Before he was released from the NICU after birth, Yirmiyahu was given two hearing tests.  He passed one but failed the second one, and though the technician said that him squirming  might have been the cause of the poor test results, we needed to have another test done to check it out.

It was quite a wait from the time I made the appointment until when we were seen, and a couple of days ago we went to our appointment at the hospital where he was born to have the testing done.  I like when I can go back to somewhere familiar, but an 8 am appointment means I need to be on a 6 am bus, so it makes for an early morning.

The instructions were not to feed him or let him sleep for two hours prior to the test, which wasn’t very realistic for such a young infant.  I tried to give him a full bottle at 5:30 am but he was way too sleepy for that, and travelling by bus in a baby wrap is a good recipe for sound sleep!  While I was waiting to have the test done, I gave him the last couple of ounces in his bottle, and the technician going by chided me.  I told her, he can either be sleepy or hungry but he can’t be both.  It ended up working out well since he had to swallow a syringe full of syrup to make him fall asleep, which he hated the taste of.  I got it into him by giving a little squirt from the syringe, then quickly letting him drink from the bottle to wash it down – we did this  a few times until he finished the syrup.  Even the technician approved!

Once he was asleep, the testing went really quickly.  While I held him in my lap, electrodes were attached to his forehead and above his ears, a tiny microphone inserted into his ear, and then different sounds were made while the computer recorded his brain’s response to the sounds.  Amazing what technology makes possible!

I was delighted when the doctor finished the test and told me Yirmiyahu’s test results were perfect!  I know that hearing is an area of concern for a lot of babies with T21 so this was really a relief.  When I took him for an ultrasound on some internal organs a few weeks ago I was told everything was fine – and then I showed the results to our pediatrician – she told me it wasn’t reassuring for a technician to say nothing was there when something had been there before, so I need to take him to yet another city to have a repeat ultrasound done in a different office.  But this time, the results are conclusive and there’s no need to retake the test.   We have six months before we need to do another hearing test, and I’m so happy for the good news!

Avivah