Yesterday Phil and I took Braxton and Xander to LA, to a pretty famous place: John Tracy Clinic (JTC). It's a facility that educates and gives tons of support to parents of Deaf of Hard of Hearing children. (however they don't use the term "deaf". More on that later).
Per our audiologists suggestion, we went to JTC for a second opinion. I was anxious to get these tests done, because it was a play based test, vs the kind where the boys are sleeping (ABR). This test was suppose to give more accurate results. That is, if the boys cooperated. I'm not saying the visit was a waste....cuz it wasn't. However, the audiologist doesn't feel like she got thresholds (the lowest sound that they boys can hear). Her results actually showed worse hearing than the initial ABR tests taken at Loma LInda. Braxton was restless--very annoyed at the little ear phones he had to put in his ears. Xander did great. He fussed a bit then just sat real still playing wit the toys. He was so involved with the toys, he started to tune out the noises and not react to them. SO we took the toys away and then he seem to have gotten bored with the process of looking at the light up toys that were suppose to be associated with the sounds. (his attention span is SMALL).
SOOO.....now what. The boys will get another ABR, the brain stem test, before they get fitted for hearing aids. Although I trust Loma Linda, and really like the audiologist there, I think we are going to take them to H.E.I ( another famous facility in LA: House Ear Institute). They give the boys meds that knock 'em out in a deep sleep. Loma Linda requires us to starve them, keep them up, and then put them to sleep ourselves when we arrive to the appt. If you can imagine, that is not fun...for anyone. I rather drive to LA.
Hope to know more in a few weeks....Till then we are signing like crazy with them. THey are both signing "more", and xander is almost waving "bye".
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