I really wish I never had to meet her; but, given the circumstances, I'm certainly very grateful for her to have entered our lives.
Liesl is Ryan's audiologist. Scratch that. She's our audiologist. You see, in pediatric audiology the patient may be the child, but from experience, I can tell you with confidence that the patient is really multi-faceted: the child, the parents, the siblings, and anyone who interacts with Ryan on a routine basis. Liesl says that she loves peds-- she loves changing lives. Literally. Watching a child progress from some degree of hearing loss to being able to hear the world and communicate without missing a beat never gets old. Her words. What she doesn't say much about are the parents-- the ones who are so crazy that go to great lengths to research the best devices to aid in their child's hearing loss and are very aggressive with their child's treatment regimen. Then there are other crazy parents on the other end of the pendulum that don't show up for appointments or ones that she has to worry about.
We met with Liesl again yesterday. Although we have only met with her once before, she has been very interactive in communication via the phone and email. When I have crazy parent questions, she always answers and always gives us her professional informed opinion. Yesterday, Ryan had her 7th hearing test. It was her 2nd unsedated Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test. It's really interesting how these tests are conducted at such a young age-- basically, while the child is sleeping (or nursing in my case) there are several electrodes connected to her forehead and behind her ear. There is another wire they put inside her ear and at which point they start stimulating her with her different pitches and frequencies. Her brain is supposed to respond to these noises-- trust me, they are loud. But, sadly, and with no surprise, there's no change this time around. There may be 'something' as Liesl would say, here and there-- 'little blips' per se, but overall nothing. Still the same diagnosis-- bilateral profound hearing loss. She also retested her ear drums and they weren't vibrating as well as the previous visit-- hopefully due to the cold that Ryan has been fighting (thank you daycare). Nonetheless, something she'll continue to monitor.
On an up note, Ryan got molds of her ears taken yesterday. The week of Thanksgiving, she'll get her pink glittered hearing aids (they didn't come in teal, otherwise we would have gone with those). Most likely these will provide little to no stimulation for her, so says Liesl, but even if they provide a little stimulation this is helpful for her. Additionally, these are good training wheels for her to get used to having on her ears. The earlier she can have something to get used to, the better the implants will be for her to adjust to when she does get them.
After her hearing aids, Ryan has her MRI and CT scan on December 5th. They will obviously have to give her general anesthesia to sedate her so that she lays very still during the scans. They'll also most likely repeat another ABR (sedated this time) since she'll be completely out. The next appointment will be with her surgeon on December 7th. More to come as those dates approach.
Some pics...
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| Two electrodes on her forehead. |
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| Another electrode on her ear. She was getting her very first ear mold so her hearing aids fit well. |
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