We Both Survived

 I have to say the five hour fast leading up to Kean's testing wasn't too horribly painful. 

He was a pretty good trooper.  Of course, it probably helped that I double stuffed him

at breakfast time.

The ABR test was fascinating.  After he was sedated, the doctor hooked all kinds of wires up to his head and ears to map his brain waves. 

The picture above was taken after the procedure was complete.

The getting him sedated process took about 35 minutes...
the actual APR test ran a little over 1 1/2 hours.

 From my layman's understanding, sounds were piped into his ears and then the computer mapped

his brain waves. 

A Respiratory Therapist monitored his vitals throughout and then had to wake him up

to check his pupils and vitals before we could leave.

The waking up part was a bit tricky.

 Kean wanted to keep sawing logs...

He was pretty groggy leaving the hospital but by the time we got to the car

he was just plain starving.

So I sat in the parking lot feeding him a bottle to tide him over until we got home.

Now, I know my news buddies will say I'm burying the lead...

but we did get the test results.

Do you want the good news first or the bad news?

Okay, let's get the bad news out of the way.

He has mild hearing loss in his left ear

and mild to moderate hearing loss in his right.

That means he's not hearing low tones or soft sounds.

Now for the good news:  the doctor thinks it is not a permanent hearing loss.

She thinks his brand new, shiny, silver ear tubes are the cause.

Evidently, this is really quite common with tubes.

And as he grows and grows out of his need for tubes, the hearing will come back.

For now, he is right on the line as far as needing hearing aids.

This doctor said if he were her patient, she'd put him in hearing aids only if he were already in school.

She's sending the results and the report to his ear doctor, his pediatrician and his ear surgeon.

They'll decide.

However, seeing how my dad fiddles and struggles with his hearing aids, I can't begin to fathom how

we'd keep them in Kean's ears and keep up with the batteries.

Perhaps, they have some special designs for little buckaroos.

But I'm betting he goes without for now.

We'll see.