Children's Hospital here we come....

As you may or may not be aware Emmett John has an appt. at the Children's Hospital in the morning. It appears that Emmett John is profoundly deaf. He has been to the audiologist and failed the test. Although he wouldn't let her but anything in his ears. He didn't respond in any, way, shape or form to ANY of the test they did complete. She said he can't hear anything 45db of lower (human voice) and most likely couldn't hear anything below 65db. She said he was at least moderately hearing impaired but probably profoundly deaf. However, because he wouldn't go along with the rest of the testing she couldn't say for sure.

In the morning he is scheduled for an ABR test. He will be sedated and they will do pretty much the same hearing test only they will monitor his brain activity to see if his brain can even process sound. It's the definitive test for hearing loss. So we will finally know for sure in the morning. We have been waiting 3 months for this test.

We have been teaching him and ourselves sing language. Lizze made it her mission to learn as much as she can. She is teaching me some basic things until we get into some classes. We have all the services lined up for him in the event we need them.

I don't really know what I think right now. I have been trying to hold off feeling one way or other because it's just to hard to imagine him never hearing my voice. It's very clear that he has hearing loss. VERY rarely does he respond to us when we try to get his attention. Sometimes he will be he may just be able to hear a noise in a general direction. I really don't think he is processing the sounds. He has never said a single word. He grunts when angry or upset and the rest of the time just kind of babbles.

He past his hearing test at birth we know that. We also know he had ear infection after ear infection. Some were resistant to antibiotics. He had tubes put in last year and that ended the infections. However, we learned that the ENT that did the surgery never tested his hearing before or after his surgery. His tubes are clean so that isn't the problem. We think that most likely it has been a gradual thing.

Either way we will find away to make it through. Since we have been using sign language (about 3 months) he has been much happier. He was so frustrated before because he couldn't communicate with us. So he would lash out or just through a fit. He doesn't really sign yet but he understands basic signs now which has helped a lot.

Since Emmett John has been sick the past week we were affraid this was going to drag out even longer but he seems to be doing better. The hospital says as long as he is coughing a lot in his sleep it should be fine. So we should find out for sure in the morning what is going on with his hearing.


Lost and Tired