Matthew had a very exciting couple of months.. stressful for his mommy and daddy though. After Matthew had ear tube surgery we discovered that Matthew still had a hearing loss based on the hearing tests during his surgery follow-up. We then scheduled a different hearing test that was more objective, an ABR (Automatic Brainstem Response) hearing test, that involved Matthew being sedated. Unfortunately, this test confirmed that he does have a mild to moderate hearing loss. He needs hearing aids to hear normally. This is essential at his age as he is learning to talk. My biggest fear was that he would fight it every time we tried to put his hearing aids in. He struggled and fought every time Tony and/or I tried to put ear drops in his ears. So when the Audiologist fitted the hearing aids by forming the molds in his ears he was surprisingly still and well behaved. (Remember he is 2 years old so this is not usual for him). The next week Matthew had a C-T scan--yet another procedure that would require him to be sedated or so I thought. We went to Texas Children's Hospital anticipating a 3 hour appointment to allow time for him to be sedated and afterwards come out of it. When it was time for our appointment the wonderfully child-friendly radiologist said, "Well, let's try doing the C-T scan without sedation first-it couldn't hurt". Despite my certainty that he would not stay still we gave it a try. The radiologist showed Matthew the machine that he would go into and then gave Matthew's Monkey Jude a C-T scan. She gave his toy monkey a sticker and then told Matthew to climb in. He did.. and then he followed the instructions to stay very still while they took his X-ray. Matthew finished the C-T scan in 5 minutes instead of 3 hours!! The even better news was that he did not have the abnormality in his temporal bone structure that could cause complete deafness. We were relieved obviously.
Well the happy ending to the story is that a couple of days ago Matthew's hearing aids came in. We went to the ENT's office and the audiologist gave me some instructions on how to use the hearing aids, change the batteries, etc. Matthew immediately accepted the hearing aids. He didn't fuss at all. He wore them all the way home and all day the next day. Josie at daycare said he didn't try to take out his hearing aids all day and that the only time he fussed was when she took them out for his nap. She also said that he seemed to be listening and responding a lot better. I am SO proud of him. When I see him with his hearing aids he is the same happy active kiddo but he seems to be enjoying the new sounds around him. What a relief that he instantly understood that this new device will help him hear better.
In this photo he is giving a cheer for his new hearing aids.
