Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Audiology Check Up

I had to take Luke to the Audiologist yesterday to have his hearing tested before we move. He was a bit too young to be tested by the method they use for older kids, as he was more interested in the assistant's face than the noises coming from the speakers. Then they tried using the plugs that go into the kids' ears, but they could only test one ear drum properly because they couldn't get a seal in to his ear because his ears are still so small.

We had to be really quiet, but try telling Emily and Luke that, so there was a little bit of background noise with them wriggling and whispering and a bit of chatting from Luke. Then the Audiologist informed me that Luke has some mild hearing loss in both ears, but they couldn't be certain because of the background noise in the test, and it was most likely caused by a blockage and could well come right, or it could be nerve damage. I was a bit blown away, because he seems to be hearing fine.

I asked what that meant, as he was tested at birth, and the nerves were all perfect then. They looked at each other, and asked where he had been tested, as the results could not be found!!! He was tested at the hospital in the ward the day after he was born. I was then informed that it was almost certainly not nerve damage, and was either nothing (inappropriate testing for a little boy) or some mild conductive hearing loss, and he needs retesting at about 1year. Talk about frustrating and stressful for nothing. Got to love the health system!

2 comments:

Nick McGivney said...

Hi Mel. I could've written this post word for word about our littlest one, Jacob. He seems to have 'mild hearing impairment' every other time he gets audiology. Rest of the time he's fine. He seems to hear what he needs to though. And unnecessary stress and confusion do seem to be a part of things - at least until the inevitable toughening up and stamping of feet when we're being given the runaround.

You've got a beautiful gang there btw. Nice to meet them.

Mel said...

Thanks for that Nick. Good to know it's not just something that happens in little old NZ!