.


To be honest, I was so fed up with the whole thing I just thought they can all push off. I know he can hear me and to prove a point I shook his little rattle really quietly out of view and he smiled. Every time. 


I think some doctors need to start listening to parents and respecting what they say rather than thinking that just because a child has severe brain damage they will never improve. They will always improve, might not be in great leaps and bounds but there will always be progress. Plus don't under-estimate Zack he has a lot to prove and is extremely stubborn. 

He gave her his best skunk eye

Today the Zacky Pants went off to have his hearing tested..yet again. The last test, was a fat old fail, apparently most children pass at a hearing of 35 decibels in each ear, Zack could hear at 60 decibels in the left and 50 in the right. We were asked to come back to re-check it, in case his ears were blocked. They gave him another four weeks to revise, I told him there was no pressure and to just do the best he could.

 

So there we were again, sat in the little hospital cubicle, with me trying to get him to sleep. You see, the baby needs to be sleeping so they can measure the brainwaves in reaction to the little clicking sounds they make in his ear. This doesn't work very well if said baby is wide awake and bouncing off the walls. Getting the Pants to go to sleep isn't too difficult, though he did find it quite amusing at one point and managed to force out a couple of smiles, (by the way the smiling thing is very rare with him, I'm still convinced at this stage it's wind). 

Anyhoo, the two lovely audiologist nurses came in, complete with computer and wires. Electrodes were put on Sir's forehead and behind his ears, then a small headphone was placed on one ear and the testing began. This usually takes about   twenty minutes for each ear, but in my case, nearly two bleedin hours as Zack decided to do lots of stretching and mooching about. At one point, he opened his eyes wide, gave me the evil eye then turned his head to the audiologist and he gave her his best skunk eye ever, that's my boy. 

By the end of it all, his pass rate hasn't change, his hearing is still the same although they also tested his inner ear, which, they tell me has some blockage. A lot of babies get this which means that it can muffle sounds which makes it more difficult to hear. We are going to see a paediatric audiologist, who will most likely send us back to do the whole test again....fantastic. 

In the meantime, we now speak to Zack in louder voices. It's very strange trying to calm a crying baby whilst shouting "There, there!". We also play lots of music for him, loudly. He loves it, you can tell he is listening, but his dad isn't impressed that he has a soft spot for Bon Jovi. I don't know how that got on to the ipod.

Eye test tomorrow.....I hope he's revised for this one.