Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse.

Please forgive me in advance, because what you are about to read is my very very very limited understanding of how all this works…

So a week ago, we took our son for another ABR; he gets one every six months because of his genetic disorder. ABR stands for Auditory Brain Repsonse and to put it simply, it is a hearing test where Gideon has to be sedated. The last time he had this test done was back in November and we were excited because his hearing results showed then to be stable- meaning that he had not lost any more hearing.

But that wasn’t the case this time around. Unfortunately, you can see from the results below, that Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse.

The picture on the left shows the results from November and next to it are his results from last week. The “O” represents his right ear and the “X” represents his left ear. So according to the this, he has lost some hearing in his left ear, but more significantly in his right.

Before the ABR, the audiologist always does a Tympanometry to make sure there is no fluid behind the ear drums, as this can effect the results. Because Gideon had been sick in April, the tympanometry showed that he did in fact have fluid in both ears. So going into the ABR, we knew that it would possibly show a loss, but the audiologist explained they have a way to account for that and if need be, to go around it.

Because the ABR results showed such a great amount of loss, they did what is called a Bone Conduction ABR. And here’s how I understood that test to work…. A vibrating device was placed behind Gideon’s ear. That piece vibrates the bones in the ear and by doing so it stimulates the cochlea, while bypassing the outer and middle ear (where the fluid is).

From my understanding, and the sympathy expressed by the doctors in the room, the BC ABR verified the results of the first ABR. Meaning that Gideon’s hearing has gotten worse.  🙁

So what’s next?

Well, we go back in 3 weeks to see if the fluid is gone. If not, the ENT wants to do tubes. In the meantime, they turned Gideon’s hearing aids WAY up and he seems to be loving them! He’s actually wearing them for hours at a time, which is unlike him.

Hopefully, at our next appointment we can discuss our options regarding a cochlear implant. If his right ear is as bad as the results show, Gideon should qualify (especially because of his diagnosis).

Until then, we appreciate your prayers that Gideon would not need tubes. We want a healthy boy especially going into the Summer. Gideon LOVES the pool and would be in the water every day if we let him.