Jack's ENT appointment

I am so relieved! Today Jack had the ENT's audiologist give him a hearing test, and she said he was old enough for the "big boy" hearing test---no more blocks or games, just the wearing of headphones and raising his hands when he hears the sounds. I was not in the room, because I am a distraction to him usually. So she said after the initial test, the audiogram looked the same as the Providence audiologists so he was hearing at a 50-70dB level (depending on the frequency). So that's wasn't good news. BUT, then she did the test after bypassing the middle ear, using a bone conduction test. He did the test again and his audiogram looked much better, just as good and even better than the ABR in some frequencies. So now we know that he isn't having a progressive loss in the nerve. Nerve damage hearing loss (or sensorineural hearing loss) is bad, it is permanent and is not fixable. The problem is somewhere in the middle ear, but it's weird because it is in both ears. Both ears improved dramatically after they bypassed the middle ear. So we are now on high dose steroids (twice a day) plus the nasonex and now we have been switched to singulair pills (not cheap, we paid 35 bucks and the insurance paid 85 dollars for 30 pills). The hope is that the drug cocktail will clear up the middle ear and whatever is muggling up the sound. This is hard to follow so let me say it another way too.

Okay, Jack has a mild hearing loss---it is sensorineural, within the nerve pathways. But this loss is mild, not bad,but enough to need aids to help him with certain consonant sounds. Now, he also has a conduction loss on top of that. Many children have temperary conduction losses due to a variety of reasons. Mostly fluid in the ears from chronic ear infections, allergies that cause swelling and inflammation of the middle ear and surrounding tissues. So he has what they call a "mixed" hearing loss. The good news is that conduction loss is almost always reversible and treatable. We are hoping the meds clear him up. We go back on March 31st for another hearing test.