Hugh has never passed a hearing test. NEVER. Not even as a newborn. When he was born, he failed the first test and then they kept him an extra day to check again, and he didn't pass that one either. They recommended we come back in three weeks to have his hearing tested again, but we were going to be back in GA, so we said we'd follow up with our pediatrician here.
At the one-month check, his pediatrician asked if we were concerned, and we were not. She said it was a probably a good idea to schedule something just so we'd know that his hearing was okay.
When I called CHOA (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta), they said that he'd need a non-sedated ABR. We went ahead and scheduled it and then we were informed that because he was under four-months, they had specific requirements for the day before/of surgery. 1) He was to be kept awake for as long as possible, and he would be over-tired. 2) We were to not feed him for 12 hours before the surgery. They said this would help with the test because he'd be so tired and hungry, that when he was finally able to eat, he'd go right to sleep and that'd help them do the test.
I was not comfortable with this level of distress that I honestly felt was unnecessary, so we opted to delay the test. Fast-forward to November 2015.
Hugh's transition meeting from Babies Can't Wait to Fulton County Schools. They asked if we had records of a positive hearing test and we didn't. They said they couldn't close his case without one, so we were told to go to Hembry Springs Elementary (same place we went with Gus when he was transitioning out of BCW and into FC). We weren't going to go, but they were adamant about him needing the positive test. So, I went ahead and scheduled it.
When I took him to the school in November (it was two weeks before Thanksgiving Break)... he failed that test. In fact, she gave two because she was surprised by the results. She said because he failed, he'd need to be seen by an ENT to check his ears more closely. OY.
Talk about being in shock.
So I called the recommended ENT and made an appointment for that Friday (just two days later). When he went in, he saw the audiologist (not the ENT) and he failed their three tests. They said he had a lot of pressure and fluid and wanted him to see the ENT. We came back to see him the following week.
Because we had not had any issues prior to that point, we didn't have a starting point and Dr. Bauer wanted to have a starting place to look and see how it progressed over time. We scheduled an appointment for January and we were told that in the time between, if he had any ear infections, to keep track of them. (He had one)
When we went in January, they did another exam and found that everything was worse and they decided that surgery was needed. So we scheduled his surgery for this past Wednesday.
Hugh had a lot of fluid in his ear
This is what it looks like with the tube in
The tubes are tiny!
Hugh got tubes in both ears. The surgery was a success and now we wait for six weeks to go back and see how the hearing compares to before.
They said before surgery, he was probably hearing like you would underwater. He *COULD* hear, but the quality of his hearing was not good. Hopefully when we go back, we'll learn that his hearing is on-par and all is well!!
