Hearing aids

On 2/7 Riley went for a MRI for a few reasons (1) her hydrocephalus, (2) the fact that she has a shunt, (3) to have a good look at the structures of her brain, and (4) to have a baseline if she has any issues down the line to compare too.  Since she was sedated for the procedure they did an auditory brainstem response test (ABR).  Which is a hearing test were they attach electrodes to her head and record the brain activity when different sounds are played.  We had this one done as oppose to a normal hearing test because we had tried one of those several months back but she was too young and did not understand that things made noise so she failed it.

The results we got back from the ABR were that she had moderate hearing loss.  She is hearing at a 50-60 decibels range.  To put that in perspective 20 decibels is a whisper, 120 decibels is a jet engine, normal speech is at 50 decibels. 

Since Ri is hearing just at speech level we decided to get her hearing aids.  So you may ask if she is hearing speech why get hearing aids.  For a couple of reasons: (1) if you ever get sick or get an ear infections you can loss 20 decibels in hearing so then she would not hear speech, (2) hearing aids will amplify what she is hearing and make it easier for her to understand speech, and (3) she will already have a speech delay due to her Tetrasomy 18p (T18p) so we thought that we would not put any more barriers in front of her. 

So yesterday I took her to get fitted for her behind-the-ear hearing aids (BTE).  I am amazed at how small they were and how light weight they are.  The audiologist took molds of the inside of Ri's ears and they will custom make the part that goes in her ear.  We go back in 3 weeks to pick them up and learn how to use and take care of them.  When we get them I will put up a picture of them.