ABR

Last week, Lydia had her ABR {auditory brainstem response} test. We were having some concerns about her hearing. It is a debated issue around here how well Lydia hears. We don’t really know if she knows her name or anything else really. She’s had two “booth” screenings and they came back inconclusive. They basically told us we could either continue to have booth tests to gather more data or we could move forward with this.

It may just be my intense desire to have some answers about something, but we decided to go ahead and do her ABR. The bad thing about this was that Lydia had to be sedated…again. It was barely a month since her MRI and we did not look forward to her having to be put under again. But we also didn’t want to continue doing tests if we were unsure of the need.

Sadly, Lydia had to fast again prior to her exam. I feel so bad for her because I can hear her tummy rumbling and yet, she never fusses. We had to go in early because Lydie had to get a rapid COVID test done before her procedure. This was definitely the WORST part of the whole day. I swear the nurse stuck the swab clear up to her brain! Lydia was not a fan.

Then we sat in our pressurized room for about an hour until the results came back. NEGATIVE.

Then our exam crew came in. They were all so great. We worked with a new audiologist as well as our sedation crew. They were so sweet with Lydia and just gushed over her.

As always, they struggled to find a vein for her IV. Finally, they decided to go with her foot. This was a new thing – I didn’t even know you could put an IV in a foot!

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Once her IV was put in, we took her back to the exam room. I was a lot less worried since we had done this before and I had a better idea of what to expect.

However, once the medication started, Lydia reacted a lot differently than before. Last time, she didn’t make a peep, and was asleep within two or three minutes.

This time, she was wide awake for about five minutes, and when she started to look sleepy she began SCREAMING. I tried my best to comfort her, but nothing seemed to help. And then she started to make this noise. The only way I can think to explain it is that at the end of a scream, it was kind of like a big gasping noise.

I knew time had moved past when they said she should be out, and I was a little confused and everyone in the room was quiet. Finally, she fell asleep, and the first words out of our anesthesiologist was, “I’m not going to beat about the bush, I am very concerned about Lydia right now.”

That is not what you want to hear. I immediately felt my heart beating fast, unsure of what she was about to say. She told me that, in her opinion, Lydia sounded exactly like she had “inspiratory stridor” which basically means a floppy airway. She said she allowed Lydia to cry for longer than normal because she was worried about giving her more medication.

She highly encouraged me to get her into an ENT.

Once Lydia was “under” they walked me out and told me they would come find me when she was awake. I went to the hospital cafeteria and got a little snack and then headed to the waiting room.

I tried to read but was distracted. It’s hard. These appointments are just hard.

Finally, a nurse came out to grab me and took me back to Lydia. She was in a recovery room and was actually sitting up! I was shocked. Lydia seemed to be doing so much better than she had with her MRI.

You could tell she was still pretty out of it, but she at least had her eyes open. The audiologist came and told me that Lydia had no signs of auditory neuropathy (which we were concerned about) and that she was able to hear every pitch they sent her! She said in her opinion, there were no concerns about Lydia’s hearing. We are so grateful.

Once I signed all of the discharge papers and put her into her stroller, she was out. She didn’t even wake up when I changed her into her car seat. I drove down to my parent’s house to get the other kiddos and then we went straight home.

Lydia dozed the whole drive home and she had a great evening.

We are so grateful that Lydia’s hearing is something we can cross off the list of concerns. I still don’t think Lydia’s responding to sound like she should but at least we know it is nothing with the ears themselves. It was a mixed bag of feelings though because as grateful as we were to have her hearing get checked off, we added a “floppy airway”.

So we have an appointment with ENT next week and they will do a scope down her throat to check things out.

As always, I am so impressed with our little girl. She is just a light. The more we go down this path, the more humbled I am to be her mother. She is my angel here on earth. And I cherish every moment with her.