Dexter's Hearing Test

Yesterday, Dexter had his hearing test done. It was a long day. We were there for about 4 hours. He first did the behavioral test where they see if he will turn toward the direction the sound is coming from. He is still too young to do this test. You could tell he acknowledged the sound but didn't always turn towards it. Afterwards he had to do another ABR test. He had one done when he was 2 weeks old, but they wanted another one done since he got the tube put in his ear. He passed with flying colors. He has normal hearing on the right side. On the left side, the bone conduction test showed that he had slight to mild hearing loss. The bone conduction test isn't completely accurate, so the results could actually be 5-10 decibles worse or better.

For the ABR, he did have to be sedated. To do that he had to see a pediatrician to get the okay. He was weighed and came in at 17 lbs even! Then he was given chlorohydrate to help him sleep so they could do the ABR. He was not a fan of it at all. Then we went upstairs to get him to fall asleep. He fell asleep in less then 5 minutes. The Audiologist with us was impressed and couldn't believe how quickly and easily he went to sleep. The timing was perfect though. It was nap time anyway. After that, we saw the ENT and he got fitted with an ear plug so that we can go swimming this summer. His ear and the tube look great, too.

When we came home, we had a very hyper/cranky boy. Two of the side effects from the drug are hyperactivity and irritability and boy did we have both. One second he was hyper, the next he was just mad. It was a long evening cut short because he was so cranky. Poor little guy. He is pretty tired today.

But things turned out great. Audiology, I think, will finally relax on his ability to hear. And all I have to say is I told you so!