Kaelen has a bilateral hearing loss, which is just a fancy way of saying he has loss in both ears. I've misplaced my copy of the report from his first test and i haven't received a copy of the report from this latest test yet so i'm working a bit from memory here, but from what i can recall his right ear responds to sound at approx. 50-60db, which is a moderate to moderately-severe loss, and his left ear responds at the moment to sound at about 80db, which is a moderately-severe to profound loss. There appears to be some conductive (middle ear) component on the left side which complicates things somewhat, but the right side appears to be only a sensorineural loss (no middle ear component).
The testing on Friday was comprehensive, the audiologist said she got all the tests done that she had planned so we have a pretty good picture of what's going on now. I'll come back and check/complete this detail once i get this latest report, but here's what i remember of the results, and a bit of an explanation of what it all means...
Tests completed on Kaelen included air conduction both sides, bone conduction both sides, frequency-specific air conduction both sides at 1kHz, 2kHz & 4kHz, tympanometry & TEOA emissions testing. Took about 3hrs and he had to be asleep for all of it - lucky he's a sleepy kid!
Air conduction - tests performed by placing a headphone over the ear and delivering sound signals through the complete ear mechanism (outer, middle & inner ear). Can be done using a clicking sound, which covers most hearing frequencies, or using specific frequencies for more accurate mapping of a person's loss.
Bone conduction - tests performed by placing a transmitter on the skull just behind the ear and delivering sound directly to the inner ear, thus bypassing the outer and middle ears and giving a better indication of what the cochlea & nerve can do. For more info on how our ears and brains are connected (it's really interesting if you're into that sort of thing), see this wikipedia article.
Tympanometry - tests giving the volume of the outer ear canal, indicating whether or not the eardrum is intact, and showing whether or not the eardrum is able to move.
TEOAE's (Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions) - testing of the movement of the hairs within the ear. In a person with normal hearing these emissions are present; if these emissions are absent, that indicates abnormal hearing.
Results: (all have a margin of error of +/-10db; Pass = 20db)
Air conduction Right:
Click = 50db
500Hz = 60db
1kHz = 60db
2kHz = 50db
4kHz = 60db
Air conduction Left:
Click = 80db
1kHz = 70db
2kHz =80db
4kHz =90db
Bone conduction Right: 40db
Bone conduction Left: 55db
Tympanometry: showed eardrum movement on both sides, but is known to not always be accurate in babies this small
TEOA emissions: absent
So, what does all this mean? It would appear that Kaelen's loss is stable (unlike Jarrah's which fluctuated significantly in this newborn period, and apparently continues to do so), so that means we can begin the intervention process right away. Mater Audiology will refer us to Australian Hearing for Kaelen to be fitted with hearing aids in the near future, we will need to go to our ENT to see what's going on in the left middle ear and fix it if at all possible, and he will begin the intervention programme along with Jarrah next week. It's kind of a lot to process at once yet at the same time it's all familiar, so i'm not sure that it's really hit me yet...i think it will become real the day i see my little baby wearing hearing aids. That could be a tough day.
In the meantime, here we go again...
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