He CAN hear!! - Audiology 101 ( Part I)

It is pretty standard to have a newborn hearing screening completed after a baby is born. This is usually done in the hospital before you get to take the baby home. If there are any "red flags" you are instructed to follow up with an Audiologist.

During Austin's first hearing screening he passed & failed and then the following day he failed & passed. Huh?



Well the first time they did his screening he passed on one side & failed on the other. Great? Well not so fast! The following day in my hospital room they retested to be sure that the results were accurate. We, my OB and I, waited on baited breathe while the Tech did the test. This time he passed (HIGH FIVE!) & failed again, EXCEPT it was on the opposite sides of the previous test. So the conclusion was that they could not conclude his hearing ability. Obviously, we would be seeing an Audiologist anyway.

I suppose you are thinking well, um...he has no ears of course he can't hear. Why even test him? Or how do you do a hearing test on a child with Microtia?



Check it out! They used little silicone type covers instead of little headphones as they normally would have.

His next hearing test was done 3 months later while inpatient in the PICU. It was an unsedated ABR (aka Sleep Deprived ABR). The test was scheduled as an outpatient visit and to be honest I was not looking forward to it. The test itself is totally benign, but they don't call it sleep deprived for nothing. The instructions were to put him to bed late, wake him early and then drive 45-60 minutes to the appointment. Easy, right? Ah, the catch was: Don't allow the baby to fall asleep in the car on the way over, they needed him to fall asleep on cue. Impossible!! Well as luck (?) would have it Austin was rushed to the PICU the day before the test so we missed our appointment. Since I was a pretty squeaky wheel, I "convinced" the Audiologist that they could do the test right there in the PICU. I REFUSED to wait another 3 months for an opening.

A very sweet lady, K, came and she was great. She did the test while Austin napped (thankfully on cue!) and then she reviewed the results right there on the spot. Anyone who has ever had to wait for test results knows how absolutely nerve wracking the wait can be.

The conclusion: he CAN hear without a hearing aid @ 70-80dB. (Here is where a visual comes in handy. Checkout THIS Audiogram Speech Banana - yes,I am speaking English.) What that means is he can hear a dog bark or piano if they are basically in the same room as him. He can hear us talking if we are REALLY SUPER LOUD. Believe it or not, this was Good News. Severe Hearing loss you say, I will take it. When she tested him aided (Bone Conduction) his hearing was at about 40-45dB, even better as this moved him up to a Moderate Hearing loss.

Since the sounds of speech fall within the "banana" @ 25-55dB it was obvious that he would benefit from a hearing aid. Too bad my insurance refused to pay one thin dime to cover it.

K recommended a BAHA Softband. Sadly, with an OOP cost of nearly $4000.00 this was not even remotely possible. We settled for a Traditional Bone Conduction Hearing Aid, which had a more feasible OOP cost of $1200.00. Six weeks later, credit card in hand, on March 17th 2008 Austin wore his hearing aid and heard my voice for the very first time. He was 4 months old.





Stay Tuned for Part 2!

Thanks for peeking,